, while that attribute necessarily belongs to the other thing. Rather, according to you, the Lord possesses true elevation over that thing, exercising dominion over it and governing it, while it remains subject to Allah’s rule and command. If the Lord wills to raise its spatial position while continuing to govern it, this would not entail any deficiency according to the principles you have conceded. This resembles the example they give when they say that a king is higher than his subjects, even when some of his subjects occupy a higher place than he does. Hence his court is called “the High Court” or “the Exalted Court,” even though the courts of some of his subjects occupy higher spatial locations.

If that is so, consider your statement: “If the Creator’s elevation above the world were in spatial location and direction, the elevation of that direction would be more perfect than the Creator’s elevation.” Do you mean that His elevation is in direction alone, without His having power over the world or governing it? Or do you mean His elevation in direction together with His elevation in power? If you mean the former, this is the gravest disbelief and the most utterly false claim. No Muslim says this, nor does any rational person who acknowledges the Maker. Rather, believers agree that Allah has power over the world and that the world has no power over Him.

If, in addition to this, they affirm that He is elevated in direction and spatial location, and it is supposed that some particular entities within the world rise above Him in direction alone—indeed, even if they were always above Him in direction alone, while the Lord remained above them in power—the Lord’s elevation would still be more perfect than theirs. How much more so, then, when it is the Lord who governs such a thing and who raised it