and time, or does not affirm it. If he affirms this additional separateness, He must be separate from place. If he does not affirm it, he cannot deny His indwelling the world while being separate from it in essential nature and time, since he would have no argument for denying His indwelling the world, as explained above. This is false, and whatever entails falsehood is itself false.

If he says that He is inside the world and also outside it, as some people say, he faces every objection raised against those who say He is outside the world, whether he also says that He is a body or that He is not a body.

It has thus become clear that whoever says that Allah is not outside the world must accept that Allah is not separate and distinct from the world. This is false according to the disputant and others like him. Whoever accepts this consequence and affirms indwelling faces more flaws and deficiencies than his opponent does. Such a position is therefore among the most utterly false.

Our refutation of these people’s position is an addition we have made, for he did not address it here, but devoted a separate discussion to it. This is why the imams, such as Ibn al-Mubārak, Imam Ahmad, and Ishāq