gods. Yet you would not accept that Allah’s elevation is more perfect than that of others, nor did you make it equal to theirs. Rather, you made the elevation of others more perfect than His, portraying Him as dependent on that other, which has no need of Him. All this is falsehood and slander against the Lord of the worlds.

The twelfth point: Those Muslims who consider descent, coming, arrival, and movement possible for Him may agree with the former group that He can only ever be above. They even say that He descends to the lowest heaven without the Throne becoming vacant of Him, and that describing Him with these attributes does not contradict His elevation. They too affirm elevation as necessary for Him, saying that He is above in His very essence and that it is impossible for Him not to be above, even though they consider movement and change of place possible for Him. This being so, they say: “We do not concede that it is possible for Allah to cease to possess the attribute of elevation