the esotericist philosophers. They say:

“We apply these names to Him, but do not say that they apply in a real sense.”

Their purpose is to make it permissible to deny these attributes, for they say:

“He is neither truly living nor truly dead, neither knowing nor ignorant, neither powerful nor powerless, neither hearing nor deaf.”

Once they say that these names are figurative, they can deny what they signify, because a defining feature of figurative usage is that its literal meaning can validly be denied. Thus, anyone who denies that an expression is literal must allow its negation. Whoever denies that Allah has truly risen over the Throne consequently says, “The Most Merciful has not risen over the Throne.” Likewise, anyone who says that calling a courageous man a lion or a dull-witted man a donkey is not literal must acknowledge that these descriptions can validly be denied. He therefore says, “This is neither a lion nor a donkey, but a human being.”

These people tell them, “Allah does not rise over the Throne,” just as their brethren say, “He is neither All-Hearing nor All-Seeing, nor does He speak,” because they regard these expressions as figurative. Thus, they confront the very substance of what the messengers conveyed about Allah, glorified is He, with denial and rejection, just as the polytheists confront it with charges of falsehood. These people, however, do not reject the wording outright.

Al-Talamankī, one of the leading Mālikī scholars—who preceded Ibn ʿAbd al-Barr, al-Bājī, and their contemporaries—said in Kitāb al-Wusūl ilā Maʿrifat al-Usūl (The Book of Attaining Knowledge of the Fundamentals):

“The Muslims of Ahl al-Sunnah unanimously agree that the meaning of ‘And He is with you wherever you are’ and similar passages in the Quran is that this refers to His knowledge, and that Allah Himself is above the heavens, established over the Throne in whatever manner He wills.”

He also said:

“Ahl al-Sunnah said, concerning the words of Allah Most High: ‘The Most Merciful, over the Throne