a being outside the world can be neither greater nor smaller nor equal, because such determinations of size are incidental to composition and division, whereas He is neither composite nor divisible. By contrast, His existing neither outside the world nor within it is self-evidently impossible. This distinction is either valid or invalid. If it is valid, the objection has been answered. If it is invalid, we reject the claim in the case adduced against us and say that He is greater than the Throne.” As for his statement, “This entails the division of His essence,” it has already been answered.

The second response is as follows: His being above the Throne is the position of this community’s early generations and imams, and of all those who affirm the divine attributes, such as the Karrāmiyya, Kullābiyya, and Ashʿariyya, their imams and early authorities, and the general body of leading jurists and authorities on hadith and Sufism. Some of these have said that He is not a body and is not