and greet them, and listen to how they greet you, for this will be your greeting and the greeting of your descendants.’ He said: Adam went and said, ‘Peace be upon you.’ They replied, ‘Peace be upon you and Allah’s mercy,’ adding ‘and Allah’s mercy.’ He said: Everyone who enters Paradise will be in Adam’s form, sixty cubits tall. People have continued to decrease in stature ever since.”

If this hadith is understood as referring to Allah’s form, its apparent meaning would be that Allah is sixty cubits tall. Yet Allah Most High, as Ibn Khuzaymah said, is too exalted to be described in cubits and handspans. It is well known that assigning such a measurement to Allah is invalid both according to those among the affirmers of the divine attributes who hold that He has a limit and magnitude, and according to those who deny this.

As for those who deny this, their position is clear. As for those who affirm it, they hold that Allah Most High is greater in magnitude, and that none but He knows His limit. His Footstool encompasses the heavens and the earth, and the Footstool in relation to the Throne is like a ring cast upon a vast, empty plain.