And He said:

‘Do you feel secure from Him who is in heaven?’

Then He made a distinction, saying:

‘That He will not cause the earth to swallow you,’

without joining the two statements. Thus, when He sets apart His words ‘Him who is in heaven’ and then begins the threat of the earth swallowing them, this can mean only that He is upon His Throne, above heaven.

The Most High said:

‘He directs the affairs from heaven to earth; then they ascend to Him.’

And He said:

‘The angels and the Spirit ascend to Him.’

He thus made clear the ascent of the affairs and the ascent of the angels. He then described the time of their upward ascent to Him, saying:

‘In a Day whose measure is fifty thousand years.’

He thus spoke of their ascent to Him. The separation after His words ‘to Him’ is like someone saying, ‘I ascend to so-and-so in a night or a day.’ This means that the person is on high, and that your ascent to him takes a day. Thus, when they ascend to the Throne, they have ascended to Allah, Mighty and Majestic, even though they have neither seen Him nor risen as high as He is. They have ascended from the earth and carried the affairs upward.

The Most High said:

‘Rather, Allah raised him to Himself.’

He did not say, ‘into His presence.’

Pharaoh said:

‘O Hāmān, build me a tower so that I may reach the pathways—the pathways of the heavens—and look upon the God of Moses.’

Then he began a new statement, saying:

‘Indeed, I think he is a liar,’

in telling me that his God is above the heavens.

Allah, Glorified and Most High, thus made clear that Pharaoh thought Moses was lying in what he said. Yet Pharaoh set out to seek Him where Moses had said He was, despite thinking that Moses was lying. Had Moses said that He Himself was in every place, Pharaoh would have sought Him in his house, in his body, or in his privy—far exalted is Allah above that! And Pharaoh would not have troubled himself with building the tower.