about His saying:

“The Most Merciful rose above the Throne” {5} [Tā Hā 5].

He replied: “Rising above is not unknown; its manner is beyond comprehension. Believing in it is obligatory, and asking about it is an innovation.”

He said: “Whoever goes beyond these reports transmitted from the Successors and those who followed them among the righteous predecessors and the leading hadith scholars has transgressed, gone astray, and introduced into the religion something that does not belong to it.” He then mentioned the remainder of the book. These are his exact words.

Thus, if the position of Ibn Kullāb, al-Ashʿarī, and the leading scholars among his followers—which they stated was agreed upon by the early generations of the Muslim community and Ahl al-Sunnah—is that Allah is above the Throne and that He has a Face and two Hands, upholding the texts indicating that He is above the Throne and affirming that interpreting istawā (rose above) as istawlā (gained mastery over) is the interpretation of those who espouse falsehood, and so forth, then it is clear that this al-Rāzī and those like him are the ones who disagree