Continuation of the explanation of the author’s (may Allah have mercy on him) statement: “And we believe that Allah (Mighty and Majestic) is above His creation with His Essence and His Attributes,” based on His saying, the Exalted:

The Shaykh : As for His being above with His Attributes, every Muslim, even if he is an innovator, has agreed that He is above with His Attributes and that His Attributes are above everything, except for the people of likening Allah to creation who liken Allah to His creation; they have diminished the Attributes of the Creator. But the battle is ongoing between the people of denial of the divine attributes and the people of the Sunnah, who are led by the Messenger (peace and blessings be upon him) and the righteous Salaf. The issue is the elevation by His Essence: Is Allah elevated by His Essence or not? We say that Allah (Exalted and Majestic is He) is elevated by His Essence.
The Qur'an, the Sunnah, scholarly consensus, reason, and the innate natural disposition have all indicated this. All types of evidence point to the elevation of Allah by His Essence.
As for the Book, it frequently describes Allah as being above, as being the Most High, and as being above His servants. It also states that the messengers descend from Him and ascend to Him, and so on. This is a decisive indication that Allah the Exalted is elevated by His Essence. Yes, Hamid, that is fine.
As for the Sunnah, it contains various types of evidence. The various types of indication from the Sunnah—the verbal, the practical, and the tacit—agree on the elevation of Allah by His Essence. Do you understand? The Sunnah agrees in all types of indication on the elevation of Allah by His Essence: the verbal, and the second...
The student: The practical.

The Shaykh : and the third
The student: The tacit.

The Shaykh : The tacit. As for the verbal, the Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him) used to say in his prostration: The indication is that he described Allah as the Most High when the prostrating person is the lowest. The highest part of a person is the mind...
The student: Intellect.

The Shaykh : No.
The student: The head.

The Shaykh : Yes, the head, from which the forehead comes. Where does the prostrating person place it on the ground? Level with his feet. In this state, where the person has placed himself at the lowest point, he remembers the Most High Lord who is above everything. The Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him) used to say in his prostration:
As for the practical, he meaning above them. He is pointing to whom?
The student: To Allah.

The Shaykh : To Allah. This is a practical indication, a practical Sunnah, indicating that Allah the Exalted is above everything. As for the tacit, said, “In the sky.” In the sky. He said, “Free her, for she is a believer.” So he approved her statement that he was in the sky and said: This is a Sunnah of what type?
The student: Tacit.

The Shaykh : Tacit. This is the indication of the Book and the Sunnah regarding the elevation of Allah.
As for the indication of scholarly consensus, none of the Salaf—the Companions, the Tabi'un, and the Imams of the Ummah after them—ever said that Allah the Exalted is not in the sky. The fact that they recite these texts and do not contradict them or interpret them in a way that opposes them indicates that they affirmed them and that this is their creed. Thus, there is a consensus of the Salaf that Allah the Exalted is elevated by His Essence.
The method of establishing scholarly consensus in this manner is considered one of the best. If someone were to say, “Show us a single word from the Companions and the Tabi'un affirming the elevation of Allah by His Essence,” we would say there is no need for transmitted reports. They read the Qur'an and hear the Sunnah. Did any of them say that Allah is not above His heavens?
The student: No.

The Shaykh : Yes, and as the Shaykh al-Islam said, none of the reports of the Salaf contains a single report from the Salaf saying that Allah is not above the sky. And in that case, they are in consensus.
The student: ...

The Shaykh : On what basis? On the basis of these evidences, which is that Allah is in the sky with His Essence.
As for reason, it is asked: What do you say, O you who deny the elevation of Allah? Is elevation an attribute of perfection or an attribute of deficiency?
The student: ...

The Shaykh : Yes
The student: ...

The Shaykh : Of course, he wants to say it is an attribute of perfection. Everyone knows that elevation is an attribute of perfection. If it is an attribute of perfection, is the Lord described with perfection?
The student: ...

The Shaykh : Yes. In fact, he did not deny the elevation of Allah by His Essence except in pursuit of perfection, as he claims. Thus, the attributes of elevation are established for Him, because elevation is an attribute of perfection by the consensus of people of intellect.
The innate natural disposition: You find the old woman who has not studied the *Al-Wasitiyyah* creed, nor the *Al-Tahawiyyah* creed, nor *Al-Ibanah*, nor anything else. When she supplicates to her Lord (Mighty and Majestic)...
The student: ...

The Shaykh : Where does she go?
The student: ...

The Shaykh : Yes, she says, “O Lord.” Yes, or “O Lord, above.” O Lord, above. This is an innate indication that does not require teaching or instruction. Do you understand?
Therefore, when Abu al-Ma'ali al-Juwayni (may Allah pardon us and him) asserted that Allah did not rise above the Throne, denying the rising of Allah above the Throne because he was from the Asha'irah, Abu al-A'la al-Hamadhani said to him: “O Teacher, leave us alone from mentioning the Throne and the rising above the Throne. What do you say about this innate disposition? No one has ever said ‘O Allah’ without finding in his heart a necessity to seek elevation.” “Know” means “worshiper,” meaning a worshiper who has ever said “O Allah” has found in his heart a necessity to seek elevation. So he began to strike his head and say: “Al-Hamadhani has confused me, he has confused me.” What does that mean? It means he had no answer to this. There is no answer. Everyone who says “O Allah,” even the one who denies the elevation of Allah, we say his heart rises to the sky.
And on one occasion, we were in Mina on the day of the festival, and a group of brothers came to us. I do not like to mention their affiliation. They came as students of knowledge, and I did not know their language. Some of the Saudi brothers came to me and said that the brothers had attended and wished for me to speak about something of the creed, especially regarding the elevation. I said, “Good, if Allah wills.” The important thing is that I attended and we spoke about things that were not of the creed, to make them feel at ease and to reconcile them, because if you addressed them directly with the creed...
The student: They would flee.

The Shaykh : Yes, they would flee. And they said, “This man came to correct our creed, why did you speak to us with what was easy?” Then we moved on to mentioning the elevation, and I began to tell them, as I am telling you now, that the elevation is indicated by the Book, the Sunnah, scholarly consensus, reason, and the innate natural disposition. So they began to whisper among themselves, and... some of them stood up. I said to myself, “They have now stood up out of reverence and magnification for this meaning, or do they want to kill me? I do not know.” Yes, the important thing is that they stood up and began to whisper... and some of them were responding to each other, some responding to each other. So I held them back like this, fearing a fitnah. I calmed them down and said, “The purpose is to reach the truth... We silenced them.” Then I said to them, “Yesterday you were at 'Arafah supplicating to Allah (Mighty and Majestic). How do you raise your hands when supplicating?” They said, “We say it like this.” Good. And to whom do you direct the address? They said, “To Allah.” Good. How do you direct the address to Allah to something in which Allah is not? They said, “Because the supplication... because the sky is the qiblah of the supplicant. The sky is the qiblah of the supplicant.” I said, “If it is the qiblah of the supplicant, then the supplicant must face the qiblah with his entire body. And on this basis, do not supplicate to Allah except while you are lying on your backs, so that the entire body is directed toward the qiblah.”
Nonsense. We ask Allah for safety. But And if these people and their innate natural disposition were left alone, they would never have gone astray from the straight path in the matter of the elevation.
In any case, these are five evidences that indicate what? They indicate the elevation of Allah by His Essence above His heavens.
They raise an objection to this. First, they say, “If you affirm that, you have contradicted the Qur'an.” You see, there is no harm in elaborating on this matter, because you may face someone who argues with you. Yes, you have contradicted the Qur'an. Allah (Mighty and Majestic) said: These are four verses, all of which indicate the absence of elevation. All of them indicate the absence of elevation. If you want to say that it implies being in a location, then you have confined Allah to the sky, because the container is larger than what?
The student: The contained.

The Shaykh : The contained. So the sky would encompass Him, and you do not say that the sky encompasses Him. So either you say that the sky encompasses Him and He is in it, or you deny that He is in the sky. We say, in response to this, the answer to this is by one of two ways. Either His saying means “above the sky,” and comes to mean “above,” as in His saying, the Exalted: meaning “on the earth.” What is its meaning? That a person digs trenches in the earth and walks in them. “Travel on the earth” meaning “on it.” And if you make “in” mean “above,” the objection is resolved, and Allah is what? In the interior of the sky or above it?
The student: Above it.

The Shaykh : Above it. Good. Or we say another answer: that the intended meaning of “the sky” is elevation, because in the Arabic language, everything that is above you is a sky. Even the ceiling is a sky for us. So means “who is in the elevation.”
If someone were to say, “Show us a proof that *al-sama'* (the sky) means elevation,” we would say, “Welcome.” Allah the Exalted said: and from where is He descending?
The student: From the clouds.

The Shaykh : From the clouds, and the clouds are the sky, or they are a creation between the sky and the earth.
The student: A creation between the sky.

The Shaykh : As He the Exalted said: It becomes clear that *al-sama'* in the first verse means elevation. Based on this, we say: “Who is in the elevation, in the absolute elevation where no one is with Him?” This is the apparent meaning, that there is nothing above Him. We have finished answering regarding these two verses.
As for His saying: It is known that one person cannot be in two places at the same time; it is impossible for one person to be in two places at the same time. But the meaning of His saying: is like saying, “So-and-so is the governor of Makkah and the governor of Madinah,” meaning his governorship is in this place and that place, whereas his location...
The student: Is in one place.

The Shaykh : ...is in one of them, either Makkah or Madinah. Similarly, He is the God of those in the sky and the God of those on the earth. This is clear, and therefore He did not say “in the sky” only, nor did He say “on the earth” only.
The fourth verse: We say the answer to it is from two angles. Either we attach to “in the heavens and on the earth,” making it like His saying: meaning He is worshipped in the heavens and worshipped on the earth. In this case, it is a prepositional phrase attached to the Name of Allah. Or we say: and pause, then resume and say: and His saying: is attached to His saying: The grandeur and magnificence of the verse is that, although He is in the heavens, He knows your secrets and your open deeds on the earth. So His elevation in the heavens does not prevent Him from knowing your secrets and open deeds on the earth. With this, the evidence is complete, and the intrinsic elevation remains established by how many proofs?
The student: By five.

The Shaykh : By five proofs. By type or by individual instance? By type, because the indication of the Qur'an and the Sunnah cannot be limited. Two groups have differed regarding intrinsic elevation. One group said: “He is in every place, He is in every place by His essence” and refuge is sought in Allah from that. So He is in the mosque, in the market, in the desert, in the sea, in the air, in respectable places, in filthy places, and in every place. How is it? Is He divided, or is He multiple? Because it follows from their saying that He is in every place that either He is divided, with some of Him here and some of Him there, or He is...
The student: Multiple.

The Shaykh : ...multiple, or He is torn apart. In reality, if we say He is here in the mosque and there in the market, between us and the market...
The student: There are walls.

The Shaykh : ...walls mean He is torn apart, or you say He is present in the wall, in the clay, in the brick, in the iron, and the like. So the saying that He is in every place is a premise for the saying that He is present in everything. For this reason, Ibn al-Qayyim said about this saying that it is more vile than the saying of the Christians. The Christians limited the presence...
The student: In 'Isa ibn Maryam.

The Shaykh : ...in 'Isa ibn Maryam. They limited it to 'Isa ibn Maryam, so they did not make Him in every place. Then they limited it to a pure place among the resolute prophets. But these people said He is in every place and in everything. So which is more vile?
The student: These people.

The Shaykh : I mean, I don't know. You, the apparent one is the child. If you say to him the last word, he is with you. You say, “Do you prefer the sweet or the date?” He says, “The date.” “Do you prefer the date or the sweet?” He says, “The sweet.” He goes with the last one. So the important thing now is to say: which is more vile, the presence of these people or the presence of the Christians?
The student: The presence of these people.

The Shaykh : The presence of these people is more vile because they did not purify Him from anything and did not limit Him to obedience. Okay, I say these people say that Allah is in every place by His essence. Another saying said: It is not permissible to describe Allah as being in a place at all. Do not say “in the sky” or “on the earth.” Not in the sky and not on the earth. Where is He then? They said: Nor is He connected to the creation, nor separated from it. How? They said: Nor is He opposite, nor alongside, nor right, nor left, nor above, nor below. Where did He go?
The student: ...

The Shaykh : They said: Do not describe Him with any of these descriptions. For this reason, they made Allah the Exalted non-existent, until some scholars said: If someone said to you, “Describe non-existence for me,” you would not find anything more comprehensive or more encompassing...
The student: Than this description.

The Shaykh : ...than this description. It is clear, my brothers. So praise be to Allah who guided us. We believe that Allah the Exalted is above us in meaning and in essence.
If someone were to say, “You have been excessive when you said that Allah is above by His essence. By His essence? What came to us with ‘by His essence’? This is excessiveness. And the Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him) said: ” We said: We did not act excessively, but we wanted to refute the bad saying of those who say that Allah is not above by His essence. We say: Rather, He is above by His essence. And if they had not forced us to this saying, we would not have said it. We would have limited ourselves to reading the Qur'an and the Hadith and would not have added a single letter. But what do we say when this transgression occurs against the Shari'ah and against the Creator, Mighty and Majestic? We say “by His essence” out of necessity, just as we said “He rose above the Throne.” Some of the Salaf said “by His essence,” and some of them denied this, saying, “Why do you say ‘by His essence’?” I say: I did not say “by His essence” out of excessiveness; I said “by His essence” in response to those who say that the rising is a conceptual rising, not an essential one, and that its meaning is dominion, subjugation, and control. Regarding the descent to the lowest heaven, some scholars said He descends by His essence, and others said this is excessiveness, asking, “Why do you say ‘by His essence’? The Messenger did not say He descends by His essence.” We said: Yes, the Messenger (may Allah's prayers and peace be upon him) did not say He descends by His essence, because he was addressing people who understand that when an action is attributed to the doer, it is attributed to the essence of the doer. So when the Messenger of Allah (peace and blessings be upon him) said to the Companions: what did they understand? They understood that Allah is the one who descends. So he did not need to say “by His essence.” But when people came to us saying that His descent is conceptual and not essential, or that His descent relates to other than Himself and not to His essence, we were forced to say “by His essence” to refute this unjust saying, and not out of stubbornness. And the wise poet said: “Wear the garment suitable for each situation” We address every person with what he knows. The important thing now is that it has become clear, may Allah bless you, that Allah the Exalted is All-Knowing by His essence and His attributes, over all creation. The proofs are many, and we have mentioned their summary to you, and that they are divided into five types, not five individual instances: the Qur'an, the Sunnah, consensus, reason, and fitrah.
Then he argued with His saying: “The Most High” is a descriptive attribute, and a descriptive attribute indicates permanence and continuity. So He is the Most High with a necessary, essential elevation. For this reason, His elevation over all creation is among His essential, necessary attributes. Even if we say that He descends to the lowest heaven, that does not contradict His elevation, because Allah is not like anything in all His attributes. Meaning, He is the Possessor of the Magnificence that is not greater than it. So there is nothing greater than Him in His dominion, His kingdom, His subjugation, and the like. And His saying: The prevailing one: Is it conceptual superiority or essential superiority?
The student: Both.

The Shaykh : Both, conceptual and essential. The Possessor of the Judgment and the Wisdom. Did we explain that to you before?
The student: ...

The Shaykh : Yes. Okay. The Possessor of the Judgment and the Wisdom. As for our saying “The Possessor of the Judgment,” it means that Allah has the judgment, as He the Exalted said: And what judgment? Allah's judgment. Allah's judgment is of two types: cosmic and legislative. An example of the cosmic is the saying of Allah, Blessed and Exalted is He, about the brother of Yusuf: Here is a cosmic judgment, meaning He decrees it for him. And as for the legislative judgment, an example is His saying in Surat al-Mumtahanah: Meaning His legislative judgment. Is it legislative or cosmic?
The student: Cosmic and legislative.

The Shaykh : Cosmic and legislative. Legislative in any case. The judgment is cosmic and legislative. Wisdom is in the cosmos, in the cosmic judgment, and it is in the legislative judgment. There is no judgment that Allah judges with that is not exactly in accordance with wisdom, whether this judgment is cosmic or legislative.
So what is wisdom? Wisdom is placing a thing in its place such that the mind does not say, “I wish it had not been placed here.” This is wisdom: placing a thing in its appropriate place such that the mind does not say, “I wish it had not been placed in it.”
Then know that wisdom is of two types. One type is the wisdom of a thing being in this form, and the second type is the purpose of this thing. The first is the thing being in this form, and the second is its purpose. Its purpose... are you with us?
The student: Yes.

The Shaykh : So, the fact that a thing is in this form, meaning the shape of the thing, why is it that the human being stands on his feet with his head above, while the animals are the opposite? Why is the night dark and the day bright, and so on? Why is it in exact accordance with wisdom? And what is its purpose? What is the purpose? What is the fruit of that? What is the fruit of that?
And I give the example of prayer. The fact that prayer is in this form—standing, then bowing, then prostrating—this is wisdom. The human being first stands upright, then is between sitting and standing in the bowing, then prostrates. And why is it cut off on an odd number? Because Allah the Exalted is odd. What is the purpose of this prayer? The expiation of sins. So, wisdom has connections. The first connection is the fact that the thing is in this form, and the second
The student: Its purpose.

The Shaykh : Its purpose. Look at the rain. The rain now waters the earth, it waters the earth. The fact that it comes from above and that it comes as a fine spray is undoubtedly wisdom. If it came walking on the ground, the tops of the mountains would not benefit from it, would they? And if it were poured down like the mouths of water skins, the buildings would collapse and people would be harmed. But it came as a fine spray and from above in order to cover what? The entire earth. And it came as a fine spray so that it would not cause harm. Then what is the purpose of sending down the rain?
The student: Drinking.

The Shaykh : The purpose is great. What is it? Growth, only? Drinking? The growth of the earth and drinking, and the removal of dust, among other great benefits. So now is derived from two things.
The student: From the rulings.

The Shaykh : From the rulings. And wisdom and ruling are either cosmic or legislative. And wisdom is either in the purpose or in the form. In the purpose, its fruits. In the form, the fact that the thing is in this form. This is the meaning of the Wise.
And His saying, the Exalted: means the All-Knowing. But the All-Aware is more specific than the All-Knowing because it relates to the inner realities and secrets of things, so it is more specific than knowledge. And Allah knows best.