First: What he attributes to the Muʿtazilah and the Karrāmiyyah is not their position alone. Rather, it is the position of the generality of human groups—Muslims, Jews, Christians, Magians, polytheists, and Sabians—and of the overwhelming majority of those who affirm the divine attributes and those who deny them. Affirming that Allah Most High will be seen while denying that He is above the world is a position known only among this small faction: some followers of al-Ashʿarī and those who agree with them. It is not the position of their leading authorities, as these people claim. Although they and others say that their authorities’ statements contain contradictions or differences, we have already explained that those closer to affirmation are less self-contradictory than those closer to negation.

We have also explained that the knowledge that He is above the world is more firmly established than the knowledge that He will be seen. Rational knowledge of the former is stronger, whether reached through self-evident principles or inferential reasoning. Knowledge of it through revelation is likewise stronger, given the abundant indications in the Quran and Sunnah that Allah is above—indications that none but Allah Most High can enumerate.

Thus, upon closer examination, you find that those who affirm the vision of Allah but deny His being above are dissembling toward the people of the Sunnah and those who affirm the divine attributes. They interpret the vision they affirm in much the same way as the Muʿtazilah and other Jahmiyyah interpret it. They therefore set up a dispute over it with the Muʿtazilah and their like, and make a show of refuting them