claiming that both hold simultaneously. Yet some of them deviate concerning matters that others acknowledge and affirm; otherwise, they deny His elevation above the Throne. Saying that He is neither inside the world nor outside it is like denying His knowledge and power by saying that He is “neither knowing nor ignorant nor incapable.” All of this belongs to the same category. Whoever does not affirm that He is knowing and powerful must consequently regard Him as ignorant and incapable, just as whoever does not affirm that He is above the world must consequently regard Him as indwelling within it. Indwelling within the world is an attribute of imperfection, just like lacking knowledge and power.

The ninth point is that the Jahmiyyah, after agreeing that Allah is not above the Throne and is not outside the world, differed among themselves, advancing every conceivable position. The possible assertions are that He is in every place; that He is a body equal in size to the world; that He is a body extending beyond the world but finite; that He is in every place without being a body; that He is in every place in His very essence and yet is above the Throne, without being a body; that His extent has neither limit nor end and He extends in all six directions without being a body; that He is, with all of that, a body; or that He is neither inside the world nor outside it. These positions have been recorded by writers on sectarian doctrines, as mentioned earlier.