that this wording, if authentic, means that he finds his Lord, Mighty and Majestic, as before, accepting his intercession and granting his request. For the report relates that he returns repeatedly and petitions his Lord Most High on behalf of the sinners of his community; each time, He accepts his intercession for them and grants his plea on their behalf.

He said: Another example of this is that some of them claimed that Allah has a limit. The strongest evidence they adduced for this was an account from Ibn al-Mubārak. Alī ibn al-Hasan ibn Shaqīq said: “I asked Ibn al-Mubārak, ‘Do we know our Lord as having a limit, or affirm Him as having a limit?’ He replied, ‘Yes, a limit.’” They thus made this a foundational principle in this