…and this view is further clarified and confirmed by the words of the Most High: a-amintum man fi s-sama-i an yakhsifa bikumu l-arda fa-idha hiya tamuru, am amintum man fi s-sama-i an yursila ‘alaykum hasiban (Do you feel secure that He who is above the heaven will not cause the earth to swallow you and it quake? Or do you feel secure that He who is above the heaven will not send against you a storm of stones?) – al-Mulk 16-17; by His words: ar-Rahmanu ‘ala l-‘arshi istawa (The All-Merciful rose over the Throne) – Ta-Ha 5; together with His words: wa huwa ma‘akum ayna ma kuntum (And He is with you wherever you may be) – al-Hadid 4; and His words: fa-lanaqussanna ‘alayhim bi-‘ilmin wa ma kunna ghaibin (We shall recount to them with knowledge, and We were never absent) – al-A‘raf 7. God willing, this point will be examined in detail when we reach Surah al-A‘raf. Know that the claim of the Jahmiyyah that Allah is present in every place—and their use of the above verse to argue that He is on earth—is manifest error and ignorance of Allah. All existing places are too paltry and insignificant for the Lord of the heavens and the earth to dwell in any of them. He is greater than everything, higher than everything, encompassing everything while nothing encompasses Him. In His hand the heavens and the earth are smaller than a mustard seed in the hand of one of us—His is the highest analogy. If a mustard seed were in a man’s hand, could it be said that the man indwells it or occupies every part of it? Absolutely not; it is far too small and insignificant. Realize, then, that the Lord of the heavens and the earth is greater than all things, nothing contains Him and nothing is above Him: la ya‘zubu ‘anhu mithqala dharratin fi s-samawati wa la fi l-ardi wa la asgharu min dhalika wa la akbaru illa fi kitabin mubin (Not even the weight of an atom escapes Him in the heavens or on earth, nor anything smaller or larger, but it is in a clear record) – Saba 3. Exalted is He, infinitely high; we cannot praise Him as He deserves—He is as He has praised Himself: ya‘lamu ma bayna aydihim wa ma khalfahum wa la yuhituna bihi ‘ilman (He knows what lies before them and what is behind them, yet they do not encompass Him in knowledge) – Ta-Ha 110. (1) Here ends Ibn Taymiyyah’s quotation from Bayan Talbis al-Jahmiyyah, 2/534. He then adds, may Allah have mercy on him: “What Imam Ahmad has mentioned here embodies the consensus of the Muslims and reflects the innate disposition upon which they were created. His phrase ‘out of reverence for the Lord’ is a weighty one, for the Divine Name al-‘Azim (the Most Great) indicates the greatness that is His true measure, as we have explained elsewhere. He mentioned privies and hollow cavities because Muslims know by the obvious dictates of their senses and reason that the Lord must be exalted above such places; moreover, among the gravest forms of Christian unbelief is their claim that He indwelt one of…"