is greatest?’ He replied, ‘Āyat al-Kursī (the Verse of the Footstool).’ Then he said, ‘O Abū Dharr, the seven heavens compared with the Footstool are nothing but a ring cast into a vast wilderness, and the Throne’s greatness compared with the Footstool is like that of the wilderness compared with the ring.’” This hadith has several chains of transmission. It was related by Abū Hātim ibn Hibbān in his Sahīh, Ahmad in al-Musnad, and others.

Those who have argued that “the Throne is dome-shaped” have cited the hadith related in Sunan Abī Dāwūd and elsewhere from Jubayr ibn Mut‘im, who said:

“A Bedouin came to the Messenger of Allah, may Allah bless him and grant him peace, and said, ‘O Messenger of Allah, people are exhausted, families are hungry, and wealth has been destroyed. Pray to Allah for us, for we seek your intercession with Allah, and Allah’s intercession with you.’ The Messenger of Allah, may Allah bless him and grant him peace, kept glorifying Allah until its effect showed on his Companions’ faces. He said, ‘Woe to you! Do you know what you are saying? Allah is not sought as an intercessor with any of His creatures. Allah’s majesty is far greater than that. Allah is upon His Throne, and His Throne is over His heavens and His earth like this’—and he gestured with his fingers in the shape of a dome.”

Another wording reads:

“‘His Throne is above His heavens, and His heavens are above His earth, like this’—and he gestured with his fingers in the shape of a dome.”

Even if this hadith indicates a domed shape—as does his statement that al-Firdaws is the most central and highest part of Paradise, together with his statements that its roof is the Throne of the Most Merciful and that above it is the Throne of the Most Merciful, since what is most central can be highest only in something rounded—this does not indicate that the Throne is one of the celestial spheres. Rather, if it is assumed to be above all the celestial spheres, such a shape is possible for it, whether one says that it encompasses the spheres or that it is above them without encompassing them, just as the earth’s surface is above the earth’s upper half without encompassing it.