If it is said:

“He is in a place,” in the sense (1) that something other than Him encompasses Him and that He depends upon something other than Him,

then Allah is exalted above needing anything other than Him, being encompassed by anything other than Him, and the like.

If by “place” is meant what is above the world and that above which the Lord is, it is said:

[If there is] (2) nothing but a Creator or a created thing, and the Creator is distinct from the created (3), then He is the Manifest, above whom there is nothing.

If [someone] (4) says, “Glorified is He, He is above His heavens, upon His Throne (5), distinct from His creation,” this meaning is true, whether or not you call it a place.

Once the intended meaning is understood, the doctrine of Ahl al-Sunnah wa al-Jamā'ah (6) is what the Book and the Sunnah indicate and what the Muslim community’s early generations unanimously affirmed. This is the position (7) that accords with sound transmitted evidence and clear reason.

[Discussion of his statement, “Otherwise, He would be originated”]

[Refutation of the argument of the Rāfidah and the Mu'tazilah]

As for his statement:

“Otherwise, He would be originated,”

its import is that if He were a body or were in a place, He would be originated.

[It is said to him: We have already explained which meanings of “body” and “place” must be negated of Him, and which may not be negated of Him—even if some people call it a body and a place. But what is the evidence that, if He were so, He would be originated?] (8) Yet you (9) have cited no evidence for that.