they assume that those who made this negation meant no more than that, whereas this is not so. Rather, they mean that there is nothing whatsoever above the Throne, and nothing above the heavens but sheer nonexistence: no God there to be worshipped, no Lord to be invoked and petitioned, no Creator who created all creatures, and that the Prophet was never taken up to his Lord at all. This is what they mean.

This is what led the Ittihādiyyah to say, “He is the existing things themselves.” For their hearts recognize nothing that exists apart from these existing things, if there is nothing else above them. This is among the innate truths concerning existence that are directly apprehended: either there is only this created existence, or there is another existence separate and distinct from it. This is especially so when they know that the celestial spheres are round and that what is highest is what encompasses the rest. They know that there is only this created existence, or a being above it. If, along with this, they believe that there is no other existence and nothing above the world, they must consequently say, “He is this created existence,” as the Ittihādiyyah have said. This is precisely the argument of the Ittihādiyyah.

This very same outlook is shared by the early and later Jahmiyyah, as when they say, “He is everywhere, yet He is nowhere, and is not particular to anything.” They constantly combine these two contradictory statements because they wish to affirm a being, yet in their view there is nothing above the world. He must therefore be either the world itself or within it. Then they wish to affirm something other than what is created;