“Since Pharaoh occupied the position of ruler and caliph by the sword, legal convention permitted him to say:
‘I am your lord, the most high.’
That is: even if all are lords in some respect, I am the highest among them by virtue of the authority I have been given over you.
When the sorcerers recognized the truth of what he said, they did not deny it. Rather, they acknowledged it and said to him:
‘Decree whatever you wish to decree. You can only decree concerning this worldly life.’
Sovereignty, then, is yours. Thus Pharaoh’s statement was correct:
‘I am your lord, the most high.’”
Through this and similar arguments, they vindicate Pharaoh’s statement, “I am your lord, the most high,” while denying that Allah is high, let alone that He is the Most High. They say, “Higher than whom would He be, or higher than what?”
Likewise, the other Jahmiyya speak approvingly of the elevation of created things that are high, such as the heavens, Paradise, the stars, and the like. They know that what is high is superior to what is low, yet they do not describe their Lord as the Most High or the Exalted. Rather, they place Him among the lowest things just as they place Him among the highest.
The Jahmiyya who say, “He is neither within the world nor outside it, and He cannot be pointed to at all,” are closer to negation and nonexistence, just as the others are closer to indwelling in, and union with, created beings. These affirm an existent being, but in reality it is the created being, not the Creator; those, meanwhile, negate and affirm no existence whatsoever. Yet they