when the last third of the night remains, and says, ‘Who will call upon Me, that I may answer him? Who will ask of Me, that I may give him? Who will seek My forgiveness, that I may forgive him?’ until dawn breaks.”

They said: “It is established that night occurs at different times for different people: its beginning, middle, and third occur in the east before they occur in the west. If descent meant descent in the familiar sense, He would necessarily descend throughout every part of the night, since it is always night somewhere on earth.” Or, they said, He would continually be descending and ascending, which would combine two opposites.

They said this only because they imagined His descent to be like the descent of one of them. This is precisely likening Allah to His creation. Moreover, they then made Him like one of their own powerless selves, unable to perform simultaneously actions that others are unable to perform simultaneously. Yet the hadiths state that He will call His creation to account on the Day of Resurrection