and bear the evil it has earned. Our Lord, do not take us to task if we forget or make a mistake” [Sūrat al-Baqarah 286]. He said, “I have done so.”

The shaykhs have spoken extensively on the question of Allah’s being above His creation. One example is the account related by Muhammad ibn Tāhir al-Maqdisī, the renowned hadith master and Sufi, who wrote for the Sufis The Nature of Sufism, The Question of Listening, and other works. He related that the venerable shaykh Abū Jaʿfar al-Hamadhānī attended a gathering of Abū al-Maʿālī al-Juwaynī, who was saying, “Allah existed when there was no Throne, and He remains as He was,” or words to that effect.

Al-Hamadhānī said, “Shaykh, let us leave aside mention of the Throne. Tell us about this compelling impulse we find in our hearts: no one who knows Allah has ever said, ‘O Allah,’ without finding his heart compelled to seek Him above, turning neither right nor left. How, then, can we dispel this impulse from our hearts?”

He related that Abū al-Maʿālī cried out, struck his head, and said, “Al-Hamadhānī has bewildered me! Al-Hamadhānī has bewildered me!”