between the Throne and the depths of the sea: all are alike. If that were so, one would not be forbidden to look in one direction and commanded to turn one’s gaze toward another, since both directions are alike according to the Jahmiyyah.
Moreover, if that were so, the prohibition against raising one’s gaze would apply in every circumstance. Yet Allah Most High says:
“We have certainly seen the turning of your face toward heaven.”
Thus, the servant is not forbidden to raise his gaze altogether; rather, he is forbidden to do so when he is commanded to observe humility, for lowering one’s gaze perfects humility. As Allah Most High says:
“With their eyes humbled, they will emerge from the graves.”
And Allah Most High says:
“You will see them exposed to it, humbled by disgrace, looking with a furtive glance.”
Furthermore, if looking up toward the sky were forbidden while there were no God in heaven, there would be no difference between raising one’s gaze toward the sky and turning it in any other direction. Had his purpose been to forbid people to believe that Allah is in heaven, or to direct their hearts upward, he would have explained that to them, just as he explained all the other rulings. How could that be, when neither Allah’s Book, nor His Messenger’s Sunnah, nor the statements of the early generations of the Muslim community contain a single word saying that Allah is not above the Throne, that He is not above heaven, that He is neither inside the world nor outside it, neither co-located with it nor separate from it, or that the servant should not direct himself upward rather than in other directions when calling upon Him?
Indeed, for all the negations the Jahmiyyah assert—and claim to be the truth—they have not a single word of support from Allah’s Book, His Messenger’s Sunnah, or the statements of any of the community’s early generations and imams. Rather, the Book, the Sunnah, and the statements of the early generations and imams are filled with evidence indicating the opposite of their position. Yet they say: