How do we respond to the objection of one who says: The exaltation of Allah above His Throne necessitates that Allah is limited, because the Throne is a creation and must have a limit?

The Shaykh : So you—may Allah bless you—said just now that if we say that Allah (Mighty and Majestic) is above all creations, what is the necessary consequence? Or what is the objection or the point raised?

The questioner : It is that the creations are limited, and therefore this necessitates that Allah (Glorified and Exalted is He) will be limited.

The Shaykh : Why?

The questioner : Because He sat upon a limit.

The Shaykh : No, who said He sat?

The questioner : He is exalted.

The Shaykh : Fine, if He is above the creations, we must not forget the entire previous topic that we established by transmission and reason. We said that Allah is above all creations because one of three possibilities must be true: either He is above them, or they are above Him, or He is inside them. The second and third possibilities are the most false of falsehoods, so He is above them. But why did we necessitate His settling upon them and being established on them? The scholars said this to negate this doubt, which is not indicated by the Book or the Sunnah. That is the statement of that noble scholar—if you advance a little, as they say: "Crowd together and you will show mercy to one another"—one of the noble scholars said:
"And the Lord of the Throne is above the Throne, but without the description of being established on it or connected to it."
So we have affirmed and purified Him, and this is the Shari'ah: . So if we were to concede, for the sake of argument, that it is not said that Allah (Mighty and Majestic), despite all these texts and this sound reasoning, is above all creations, while believing that He is the One who is free of need from all the worlds, what would be said? We ask: Where is Allah? What is the answer? The answer is: Not above, not below, not to the right, not to the left, not above, not below, not inside the world nor outside it, not connected to it nor separated from it. That is the great misguidance, and this is what we say. And finally: If Allah (Mighty and Majestic)—if the expression is correct—we say: "Allah is the hidden of the hidden," meaning: He is hidden from the sight, matter, and the senses. And Allah (Mighty and Majestic) made the first attribute of the believers in the first chapter of al-Baqarah: He said: , . And if it is among the attributes of the believers to believe in the unseen, all of the unseen, then the first of that is that Allah (Mighty and Majestic) is hidden from our senses and our eyes, but He is not hidden from our thoughts and our belief. So what should we believe about Allah (Mighty and Majestic), since He is the first pillar of what falls under belief in the unseen? There is no doubt that we must believe in all the verses and hadiths mentioned previously that affirm the attribute of exaltation for Allah (Mighty and Majestic) over His creation. If one who imagines imagines a delusion that is not befitting Allah (Mighty and Majestic), then he must dispel this delusion and stand firm with adherence to the Book of Allah and the Sunnah of the Messenger of Allah (peace and blessings be upon him), and not surrender to mere delusions devoid of the evidence of the Shari'ah from the Book and the Sunnah. And by this it becomes clear that we did not understand the correct creed from the texts except that this necessitates settling upon the creations, even though we mentioned in the course of the explanation that Allah (Mighty and Majestic) is the One who is free of need from all the worlds. He is the One who holds the heavens and the earth so they do not collapse. So He is not in need of being established on them or settling upon them, but He has the attribute of exaltation. And therefore we say: Glory be to my Lord, the Most High. This is the creed of the Book and the Sunnah, and this is the creed of the righteous Salaf, and this is the creed of the four Imams, all of them, without disagreement among them. So why does a Muslim drive himself and put himself into the hole of a scorpion, and employ his narrow, small mind to clash with the texts of clear indication from the Book and the Sunnah that Allah (Mighty and Majestic) is above all creations? How do we explain that clear, beautiful hadith: ? So may Allah bless you, it is not permissible for a Muslim to surrender the leadership of his thought, mind, and creed to delusions, because the scholars say on this occasion: "Whatever comes to your mind, Allah is the opposite of that." As for what came in the Book and the Sunnah, it must be believed in, as Allah (Mighty and Majestic) said: . Now, let us move on a little to some of the matters that the texts brought.