leaves the Throne unoccupied, or some other created thing is greater than Him.” They say, “It is not impossible for the Creator to be smaller than the creation,” just as their teachers say, “It is not impossible for the Creator to be below the creation.” Such people do not describe Him as greater than everything. Indeed, according to their position, He is neither the Great, the Supremely Exalted, nor the Most High, the Magnificent.

He set out a detailed refutation of these people in “The Question of Descent.” When discussing the statement of the imams of the Sunnah, such as Hammād ibn Zayd, Ishāq ibn Rāhawayh, and others, “He descends, yet the Throne does not become unoccupied by Him,” he cited the position of some later scholars affiliated with hadith and the Sunnah who denied this, and demonstrated the unsoundness of their position on both scriptural and rational grounds. These people stand at the opposite extreme from those who deny the descent.

If it is said, “The apparent meaning of the hadith of descent and similar reports does not admit figurative interpretation,” this is correct if “apparent meaning” refers to what these people and others like them understand: that He descends to a lower position and comes to be beneath the Throne, just as a person descends from the roof of his house to a lower level. According to their position, He would then no longer be the Most High or the Highest; rather, He would sometimes be above and sometimes below. Exalted is Allah far above what the wrongdoers say!

The same applies to the reports of His descent on the Day of Resurrection in canopies of clouds, and of His descent