hearing, and sight. Expressions of this kind cannot be assigned an independent meaning on the basis of only some of their uses, for two reasons.

First, such an expression has never been used in isolation. Second, doing so would entail either homonymy or figurative usage. Rather, it should be understood as literal in the meaning common to its various uses.

The matter under discussion belongs to this category. The Arabs did not use the word istawā literally and exclusively for a human being sitting on his couch, for example, such that its use in other cases would become figurative. Likewise, they did not use the word “knowledge” literally and exclusively for the cognition residing in the human heart, divided into “immediate” and “inferential” knowledge, while using it figuratively in other cases.

Rather, the verb is sometimes used without a prepositional complement, as in His words:

“When he reached his full strength and maturity.”

Sometimes it takes a preposition denoting an endpoint, as in His words:

“Then He turned toward the heaven while it was smoke.”

At other times, it takes a preposition denoting elevation above. In this usage, it sometimes describes Allah and sometimes describes His creation. It need not therefore be considered literal in one case and figurative in the other. Nor is it permissible to understand Allah’s rising above as implying a characteristic peculiar to the creature rather than the Creator. The same applies to His words, Exalted is He:

“And the heaven We built with might”;

and His words, Exalted is He:

“of what Our hands have made”;

and His words: