And He, exalted is He, said:

‘Rather, Allah raised him to Himself.’

And He, exalted is He, said:

‘To Him belongs whoever is in the heavens and the earth. Those who are with Him are not too proud to worship Him’—to the end of the verse.

And He, exalted is He, said:

‘They fear their Lord above them.’

And He, exalted is He, said:

‘Possessor of the ways of ascent.’

‘The angels and the Spirit ascend to Him.’

And He, exalted is He, said:

‘He is the Subduer, above His servants.’

And He, exalted is He, said:

‘He is the Most High, the Magnificent.’

He said: This, then, is Allah’s declaration that He is in heaven. We find that everything in a lower position is spoken of with disapproval. He, exalted be His praise, says:

‘Indeed, the hypocrites will be in the lowest depths of the Fire.’

And He, exalted is He, said:

‘Those who disbelieve will say, “Our Lord, show us the two who led us astray from among the jinn and mankind, so that we may put them beneath our feet and make them among the lowest.”’

We said to them: Do you not know that Iblīs has his place and the devils have theirs? Allah would never be together with Iblīs in one and the same place. Rather, the meaning of His words, mighty and majestic is He:

‘And He is Allah in the heavens and on earth’

is that He is the God of those in the heavens and the God of those on earth. He is Allah, above the Throne, and His knowledge encompasses everything beneath the Throne. No place is devoid of Allah’s knowledge, nor is Allah’s knowledge in one place rather than another. This is expressed in His words:

‘So that you may know that Allah has power over all things, and that Allah encompasses all things in knowledge.’

He also offered the following illustration: If a man held a clear glass cup containing something clear, his sight would encompass the cup without