(1) Ibn Taymiyya (may Allah have mercy on him) writes in Bayanu Talbis al-Jahmiyya, 2/547: “This, too, is a rational analogy of the a fortiori type which establishes that knowledge is possible without mingling with the object known. He remarks that when a servant constructs something—such as a house he has built—he knows its size and the number of its rooms even though he is not inside it, simply because he is its maker. Then how much more so must God, who has created everything, know His creatures, their measures and their attributes while not being immanent in them. This is among the clearest rational proofs. These two analogies serve distinct purposes: the first proves His all-encompassing grasp of His creation, for all creatures are in His hand and He surrounds them with His sight; the second proves His knowledge of them, for He is their Creator, just as He says: ‘ala ya‘lamu man khalaqa wa huwa al-latif al-khabir (Does He who created not know, while He is the Most Subtle, the All-Aware?)’ (Q 67:14).” Ibn Battah states in al-Ibana, 3/136: “Chapter: Belief that Allah, mighty and exalted, is upon His Throne, distinct (ba’in) from His creation, while His knowledge encompasses all His creatures.” The Muslims—Companions, Successors and all scholars among the believers—are unanimously agreed that Allah, blessed and exalted, is upon His Throne above His heavens, separate from His creation, and that His knowledge encompasses every creature. None reject or dislike this except those who have adopted the doctrine of hulul (divine indwelling); their hearts have deviated, the devils have deluded them, and they have strayed from the religion. They claim that God’s essence is absent from no place; He is on earth as He is in heaven, and His very being permeates all things. The Qur’an, the Sunnah, and the statements of the Companions and Successors among the Muslim scholars belie them. The hululiyya were therefore asked: “Why do you deny that Allah is upon the Throne when He Himself says, al-rahmanu ‘ala al-‘arshi istawa (The All-Merciful rose over the Throne, Q 20:5) and thumma istawa ‘ala al-‘arshi al-rahmanu fas’al bihi khabira (Then the All-Merciful rose over the Throne—ask, then, about Him one well-informed, Q 25:59)? This is God’s own statement about Himself—that He is upon the Throne.” They replied: “We do not say He is on the Throne, because He is greater than the Throne; moreover, were He on it, many places on the Throne would remain vacant, and that would make Him resemble His creation—just as when one of us is in his house he occupies only the place where he stands, while the rest of the house is empty. Rather, we say He is beneath the seventh earth just as He is above the seventh heaven, that He is in every place, absent from no place, and not in one place to the exclusion of another.” We respond: “As for your claim that He cannot be on the Throne because He is greater than it, Allah has willed that He be …”