is established by innate necessity, whereas what is merely conceived or imagined is not established by innate necessity, as explained earlier.

Al-Rāzī said: “It is thus established that conception and imagination are incapable of knowing Allah—glorified and exalted be He—and His attributes. Nevertheless, we affirm His acts and attributes despite their being contrary to conception and imagination. It has also been established that knowing the true nature of the Essence is higher, more exalted, and more abstruse than knowing the true nature of the attributes. Since we have set aside conception and imagination in knowing the attributes and acts, it is all the more appropriate that we should set them aside in knowing the Essence. These ten proofs therefore demonstrate that His transcendence—glorified and exalted be He—of spatial location and direction is not something that clear reason rejects. This fully establishes what was sought.”

I reply: The foundations of this argument have already been discussed more than once, from several perspectives. First, an inability to know something is not the same as knowing that it does not exist.