and choice, just as they say concerning transitive acts. This is the position of the leading authorities in Sunnah, hadith, jurisprudence, and Sufism, as well as many among the various schools of speculative theology, as previously explained.

Their disagreement over the interpretation of His words rests on this distinction:

“Then He turned to the heaven,”

“Do they await anything but that Allah should come to them in canopies of clouds?”

and:

“Then He established Himself over the Throne,”

and similar passages. Those who deny these acts interpret His coming as the coming of His command or His punishment. They interpret His establishment over the Throne as power and dominion, or as exalted rank.

There are two views concerning establishment over the Throne: whether it is an attribute of action or an attribute of essence. Those who hold that it is an attribute of essence interpret it to mean that He has power over the Throne. Yet He has always possessed power and has always been exalted in rank. The weakness of this view thus becomes apparent in several respects. One is His statement:

“Then He established Himself over the Throne.”

He thus speaks of His establishment over the Throne using the conjunction “then.”