Section

The Shaykh, may Allah have mercy on him, said:

There are two well-known views concerning Allah’s being above the Throne and the world, found among the various groups of theologians, hadith scholars, Sufis, and jurists who follow Abū Hanīfah, Mālik, al-Shāfiʿī, Ahmad, and others.

The first is that this is merely a relation between created beings and the Creator, and between the Throne and the Lord, which came into being when He created the Throne, without His having moved or acted in any way Himself. This is the view of those who hold that temporal occurrences cannot subsist in His Essence and that movement is impossible for Him.

The second—which is the well-known position of the early generations, the leading hadith scholars, and many theologians, jurists, and Sufis of the four schools and others—is that He established Himself over it after creating the heavens and the earth, as the Quran indicates. Thus, He established Himself over it after not having been established over it.