What is indicated by the evidences from al-Kitāb (the Book), the Sunnah, reason, and fitrah (innate disposition) all together, the speculative theologians (mutakallimūn) categorically deny any direction (jihah); yet this is a vain negation, for they affirm the existence of Allāh Almighty while claiming to exempt Him from any resemblance to creatures by denying that He occupies any direction. In reality, this imaginary affirmation amounts to denying Allāh’s existence. It is a grave error that contradicts reason and fitrah, let alone the explicit, decisive texts of revelation. The people of truth have detailed this matter at length, affirming His transcendence from incarnation (ḥulūl) and asserting His highness and absolute separation from all His creatures, glorified be He. I am amazed at those innovators who abandon their intellects to promote their doctrine and insist on its sole truth, even though its contradiction with infallible revelation demands no great mental exertion or careful scrutiny—its falseness is utterly clear. Allāh Almighty says of Himself that He is in the heaven and that He is above. His Messenger reports this in countless ḥadīths, and both fitrah and reason bear witness to it. Yet they insist that He exists but is not in a place, or that He is in every place. Is this not a nullification of revelatory texts, a denial of reason, and a rejection of fitrah? Their sophistry proved ruinous: it plunged them into doubt and perplexity and ended in bankruptcy, admitting confusion and lack of guidance, as we have shown in the writings of their imāms in the introduction to this work. Unquestionably, they will strive to evade any scriptural text that contradicts their doctrine, to preserve their sullied reputations. Thus they resort to interpreting the texts that affirm this attribute—one of the greatest and most majestic—and ascribe to them meanings that avoid confronting their falsehood. Imām Ibn al-Qayyim describes their stance, its reality, and its outcome: “... The ninth [type of ta’wīl (interpretation)] is the rendering that necessitates nullifying a meaning which is of the utmost highness and honour, reducing it to a sense far beneath it by many degrees. It is like deposing a sultan from his kingdom and assigning him a rank far below royalty. Its example is the Jahmiyyah’s interpretation of the Almighty’s words ‘And He is the Subduer over His servants’ (Quran 6:18) and ‘They fear their Lord above them’ (Quran 16:50), and similar verses, as merely signifying ‘honourable elevation.’ They liken it to saying a dirham is above a fals, and a dinar above a dirham. Consider how such ta’wīl negates the absolute fawqīyah (elevation), which is a unique characteristic of Rubūbīyah (Lordship) that entails the Lord’s greatness, glorified be He, and degrades it to mean only that His power is greater than that of human beings and that He is nobler than they are. Likewise, they interpret His ‘elevation’ in this sense, as if it were like gold’s elevation over silver.” (As-Sawā’iq al-Munẓilah 1:92–93) Whoever examines their interpretations finds that they achieve nothing but the negation of the true meanings of the texts and the distortion of their implications, diverting them to untenable senses and thereby falling into even greater confusion.