that He is above the Throne and in every place. He said: “As for the followers of Zuhayr al-Atharī, Zuhayr used to say that Allah is in every place and yet is upon His Throne; that He is seen with the eyes, without specifying how; that He is present in His essence in every place; that He is neither a body nor bounded; and that He is not subject to indwelling or contact. He maintains that He will come on the Day of Resurrection, as He says: ‘And your Lord comes, and the angels, rank upon rank’ {22} [al-Fajr 22], without specifying how.”

He may therefore be asked: If your fellow Jahmī theologians—both corporealists and non-corporealists, who agree with you that He is not above the Throne—dispute with you, saying that His essence and extent have no end, some maintaining that He is a body and others that He is not a body, what argument do you have against them? This is the first category, and this is not among the positions of those who say that He is above the Throne.

Likewise, when Abū al-Hasan al-Ashʿarī discussed people’s disagreement over whether He is in one place rather than another, in no place, or in every place, he said: “We have already mentioned the position of those who rejected this and said that He inheres in every place, and the position of those who said that He has no end. These two groups denied that He is in one place rather than another.”