regions: the Hijaz, Iraq, Egypt, Syria, and Yemen. Among their beliefs were that faith consists of speech and action, increases and decreases, and that the Quran is Allah’s speech, revealed and uncreated in every respect.’”

He went on to say:

“Allah is above His Throne, distinct from His creation, as He has described Himself in His Book and through His Messenger, may Allah bless him and grant him peace, without specifying how. His knowledge encompasses all things.”

Shaykh Nasr said elsewhere in the book:

“If someone says, ‘You have mentioned what Muslims must do: follow Allah’s Book, the Sunnah of Allah’s Messenger, and the consensus of the leading scholars. Now state their position and what they agreed upon,’ the answer is the position we found the scholars adhering to, together with the views of others that have reached me.”

He then outlined “the creed of Ahl al-Sunnah,” which includes:

“Allah is risen over His Throne, distinct from His creation, as He has stated in His Book.”

Abū al-Hasan al-Karajī al-Shāfi‘ī said in his “celebrated poem on the Sunnah”:

Their creed is that God, in His essence, … is above His Throne, while knowing all things unseen.

Al-Qurtubī, the author of the extensive Quran commentary, said concerning the words of the Most High, “Then He rose over the Throne—the Most Merciful”:

“This is the question of rising over the Throne, concerning which scholars have much to say.”

He mentioned the position of the speculative theologians, then said:

“The earliest generations did not hold that direction should be denied of Allah, nor did they express such a denial. Rather, they and everyone else explicitly affirmed it of Allah, as His Book declares and as reported by