the heavens any Lord, nor upon the Throne any God; that Muhammad, may Allah bless him and grant him peace, was not taken up to Allah, but only to the heavens, not to Allah; that the angels do not ascend to Allah, but to His dominion; that nothing descends from Allah and nothing ascends to Him; and other such claims. They may express this in newly introduced formulations marked by ambiguity, obscurity, and misleading implications, such as saying, “He does not occupy space, nor is He a body or a substance, nor is He in a direction or a place.” Ordinary people understand these and similar expressions as declaring the Lord Most High free of imperfections. Yet what they intend by them is that there is no Lord above the heavens, no God upon the Throne to be worshipped, and that the Messenger was not taken up to Allah.

And (the point is that if Allah loves for us to believe this negation, then the Companions and the Successors, who were better than us, would have believed it, and the Messenger, may Allah bless him and grant him peace, would have believed it too. If Allah and His Messenger approve it for us, and it is either obligatory or recommended for us, then the Messenger, may Allah bless him and grant him peace, must command us to do what is obligatory and encourage us to do what is recommended. Moreover, statements affirming what Allah loves and approves, and what brings one nearer to Him, must necessarily be evident in his teachings and those of the believers—especially given His words, mighty and majestic is He:

“Today I have perfected for you your religion and completed My favor upon you.”

This is all the more so since the Jahmiyyah make this the foundation of religion. To them, it is “monotheism,” which only a wretched person would oppose. How, then, could the Messenger, may Allah bless him and grant him peace, fail to teach his community monotheism? And how could “monotheism” have been unknown to the Companions and the Successors? And the philosophers and the Mu'tazilah