and no one allows himself to imagine an endpoint to His limit. Rather, we believe in the limit and entrust knowledge of it to Allah Most High. Position, too, is a limit: He is upon His Throne, above His heavens. These, then, are two limits.”

He said: “Ibn al-Mubārak was asked, ‘By what do we know our Lord?’ He replied, ‘By His being upon the Throne, separate from His creation.’ He was asked, ‘With a limit?’ He replied, ‘With a limit.’” This has already been quoted in full.

In his refutation of the Jahmiyyah, after explaining the falsity of their position concerning the Throne and refuting their claim that He is everywhere, ʿAbd al-ʿAzīz al-Makkī said: “When his assertion provoked outrage, he said, ‘I say that Allah is everywhere—not as one thing within another, nor as one thing with another, nor as one thing outside another, nor as something separate from another.’”

He said: “He should be told: ‘Your position rests on analogy and reason, yet through analogy and reason you have demonstrated that you worship nothing. For if He were something, analogy and reason would necessarily require Him to be either within something or outside it. Since, according to you, He is not a thing, it is impossible for Him to be like something within something or outside something. By my life, you have described something indistinct that has no existence. Such is your religion, and the foundation of your doctrine is negation.’”

Imam Ahmad said: “If you wish to know that the Jahmī is lying about Allah when he claims that Allah is everywhere and is not in one place to the exclusion of