Shaykh al-Islām was asked:
“Is someone who affirms ‘direction’ for Allah an innovator, a disbeliever, or neither?”
He replied:
As for someone who affirms direction: if he believes that Allah is within created things, enclosed by them and confined by the heavens, with some created things above Him and others beneath Him, then he is a misguided innovator. Likewise, if he believes that Allah needs something to support Him—the Throne or anything else—then he too is a misguided innovator.
Likewise, if he makes Allah’s attributes like those of created beings, saying, “Allah’s rising is like a created being’s rising, or His descent is like a created being’s descent,” or something similar, then he is a misguided innovator. For the Book and the Sunnah, together with reason, demonstrate that created beings do not resemble Allah in any respect, that Allah has no need of anything, and that Allah is distinct from created beings and high above them.
If, however, he believes that the Creator, Most High, is distinct from created things; that He is above His heavens, over His Throne, distinct from His creation; that nothing of His Essence is within His creation, and nothing of His creation is within His Essence; and that Allah has no need of the Throne or anything besides Him, and does not depend on any of