Thus, negating encompassing Him affirms His greatness in a way that constitutes praise and an attribute of perfection. This is evidence affirming that He is seen, not denying it; rather, it affirms that He is seen without being encompassed. This is the truth upon which the early generations of the Muslim community and its leading scholars agreed. If you reflect on this, you will find that every negation that entails no affirmation is something with which Allah has not described Himself.

Those who describe Him only through negations have not, in reality, affirmed a praiseworthy deity—or even an existing one. The same applies to those who share some of their views, such as those who say that He does not speak, does not see, is not above the world, or did not rise over the Throne. They say that He is neither within the world nor outside it, neither separate from the world nor occupying the same place as it. These descriptions can apply to what does not exist, and they entail no affirmative attribute. For this reason, Mahmūd ibn Sabuktakīn said to someone who made such claims about the Creator: “Distinguish for us between this Lord whom you affirm and what does not exist.” Likewise, saying that He does not speak or does not descend contains no attribute of praise or perfection.

Rather, these descriptions liken Him to deficient or nonexistent things. Some of them apply only to what does not exist, while others apply only to inanimate or deficient things. Whoever says, “He is neither separate from the world nor within it,” is like someone who says, “He neither subsists by Himself nor through another; He is neither beginningless nor originated; and He neither precedes the world nor is contemporaneous with it.”