Thus, after explaining the meaning of Allah’s being with His creation, which they had invoked as scriptural evidence, Imam Ahmad presented two rational arguments. He cited the Jahmīs’ assertion that He is in everything without being in contact with things or separate from them. This is the position of those Jahmīs who deny His separation from things yet nevertheless maintain His contact with them, saying that He is everywhere. The other group, such as al-Mu’assis, deny His actual separation, although they say that they affirm His separation in essence and time. For the former group, too, despite denying separation, affirm it in essence and time. Both groups therefore say that they affirm His separation, yet deny that He is outside the world.

Each group opposes the other on a point upon which the mainstream agrees with it. The first group says, as does the mainstream, that if He is not separate from the world in a respect other than essence and time, He must be co-located with it—contrary to the other group. They then say, as the other group does, that whatever is not separate from the world in a respect other than essence and time must be co-located with it.

The latter group says that if He is co-located with the world, He must be in contact with it, as the mainstream also says, contrary to the former group. Then they say, along with the mainstream, that whatever is not in contact