except the Creator and created beings. The Creator—glorified and exalted is He—is distinct from His creation. Nothing of His essence is within His creation, and nothing of His creation is within His essence.

Someone who denies direction should therefore be asked: Do you mean by “direction” an existing, created thing? Allah is not within created things. Or do you mean by “direction” what lies beyond the world? There is no doubt that Allah is above the world, distinct from created beings.

Likewise, someone who says that Allah is in a direction should be asked: Do you mean that Allah is above the world, or that Allah is within some created thing? If you mean the former, it is true; if you mean the latter, it is false.

The same applies to the expression “spatial location.” If someone means by it that created things contain Allah, then Allah is far greater and mightier than that. Indeed, His Kursī encompasses the heavens and the earth. Allah Most High has said:

“They have not esteemed Allah as He deserves. The whole earth will be in His grasp on the Day of Resurrection, and the heavens will be rolled up in His right hand.”

It is established in the collections of authentic hadith that the Prophet, may Allah bless him and grant him peace, said:

“Allah will grasp the earth and roll up the heavens in His right hand. Then He will say: ‘I am the King! Where are the kings of the earth?’”

In another hadith:

“Indeed, He tosses it as children toss a ball.”

And in the hadith of Ibn ‘Abbās:

“The seven heavens, the seven earths, and all that they contain are, in the Hand of the Most Merciful, no more than a mustard seed in the hand of one of you.”

If, however, someone means by it that He is separate from created beings—that is, distinct from them, apart from them, and not dwelling within them—then He, glorified is He, is as the imams of the Sunnah have said: above His heavens, upon His Throne, distinct from His creation.