—blessed and exalted is He—have a limit?” He replied, “Yes, one known only to Him. Allah Most High says:

‘And you will see the angels surrounding the Throne’ [al-Zumar 75]

—that is, encircling it.”

He said: Ahmad thus explicitly affirmed a limit for Allah Most High. Yet he denied it in Hanbal’s narration, saying, “We believe that Allah Most High is over the Throne, however He wills and as He wills, without any limit or attribute that any describer can encompass, and without anyone delimiting Him.” He thus denied a limit for Him of the kind mentioned: a limit known to His creation.

His unqualified affirmation is understood in two senses. The first is that He Most High is in a specific direction, not extending throughout the six directions. Rather, He is outside the world, distinct from His creation and separate from them, not within every direction. This is the meaning of Ahmad’s statement, “A limit known only to Him.”

The second is that He possesses an attribute by which He is set apart and distinguished from others. This is why a gatekeeper is called a haddād, because he prevents others