that is straight is Islam.” Another says: “It is the Sunnah and the community.” Another says: “It is the Quran.” Another says: “It is the way of servitude to Allah.” This is diversity in the names and descriptions used to explain the straight path, comparable to the names of Allah, His Messenger, and His Book. There is no opposition between them, either in wording or in meaning. The same applies when people offer explanations of those foremost in good deeds, those who take a middle course, and those who wrong themselves: each group mentions a particular category of Muslims, while the designation encompasses them all without contradiction.

An example of diversity involving a verbal dispute arising from a word’s multiple meanings—as has been said, “Most disagreement among rational people arises from names having multiple meanings”—is a dispute among some people over whether Muhammad saw his Lord in this world or in the Hereafter. Some said: “He saw Him in this world, because he saw Him before death.” Others said: “Rather, in the Hereafter, because he saw Him while above the heavens, not while on earth.” The precise distinction is that the term “Hereafter” is used with reference to this life and the life to come, and with reference to the abode of this world and the abode of the Hereafter. Muhammad saw his Lord during this life, in the abode of the Hereafter.

The same applies to many who dispute whether Allah is in heaven or is not in heaven. Those who affirm this state without qualification that Allah is in heaven, as the scriptural texts state and indicate, meaning that He is above the heavens, upon His Throne, distinct from His creation; while others deny