It encircles the earths and the seas like the cords of a vast pavilion.

Some people who lay claim to the science of astronomy have asserted that the Kursī is nothing more than the eighth celestial sphere, which they call the sphere of the fixed stars. Their assertion, however, cannot stand, for it has been established that the Kursī is far greater than the seven heavens—as the ḥadīth cited above states: their ratio to it is like that of a ring cast upon an open plain. Such a comparison is certainly not the relation of one sphere to another.

Should one of them object, saying, “We acknowledge all of that, yet still call it a sphere,” we reply: In Arabic usage the word kursī never denotes a celestial sphere. Rather—as more than one of the early scholars affirmed—it lies in front of the Throne, like a footstool that leads up to it, and something of that nature is not a sphere. Their additional claim that the fixed stars are set into it like studs is likewise devoid of any evidence—indeed, they even differ among themselves on this point, as their own books record. Allah knows best.

Mention of the Preserved Tablet

Al-Ḥāfiẓ Abū al-Qāsim al-Ṭabarānī said: Muḥammad ibn ʿUthmān ibn Abī Shaybah narrated to us; Minjāb ibn al-Ḥārith narrated to us; Ibrāhīm ibn Yūsuf narrated to us; Ziyād ibn ʿAbd Allāh narrated to us, from Layth, from ʿAbd al-Malik ibn Saʿīd ibn Jubayr [from his father], from Ibn ʿAbbās, that the Prophet ﷺ said:

“Allah created a Preserved Tablet from a white pearl; its pages are of red ruby; its pen is light and its writing is light. Allah looks into it every day three hundred and sixty times, creating, providing, giving death, giving life, exalting, abasing, and doing whatever He wills.”

Ishāq ibn Bishr said: Muqātil and Ibn Jurayj told me, from Mujāhid, from Ibn ʿAbbās, that at the top of the Tablet is written: “There is no deity but Allah alone; His religion is Islam; and Muḥammad is His servant and Messenger. Whoever believes in Allah and affirms His promise…”