If they say, ‘Yes,’ they should be asked: ‘Then tell us about the One you worship: is He in contact or separate?’ If they say, ‘He is described by neither,’ they should be told: ‘Then the description by which you affirm the Creator’s existence is the same as that of a created being’s nonexistence. Why, then, do they not call Him nonexistent, just as they call a human being nonexistent, when you have described Him in terms of nonexistence?’

“They should also be told: ‘If what amounts to nonexistence for a created being amounts to existence for Him, then what amounts to ignorance for a created being amounts to knowledge for Him. For you have made what constitutes nonexistence for a created being constitute existence for Him. If nonexistence is existence, then ignorance is knowledge and inability is power.’”

Ibn Kullāb also said:

“Allah’s Messenger, may Allah bless him and grant him peace—the one Allah selected from His creation, His chosen servant, and the most knowledgeable of them all—permits the question ‘Where?’ and asks it himself. He approves of someone saying, ‘He is in heaven,’ and testifies to that person’s faith upon hearing it. Yet Jahm ibn Safwān and his followers do not permit the question ‘Where?’ and forbid asking it.”

He said:

“Had this been wrong, Allah’s Messenger, may Allah bless him and grant him peace, would have been the foremost to object. He should then have said to her: ‘Do not say that and imagine that He, mighty and majestic, is bounded and is in one place rather than another. Instead, say that He is everywhere, for that is correct, not what you have said.’ But no! Allah’s Messenger, may Allah bless him and grant him peace, approved it, knowing what it entailed and that it was the soundest expression of faith—indeed, a statement on account of which its speaker must be acknowledged as a believer. It was precisely because of this that he testified to her faith when she said it. How could the truth be otherwise, when the Book expressly declares it and bears witness to it?”

He said:

“Even if the only evidence for the soundness of the Muslim community’s position on this particular subject were what we have mentioned