Shi‘ār al-Dīn.”

Then, after recounting fourteen views, he said:

“The clearest view is that supported by the converging testimony of the verses, the reports, and the virtuous and righteous scholars: Allah is above His Throne, as He has stated in His Book and through His Prophet, without describing how, distinct from all His creation. This is the position of the righteous predecessors, according to what trustworthy transmitters have related from them.”

This same Abū ‘Abd Allāh also said in his extensive Quran commentary, concerning the words of the Most High:

“He rose over the Throne.” [al-A‘rāf: 54]

“This is the question of rising over the Throne. Scholars have discussed it and devoted treatises to it. We have explained their views in our book Al-Asnā fī Sharh Asmā’ Allāh al-Husnā wa-Sifātihi al-‘Ulā (An Explanation of Allah’s Most Beautiful Names and Loftiest Attributes), where we mentioned fourteen views on it. Most earlier and later scholars”—meaning the speculative theologians of his school—“hold that, if the Creator must be declared free of direction and spatial location, then a necessary consequence and inevitable implication of this, according to the generality of earlier scholars and their later leading authorities”—meaning the speculative theologians of his school—“is that the Creator must be declared free of direction. Thus, in their view, He is not in an upward direction, because, according to them, if He were in a particular direction, He would necessarily be in a place or occupy space. Place and spatial location necessarily entail movement and rest for whatever occupies space, as well as change and coming into existence. This is the view of