acts in a literal sense while He is not a body. This is the approach of al-Ash'arī and those who followed him among the speculative thinkers of the people of hadith, the followers of the four imams, and others, such as al-Qādī Abū Ya'lā. This is the meaning of what he reported in al-Maqālāt concerning the people of the Sunnah and hadith.

For this reason, Ibn Kullāb, al-Ash'arī, al-Qalānisī, and those who agreed with them among the followers of the four imams and others, including the followers of Ahmad and others, held that establishment over the Throne is an act that the Lord brings about in the Throne. They say the same concerning descent. What this means is that He brings about a proximity in the Throne, thereby becoming established over it, without any voluntary act subsisting in Him Himself—whether or not they identify the act with its effect. They understand descent in the same way. Thus, they treat intransitive acts as though they were transitive. This is because they believed that no voluntary act subsists in Him, since such an act has a temporal beginning; its subsistence in Him would therefore entail that temporal events subsist in Him. They denied this on account of that principle which they held.

(The second approach is to say: Coming, approaching, ascending, and descending are descriptions applied to the human spirit, which departs from a person at death and is also called the soul. They are also applied to the angels. The spirit’s descent and ascent are not of the same kind as the body’s descent and ascent. The believer’s spirit ascends above the heavens and then descends to the earth between the time it is taken and the time the deceased is placed in his grave. This is a short interval: the body cannot ascend above the heavens and then descend to the earth in such a time.