—five in all—he related that he returned to Moses, and that Moses told him: “Return to your Lord and ask Him to lighten the burden upon your community,” as is related through numerous independent chains in the hadiths of the Ascension. Moses thus affirmed Muhammad’s statement that his Lord is above, whereas Pharaoh denied Moses’ statement that his Lord is above. Those who affirm this follow Moses and Muhammad, while those who deny it agree with Pharaoh.

A number of scholars of rational inquiry have relied upon this argument, including Abū al-Hasan al-Ash‘arī in his book al-Ibānah. He presented several rational and scriptural proofs that Allah is above the world, and said at its beginning:

“If someone says, ‘You have rejected the positions of the Jahmiyyah, the Qadariyyah, the Khawārij, the Rāfidah, the Mu‘tazilah and the Murji’ah. Tell us, then, what position you hold and what religion you profess.’

He is told: The position we hold and the religion we profess consist in adhering to the Book of our Lord, the Sunnah of our Prophet, and what has been transmitted from the Companions, the Successors and the imams of the Muslims. We affirm what Abū ‘Abd Allāh Ahmad ibn Hanbal ibn Muhammad ibn Hanbal affirmed, and shun whatever contradicts his position. For he is the consummate imam and virtuous leader through whom Allah made the truth manifest, clarified the paths, and suppressed the innovations of the innovators, the deviations of the deviant and the doubts of the doubters. May Allah have mercy upon him, a foremost imam