mercy, meaning that it envelops them as clothing envelops its wearer, as a man covers a woman, and as night covers day. He then said:

“And tranquillity descended upon them.”

This means its being sent down into their hearts.

“And the angels surrounded them,”

meaning that they sat around them.

“And Allah mentioned them among those with Him,”

that is, among the angels. Allah mentions covering in several passages, such as His words, Most High:

“He covers the day with the night.”

And:

“When he lay with her, she conceived a light burden.”

And:

“He cast down the overturned city,”

“then covered it with what He covered it.”

And:

“Indeed, when they cover themselves with their garments, He knows what they conceal and what they reveal.”

All of these involve encompassing from every side.

He, Most High, also mentions sending down drowsiness in His words:

“Then, after distress, He sent down upon you security: drowsiness enveloping a group of you.”

This was on the day of Uhud. Concerning the day of Badr, He said:

“When He enveloped you in drowsiness as security from Him.”

Drowsiness descends into the head because vapours descend, enter the brain, and condense, thereby producing drowsiness.

A group of scholastic theologians—including Abū al-Hasan al-Ash'arī and those who followed him among the adherents of Mālik, al-Shāfi'ī, and Ahmad—regarded descent, arrival, and coming as an event that He brings about separate from Himself. That, according to them, constitutes His coming and His rising over the Throne. They therefore said that His rising over the Throne is an act He performs in the Throne, whereby He becomes established over it, without any act