cast onto an open wilderness, as the hadith states. If you were to drop a ring upon an immense plain, what share of that vast expanse would it occupy? Virtually nothing at all.

These are colossal, unfathomable creations whose reality is known only to Allah.

The ʿarsh is the loftiest of all created things, and Allah—glorified and exalted—is Himself high above His Throne, above everything He has made.

The kursī lies beneath the Throne, and an authentic report describes it as the place of the Feet. Accordingly, the kursī is a creature; it is not a metaphor for knowledge, as is sometimes attributed to Ibn ʿAbbās in his explanation of the verse, “His kursī extends over the heavens and the earth.” That gloss takes the kursī to mean “His knowledge,” i.e., His knowledge encompasses the heavens and the earth. While that meaning is true in itself, it is not what the verse intends. The kursī is created, whereas knowledge is one of Allah’s attributes and is not a created thing.

Thus, belief in both the ʿarsh and the kursī is obligatory; they are real in the fullest sense. The Throne is not—as the Ashʿarites and those who follow their lead claim—merely a symbol of dominion. They interpret Allah’s words, “He rose over the Throne” (Al-Aʿrāf 7:54), to mean “He took control of the kingdom,” and that is a deviation. The Throne is a created entity: “His Throne was upon the water” (Hūd 11:7).

Accordingly, the Throne has the kursī beneath it, the kursī has the heavens beneath it, and the earth lies beneath the heavens. In the hadith: “So when you ask….”