and its King—being above all His creation—how could He be in need of His creation or His Throne? Or how could His exaltedness above His creation entail such dependence, when this is not entailed even in the case of created things?

It is known that whatever independence from others is established for a created being, the Creator, glorified and exalted is He, is more entitled and worthy of it. The same applies to His saying:

“Do you feel secure that He who is in the heaven will not cause the earth to swallow you, whereupon it will suddenly shake?”

Whoever imagines that the implication of this verse is that Allah is inside the heavens is, by unanimous agreement, ignorant and astray.

Even if saying that the sun and moon are in the sky implies this, the preposition “in” is determined by what precedes and follows it, and according to the noun to which it is attached. Thus, a distinction is made between a thing being in a place, a body being in a spatial enclosure, an attribute being in a body, a face being in a mirror, and speech being on a sheet of paper. Each of these categories has a particular quality by which it is distinguished from the others, even though the preposition “in” is used in all of them.

Thus, if someone were to ask, “Is the Throne in the heaven or on the earth?” it would be said, “In the heaven.” And if it were asked, “Is Paradise in the heaven or on the earth?” it would be said, “Paradise is in the heaven.” Yet this does not entail that the Throne is inside the heavens, nor even that Paradise is. For it is established in the Sahih that the Prophet, may Allah bless him and grant him peace, said:

“When you ask Allah for Paradise, ask Him for al-Firdaws, for it is the highest part of Paradise, its middle, and its ceiling is the Throne of the Most Merciful.”

Thus, this Paradise, whose ceiling is the Throne, is above the celestial spheres, even though Paradise is in—