saying that it is Allah Himself who descends, for the argument to hold. Thus, everyone who denies that Allah is above the Throne nevertheless allows that Allah sends down some created things at that time.

The fifth point is this: anyone who reads the aforementioned verses concerning the meeting will necessarily know that their purport is that Allah and His Messenger, peace and blessings be upon him, tell us that the servant will meet Allah in a genuine encounter. The other texts likewise speak of matters of this kind. Since this is necessarily known from what the Messenger, peace and blessings be upon him, has conveyed, we may say: if this necessarily entails that the One encountered is a body, then it would constitute decisive proof that He is a body. There is no evidence for denying this—whether from revelation or reason—that could counter such proof.

As for the evidence from revelation, the matter is clear. No rational person has claimed that the Quran and Sunnah indicate the denial of bodily existence more clearly than they indicate its affirmation. Indeed, fair-minded scholars generally know that nothing in the Quran and Sunnah indicates that Allah Most High is not a body. All groups, both those who deny that He is a body and those who affirm it, agree that the apparent meanings of the Quran and Sunnah indicate that He is a body. They disagree only