Clarification that those who deny the attribute of elevation for Allah (Blessed and Exalted is He) are, in reality, seeking to deny the existence of Allah (Blessed and Exalted is He).

The Shaykh : And from this, the Salaf (may Allah be pleased with them), such as Imam Ahmad and Abdullah ibn al-Mubarak and others, say that those who deny the attribute of elevation for Allah (Blessed and Exalted is He), and who say that Allah is not above His creation, are actually seeking to deny the existence of Allah (Mighty and Majestic), but in a twisted manner that is not correct in its denial. So instead of saying, "There is no God at all," they say, for example, "Allah is not above, nor below, nor to the right, nor to the left, nor in front, nor behind, nor inside the world, nor outside it." So where is Allah then? If one were to ask the most eloquent of the Arabs to describe the non-existent, he would not be able to describe the non-existent with more than what these deniers of elevation describe! This eloquent man cannot describe the non-existent with more than what these who deny the attribute of Allah (Mighty and Majestic) describe when they say: "Allah (Blessed and Exalted is He) is not above, nor below, nor to the right, nor to the left, nor in front, nor behind, nor inside the world, nor outside it." So where is Allah?!
Some of the rational kings gathered in his time—or, more precisely, some of the deputies of one of the kings here in Damascus—gathered Shaykh al-Islam Ibn Taymiyyah with these scholars who deny the attribute of elevation. He gathered them in many sessions, and a discussion took place between Ibn Taymiyyah (may Allah have mercy on him) and these deniers. He heard Ibn Taymiyyah’s arguments and words, and he heard from the others. Then that deputy, the king’s deputy, said at the end of the discussion: "These are people who have lost their Lord!" This man was not a scholar, but he was rational. When he heard Ibn Taymiyyah’s arguments in establishing the existence and attributes of Allah (Mighty and Majestic), and among His attributes is that He is the Subduer over His servants, and he heard the arguments of the deniers of this attribute—that Allah is not described as being above, nor below, nor to the right, nor in front, nor behind, nor inside the world, nor outside it—and some of them add to that by saying, "Nor connected to it, nor separated from it," to emphasize the denial of the divine attributes! When this deputy, or governor as we would say in modern times, heard this, he said: "These are people who have lost their Lord!" This is a word of truth; because the one who does not know his Lord above all creation means that he has not known his Lord. Because if He is not inside the world nor outside it, then the universe is nothing but this created world, or something outside the created world, and it is nothing but Allah (Blessed and Exalted is He).
So if we know this reality, we consequently know with certainty that there is no need for figurative interpretation of the verse: ; so we do not say: "istiwa' means to dominate," we do not say this. And if we say: "istiwa' means to be high," that does not mean that we have assigned a place to Allah; because place is in creation, and Allah is behind creation and above creation.
Therefore, we find that the hadiths, in addition to the many verses, affirm this divine attribute that Allah (Mighty and Majestic) is above His creation.