The Third Objection: “Place”

Once you have understood the answer to the previous objection—“direction”—it becomes easy to grasp the reply to this one, which is as follows:

If by “place” one intends a concrete, existent reality—the notion that springs to most people’s minds today, and which they mistakenly think we mean when we affirm for Allah the attribute of exaltedness—then the answer is that Allah is absolutely transcendent above being in a place in this sense. No created thing can encompass Him; He is far greater and higher. Rather, His Footstool encompasses the heavens and the earth. The Exalted has said:

“They have not esteemed Allah as He should be esteemed, while the whole earth will be in His grasp on the Day of Resurrection and the heavens will be rolled up in His right hand.” ⦗Q 39:67⦘

Authentic reports in the two Ṣaḥīḥ collections and elsewhere state that the Prophet ﷺ said: “Allah will seize…"