they will follow Him.” In another hadith, he said:

“Allah will gather the first and the last at the appointed time on a known Day. They will stand for forty years, their eyes fixed on the sky, awaiting the final judgment.” He said: “Allah will descend amid canopies of clouds, from the Throne to the Footstool. Then a herald will call out.”

Since the hadiths explicitly affirm that the Lord Himself will come, in language understood by learned and laypeople alike and dispelling every doubt, it is clear that these distortions amount to denying the truthfulness of the Messenger—may Allah bless him and grant him peace. They can come only from someone ignorant of what he conveyed, or from a hypocrite who is not a believer. Anyone who believes in him and knows what he brought can only affirm the truth of their content.

The fifteenth argument: The statements of the Jahmiyyah entail that someone other than Allah is worshipped in this world and the Hereafter. This is part of their polytheism, for they have fallen into polytheism in several ways. These include ascribing the exclusive attributes of lordship to someone other than Allah, going so far as to make that being claim lordship, call the servants to account, and receive their prostration.

Some people offer interpretations of this report. Among the most grievous in disbelief and misguidance is the interpretation offered by the proponents of divine union and indwelling, who say that Allah Most High is existence itself, or that He indwells existence or is manifest within it. They claim that all created things are manifestations and self-disclosures of the Lord, in the sense that