This is because the term “direction” may denote something that exists, and it may denote something that does not exist. It is well known that (1) nothing exists except the Creator and created beings. Thus, if “direction” means something existent other than Allah, it must be created; yet Allah Most High is neither confined nor encompassed by anything created (2 for He is separate from created beings 2) (2).
If “direction” means something nonexistent—namely, what lies above the universe (3)—then nothing is there except Allah alone.
Thus, if it is said, “He is in a direction,” [if] (4) what is meant is that He is there, above the universe, beyond where created things extend, then He is above all creation, exalted over the universe. (5) [Those who reject the term “direction” cite among their proofs that all directions are created, that He existed before direction, and that whoever says, “He is in a direction,” must either affirm that some part of the universe is eternal or hold that He had no need of direction and then subsequently came to be within it.
These and similar statements merely establish that He is not within anything created, whether or not it is called a direction. This is true, for He—Glorified is He—is far above being encompassed by created things or depending upon any of them, whether the Throne or anything else. Any ignorant person who imagines that when He descends to the lowest heaven—as stated in the hadith (6)—the Throne is above Him and He is confined between two layers of
(1) B and A read: *an* (“that”).
(2) The passage between markers 2–2 is absent from B and A.
(3) N and M read: “what lies above the celestial sphere.”
(4) The word “if” occurs only in ʿ.
(5) The text following the bracket occurs only in ʿ and ends on the next page.
(6) This refers to the hadith of the divine descent, transmitted through several chains from Abū Hurayra and other Companions. One version reads (*al-Bukhārī*, 2:52–53, Book of Night Prayer, chapter “Supplication and Prayer during the Latter Part of the Night”): “Abū Hurayra, may Allah be pleased with him, reported that the Messenger of Allah, peace and blessings be upon him, said: ‘Our Lord, Blessed and Exalted, descends every night to the lowest heaven when the final third of the night remains and says: Who will call upon Me so that I may answer him? Who will ask Me so that I may give him? Who will seek My forgiveness so that I may forgive him?’” It is also found in *al-Bukhārī*, 8:71 (Book of Supplications, chapter “Supplication at Midnight”) and 9:143 (Book of Monotheism, chapter on Allah Most High’s words, “They seek to change the words of Allah”); *Muslim*, 1:521–523 (Book of the Prayer of Travelers and Its Shortening, chapter encouraging supplication and remembrance during the latter part of the night, and the granting of prayers at that time); *Sunan Abī Dāwūd*, 2:47 (Book of Prayer, chapter “Which Part of the Night Is Best?”) and 4:314 (Book of the Sunnah, chapter “Refutation of the Jahmiyya”); and *al-Musnad*, al-Maʿārif edition, hadith nos. 967, 968, 3673, 3821, 7500, 7582, 7611, and 7779. It also appears in many other places in *al-Musnad* and is related in *Sunan al-Tirmidhī*, *Sunan Ibn Māja*, *Sunan al-Dārimī*, and *Musnad al-Tayālisī*. See also *Miftāh Kunūz al-Sunna*, entry “Supplication.” Ibn Khuzayma devoted a separate chapter to the hadiths of the divine descent in his *Kitāb al-Tawhīd*, pp. 83–90.