And he said also in 'Dar' at-Ta'aarud' (1/253),
"So when the Creator, the Exalted is separate and distinct from the creation, high
and raised above it, and there is nothing in existence except the Creator and the created,
then there is nothing that exists along with Him, which is besides Him, let alone that He
- free is He from all imperfection - should be in some existing thing which surrounds and
encompasses Him." End of his words.
The quotations with this meaning from the books of
Shaikh ul-Islaam are very many, making clear that what the the people of theological
rhetoric presume and imagine that Allaah's ascendancy over His creation and His being
above His Throne has the meaning that He is encompassed and that he is limited to a place
and other such claims and delusions - no one has ever spoken with this and no one who
affirms the highness of Allaah over His creation has ever spoken it!
The Second
A group from the philosophers, those who denied
Allaah's ascendancy (al-'Uluww) - the Mighty and Majestic - depended, in their denial,
upon what they called, 'the rational proof'and that Allaah's being upon the Throne,
necessitates, from a rational point of view, that He is in a certain place and confine.
And you will be amazed when you come to learn that
they themselves are not agreed upon this matter of rational proof. This Ibn Rushd, who is
one of their intelligentsia, establishes that this necessity which the philosophers
presume [1] is not actually a necessity and can never be so, rather it is falsehood from
its very foundation. He (Ibn Rushd) said in 'Manaahij al-Adillah', as occurs in 'Dar'
ut-Ta'aarud' (6/212), "The speech regarding 'al-jihah' (direction): As for this
attribute, then the people of the Sharee'ah of the very first affair (i.e. of the earliest
generations), affirm it for Allaah, free is He from all imperfections. Then the Mu'tazilah
denied it and they were followed in this by the later Ash'arees, such as Abu al-Mu'aali
and whoever followed his saying. The apparent senses of the Sharee'ah necessitate and
require the affirmation of direction (al-jihah), such as His saying:
Ar-Rahmaan ascended the Throne [Taa Haa
20:5]
and His saying:
He arranges (every) affair from the heavens
to the earth, then it (affair) will go up to Him, in one Day, the space whereof is a
thousand years of your reckoning (i.e. reckoning of our present world's time). [Sajdah
32:5]
and His saying:
And the angels will be on its sides, and
eight angels will, that Day, bear the Throne of your Lord above them. [Haaqqah 69:17]
and His saying:
The angels and the Ruh [Jibrael (Gabriel)]
ascend to Him [Ma'aarij 70:4]
and His saying:
Do you feel secure that He, Who is over the
heaven (Allaah), will not cause the earth to sink with you... [Mulk 67:16]
and other such verses, which if ta'weel
(metaphorical interpolation) were to be applied to them, then the whole of the Sharee'ah
would become interpolated. And if it were said regarding such verses that they are from
the 'mutashaabihaat' (the unclear allegorical verses) then the whole of the Sharee'ah
would become from the mutashaabihaat. This is because the whole of the Sharee'ah is
founded upon the fact that Allaah is above the sky (fis-Samaa) and that from it (the sky)
the Angels descend upon the Prophets with revelation and that the Books descended from the
sky and to it was the Prophet (sallallaahu alayhi wasallam) raised until he approached the
Sidratul-Muntahaa."