is something existent, and that whatever occupies a spatial region depends on that region. Regarding his statement, “Bodies occupy spatial regions,” we say: At most, this means that bodies depend on something else, which is not impossible. By contrast, it is impossible for Him, Most High, to depend on something else for His existence. Thus the distinction is clear.

The response is: This argument and all the other arguments rest on the assumption that affirming His being above the Throne necessarily entails that He occupies a spatial region, as he stated earlier in the first argument. Yet, as previously explained, this is a well-known point of disagreement among those who affirm the divine attributes and those who deny them. Many who affirm the attributes—including Kullābīs, Ash'arīs, and others among the jurists, Sufis, and scholars of hadith—say, “He is not a body, yet He is above the Throne.” They may also say, “He does not occupy a spatial region, yet He is above the Throne,” if by something occupying a spatial region they mean a body or an indivisible atom.