The Shaykh’s explanation that those who deny the attribute of elevation for Allah the Exalted are, in reality, seeking to deny the existence of Allah the Exalted.

The Shaykh : From this, the Salaf (may Allah be pleased with them), such as Imam Ahmad and Abdullah ibn al-Mubarak and others, said 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, not below, not to the right, not to the left, not in front, not behind, not inside the world, and not 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 person cannot describe the non-existent with more than what these people who deny the attribute of Allah (Mighty and Majestic) describe, when they say, "Allah (Blessed and Exalted is He) is not above, not below, not to the right, not to the left, not in front, not behind, not inside the world, and not outside it." So where is Allah? Some of the rational kings gathered in his time, or more precisely, some of the deputies, a deputy of one of the kings here in Damascus, gathered Imam al-Hujjah 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 speech, and he heard from the others. That deputy, the king’s deputy, said at the end of the narration: "These are a people who have lost their Lord." This man was not a scholar, but he was rational. When he heard Ibn Taymiyyah’s arguments for affirming the existence and attributes of Allah (Mighty and Majestic), and among His attributes is that He is the Subjugator over His servants, and he heard the arguments of the deniers for this attribute, that Allah is not described as being above, not below, not to the right, not in front, not behind, not inside the world, and not outside it, and some of them add to that by saying, "He is not connected to it and not separated from it," to emphasize the denial of the divine attributes, when this deputy or governor, using the modern term of today, said, "These are a 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 and not outside it, then the universe is nothing but a thing: either this created world, or a thing outside the created world, and it is none other than Allah (Blessed and Exalted is He).
So when we know this reality, we consequently know with certainty that there is no need for figurative interpretation of the verse . We do not say that "istawa" means "istawala" (to dominate); we do not say it this way. And if we say that "istawa" means "istala" (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.