Similarly, if someone does not intend to go in person, but wishes instead to address the one he seeks, call upon him, or the like, then, if his intention is complete, he addresses him from the nearest direction from which his call can be heard and his aim achieved. If a man were in a high place and another wished to call to him, the latter would turn towards him and call. If he lowered his head into a well and called in such a way that the other could hear his voice, this would be possible. Yet someone whose intention is to make himself heard would not naturally do this without some overriding benefit. Such conduct occurs only when the intention is weak or something similar.

As for the “hadith of lowering,” reported from Abū Hurayrah and Abū Dharr, may Allah be pleased with them both, al-Tirmidhī and others transmitted it through al-Hasan al-Basrī from Abū Hurayrah. Its chain is interrupted, since al-Hasan did not hear from Abū Hurayrah. However, it is strengthened by the report of Abū Dharr attributed to the Prophet. If it is authentic, its meaning agrees with this explanation, for his words:

“If one of you were lowered by a rope, he would descend upon Allah”

express only a hypothetical supposition: were such lowering to occur, what was lowered would come down upon Him. Yet no one can lower anything onto Allah, for He is high above in His essence. When something is lowered towards the earth, it stops at the centre and does not rise towards the other side. But if the lowering were hypothetically assumed, the stated consequence would follow.

The same applies to what the questioner mentioned: if it were supposed that a servant sought Him from that direction, He, glorified be He, would hear his words, and the servant would be turning towards Him with his heart. Yet the innate disposition prevents this, because a complete intention to seek something is incompatible with intending its opposite. Thus, just as the intrinsically upper direction is incompatible with