upward is a movement from one place to another. The soul’s movement in its ascent and prostration is not like this.

Thus, when His Messenger—may Allah bless him and grant him peace—describes the Lord, glorified is He, as descending to the lowest heaven every night, drawing near to the pilgrims on the afternoon of Arafah, speaking to Moses on the right side of the valley, in the blessed spot, from the tree, and rising towards heaven while it was smoke, saying to it and to the earth, “Come willingly or unwillingly,” to which they replied, “We come willingly”—it does not follow that these actions are of the same kind as the descent we observe in visible entities, such that one could say that they necessarily entail vacating one place and occupying another.

The soul’s descent and ascent do not entail this, so how much less would this follow in the case of the Lord of all worlds? Likewise, the angels have an ascent and descent of this kind.

It is therefore impermissible to deny any of the names and attributes that Allah and His Messenger have affirmed, or to liken them to the attributes of created beings. This is particularly clear in the case of created beings we do not observe: the names and attributes established for them are not like those of the creatures we do observe. How much more, then, does this apply to the Lord of all worlds, who is far further removed from resembling any created being than one created being is from resembling another? Every created being bears a greater resemblance to another created being unlike itself than the Creator bears to any created being. Glorified and exalted is He, far above what the wrongdoers say.