directions is the same; the earth must therefore be at the centre of the sky.”

Some people may think that the prophetic reports—which state that the Throne is the roof of Paradise and that Allah is upon His Throne, while also indicating that the celestial spheres are spherical—are contradictory, or imply that Allah is beneath some of His creation. Some of the Jahmiyyah have similarly argued against Allah’s being above the Throne on the grounds that the celestial spheres are spherical, claiming that this necessarily places the Lord below. This stems from their mistaken conception of the matter.

Anyone who knows that the celestial spheres are spherical, that the encompassing sphere which forms the roof is the highest of the high, and that the centre within it, at the earth’s deepest point, is “Sijjīn” and “the lowest of the low,” will understand this from Allah’s contrast between the highest of the high and Sijjīn. The evident contrast is between height and depth, or between spaciousness and constriction, because height entails spaciousness, while constriction entails lowness. He will also know that the sky is above the earth in an absolute sense: it can never conceivably be beneath it, even though it is spherical and encompasses it. Likewise, the higher something is, the more elevated and encompassing it is.

He will also know that directions fall into two categories:

An intrinsic category, consisting solely of above and below.

A relative category, defined in relation to a living creature according to its movement: thus, whatever is in front of it