—all of them. You are also bound to say that He is inside dogs and pigs, for these are places, and according to you He is everywhere. Exalted is Allah far above that! When the abhorrence of his position became apparent, he said: ‘I say that Allah is everywhere, but not like a thing within a thing, nor like a thing upon a thing, nor like a thing outside a thing or separate from it.’

Chapter: Explanation of This

He should be told: ‘Your position rests on inference and reason. Yet through inference and reason you have demonstrated that you worship nothing. For if it were something, inference and reason would necessarily require it to be either inside [a thing] or outside it. Since, according to your position, it is not a thing, it cannot be like a thing within a thing or outside a thing. Thus you have described something that has no existence. This is your religion, and the foundation of your doctrine is negation.’”

I say: He has thus explained that inference and reason necessarily establish that [whatever] is neither within a thing nor outside it cannot be a thing, and that this describes what is nonexistent and has no existence. By “inference” he means rational syllogisms, and by “reason,” innate knowledge. After this, he discusses the remainder of this question in terms that are not pertinent here.

And Abū ‘Abd Allāh Ahmad ibn Muhammad ibn Hanbal said, in what