some verses, before saying: “This is too well known and familiar among ordinary people and the learned alike to require more than a simple statement. It is self-evident knowledge that no one had to teach them, and no Muslim has challenged them on it.”

Abū Ismā‘īl ‘Abd Allāh ibn Muhammad al-Ansārī, known as Shaykh al-Islām, said in his Book of the Attributes: “Chapter: Affirming from the Quran and Sunnah that Allah is established upon His Throne, above the seventh heaven, distinct from His creation.” He then cited—may Allah have mercy on him—the evidence for this from the Quran and Sunnah, eventually saying: “Various reports state that Allah Most High Himself is above the seventh heaven, upon the Throne, watching how they act, while His knowledge, power, hearing, sight, and mercy are everywhere.”

This is a vast subject that none but Allah Most High can fully encompass. For none can number those who have transmitted the consensus of the early generations, or the consensus of Ahl al-Sunnah, or the consensus of the Companions and their Successors, that Allah is above the Throne, distinct from His creation