so. For if someone imagines that the Great One, than whom none is greater, can become so small that His tiny creature encompasses Him, and regards this as an expression of power and greatness, then his saying that He descends while retaining His greatness and His elevation above the Throne expresses still greater power and greatness. It also accords with revelation and reason.

This resembles what some people say, among them Abū Tālib al-Makkī, who said:

“If He wills, the smallest thing contains Him; if He wills, nothing contains Him. If He wishes, everything knows Him; if He does not wish, nothing knows Him. If He pleases, He is found with everything; if He does not please, He is found with nothing. He transcends bounds and measure, and precedes speech and decrees. His attributes are beyond enumeration, and His greatness has no limit. He is neither confined to a form, nor restricted to an attribute, nor subject to judgment by words. He does not manifest Himself with the same attribute twice, nor appear in the same form to two people. No two utterances come from Him with the same meaning. Rather, every manifestation of His has a form; for every servant there is an attribute when He appears; from every gaze comes speech, and through every word comes understanding. His manifestations have no end, and His attributes have no limit.”

I say: Abū Tālib—may Allah have mercy on him—and his companions, the Sālimiyyah, are followers of Shaykh Abū al-Hasan ibn Sālim, the companion of Sahl ibn ‘Abd Allāh al-Tustarī. They are renowned for their spiritual knowledge, worship, asceticism, and adherence to the Sunnah and the community on most of the well-known positions of Ahl al-Sunnah. They affiliate themselves with two great imams of the Sunnah: Imam Ahmad ibn Hanbal and Sahl ibn ‘Abd Allāh al-Tustarī. Some of them studied jurisprudence according to the school of Mālik ibn Anas, such as the household of Shaykh Abū Muhammad and others, while some follow the school of al-Shāfi‘ī.