any dispute between us. If, however, you mean this second sense, then the proof we have presented applies to you and cannot be turned against us, because we do not say that He is infinite in this sense, such that the same objection would bind us. Thus, the distinction is clear. And success comes through Allah.

In response, it may be said: This argument is of the same kind as their assertion that, if He were above the Throne, He would have to be either smaller than it, equal to it in size, or larger than it by a finite or infinite extent. Such arguments are among those advanced by the Jahmiyyah of old, as the imams have mentioned. They also mentioned that Jahm and his followers were the first to introduce into Islam these negative attributes and the rejection of their opposites, with statements such as: “He is not above the world, nor is He within the world or outside it. He is not in one place rather than another. He does not occupy a region of space, is neither a substance nor a body, and has neither an endpoint nor a limit,” and similar expressions. For these