separate from Allah, such as the Throne and the clouds; or they may refer to something not separate from Him. As we have mentioned, when applied to created things, the terms “spatial region” and “boundary” may denote something separate from the bounded thing that surrounds it, or they may denote the thing’s own extremity and sides, for both allow this.

“Spatial region” may also mean something without actual existence: that in which bodies are conceived to be located. This is the familiar meaning of “spatial region” among the theologians who distinguish between “spatial region” and “place,” saying that a spatial region is a conceived place. Likewise, “direction” may mean something existent and separate from Him, or it may mean something that does not entail the existence of anything other than Him, being instead either something without actual existence or something relational or relative.

Since these terms have multiple meanings, some of what they denote may be necessary and some contingent. Asking for clarification reveals the true state of the matter. The argument may then be addressed in several ways.

First, one may ask: “What do you mean by your statement, ‘If He occupied any direction or spatial region, His occupancy would be either necessary or not necessary’? By ‘spatial region,’ do you mean something inseparable from whatever occupies a spatial region—namely, its own extremity and boundary, included in what the term denotes—or do you mean by ‘spatial region’ something existent