are, in the view of those who affirm them, deniers of the One who is worshipped. The truth lies with those who affirm what the Book of Allah and the Sunnah of His Messenger declare, for they are the imams of the community.”

Shaykh Maʿmar ibn Ahmad al-Isfahānī, a man of spiritual insight, said: “I wished to offer my companions counsel drawn from the Sunnah and admonition drawn from wisdom, and to bring together what was upheld by the earlier adherents of hadith and transmitted reports and the people of spiritual knowledge and Sufism.” He then set out a creed in which he said:

“And that Allah rose over His Throne, without specifying how, likening Him to creation, or reinterpreting it. His rising over the Throne is understood, but its manner is unknown. And that He, Mighty and Majestic, is distinct from His creation, and His creation is distinct from Him, without indwelling or intermingling,