lordship, for example—and that it is only the Throne that He is described as rising over, and that Allah is described as truly being high and above, but never as being low or beneath, either literally or figuratively, knows that the Quran is to be understood as it stands, without distortion.

Furthermore, whoever imagines that Allah’s being in heaven means that heaven surrounds and contains Him is lying—if he attributes this understanding to someone else—and is astray—if he believes this about his Lord. We have never heard anyone understand this from the wording, nor have we seen anyone attribute it to anyone. If all Muslims were asked, “Do you understand from the statement of Allah and His Messenger, ‘Allah is in heaven,’ that heaven contains Him?” every one of them would immediately reply, “That is something that has perhaps never crossed our minds.”

Since this is so, it is contrived to assign the wording an impossible apparent meaning that people do not understand from it, and then seek to reinterpret it. Rather, people understand “Allah is in heaven” and “He is upon the Throne” as having the same meaning, since “heaven” here means the heights. The meaning, then, is that Allah is on high, not below. Muslims know that His Kursī (Seat), glorified and exalted is He, encompasses the heavens and the earth; that the Kursī, in relation to the Throne, is like a ring cast into an open wilderness; and that the Throne is one of Allah’s creations, bearing no comparison to Allah’s power and greatness. How, after this, could anyone imagine that something created confines and contains Him?

He, glorified is He, has said:

“I will surely crucify you on the trunks of palm trees.”

And He has said:

“So travel through the land.”

Here, fī (“in”) means “on,” and the like. This is literal Arabic usage, not figurative. This is understood by anyone who knows the actual meanings of particles and knows that they are generally univocal rather than equivocal.