Ar Razi’s Argument

Ar Razi’s chapter is built on 1 main claim. Allah is not confined to a space or direction in any sense that would make it valid to point to Him with sensory indication and say, “He is here,” or, “He is there.”

Some of his arguments lean on what he had already said earlier about denying that Allah is a body. But most of this chapter is directed more broadly. Its purpose is to cut off the whole meaning of Allah being above the Throne, above the heavens, or above the universe.

From that basis, the chapter leads to several connected claims. Allah is not upon the Throne. He is not above the heavens. The Messenger ﷺ was not taken up to Him. Nothing ascends to Him. Nothing descends from Him. Eyes, heads, and hands are not raised to Him in supplication. Hearts do not turn upward seeking Him in du’a, worship, or anything else.

So the issue is not only a technical discussion about direction. It becomes a full denial of there being a Lord above the universe.

What This Claim Leads To

The reply begins by bringing out the necessary result of this doctrine. If Allah is not above the Throne, not above the heavens, and not above the universe, then what is above the universe is nothing but absolute nonexistence and complete negation.

The top of creation and the bottom of creation become equal in this respect. What is above the Throne is no different from what is beneath the seventh earth. In both cases, there is, according to this doctrine, no Lord there.

This is why the response treats the issue as something much greater than a dispute over wording. It is not merely a refinement in expression. It empties the upper direction of the Lord altogether.

The Contradiction That Follows

Once this door is opened, people do not remain on 1 position. Some stay with pure negation and say there is nothing above the universe. Others cannot remain with that, because hearts do not seek sheer nonexistence. So they begin to say that Allah is in every place, or in every being, or that His essence is in every place, or even that His existence is the existence of all things.

The response says that these are the sayings of the Jahmiyyah in their different forms. Some of their speculative theologians lean more to total negation. Some of their worshippers and followers drift toward saying Allah is everywhere, because worship cannot really be directed to what has been emptied of all real existence in the mind.

Why Pure Negation Does Not Hold

Many of them do not stay with bare denial. Hearts naturally turn toward something that exists. The soul does not truly intend absolute nonexistence. So when people are taught a doctrine that strips away the Lord above the creation, many of them end up filling that emptiness by saying that He is in every place, or in every being, or that He is existence itself.

That is why the response says that the common people are often more ready to accept doctrines of indwelling or union than doctrines of pure negation. To worship everything is still, in their minds, closer to worshipping something than to leaving the heart with nothing to seek at all.

The 2 Corrupt Outcomes

The section then separates the 2 outcomes.

One outcome is open shirk. This is the path of those who spread the Lord through creation, or merge Him with it, or make Him the reality of all things.

The other outcome is proud denial. This is the path of those whose hearts become dominated by negation, dryness, and refusal.

The response says that both are against Islam. The first destroys tawhid by association. The second destroys it by refusing worship and emptying the heart of its Lord.

The Qur’an Answer

At this point the reply does not treat the matter as a narrow kalam dispute. It returns the whole issue to the religion of all the prophets. Islam is to worship Allah alone without partner. Whoever worships Allah and another besides Him has fallen into shirk. Whoever refuses to worship Allah has fallen into denial and disbelief.

Then a long chain of Qur’an verses is brought to show that this has always been the religion of the messengers. Nuh عليه السلام, Ibrahim عليه السلام, Isma’il عليه السلام, Ishaq عليه السلام, Ya’qub عليه السلام, Yusuf عليه السلام, Musa عليه السلام, Sulayman عليه السلام, and those who truly followed revelation were all upon Islam, meaning submission to Allah alone. The point of gathering these verses is clear. The religion of Allah has always been to turn the face, the heart, and the worship to Him alone. That religion is not built on empty negation, and it is not built on union with creation.

What Is Being Exposed In Ar Razi’s Principle

The reply is exposing what lies inside Ar Razi’s principle once it is carried to its end. If Allah cannot be sought above the universe, cannot be intended there, cannot be pointed to there in any sense, cannot be ascended to, and nothing can descend from Him, then the upper direction has been stripped of the Lord. Once that happens, people are forced into 1 of 2 errors. Either they worship a Lord dissolved into creation, or they end up with a doctrine closer to nonexistence than real affirmation.

So the chapter is being answered by showing that its conclusion is not harmless transcendence. It is a path that leads either to shirk or to total denial.

The Difference Between The 2 Deviations

The people of shirk and the people of negation do not look the same, even though both are astray.

Those who worship creation alongside Allah commit open association.

Those who are dominated by denial tend more toward arrogance and hardness of heart.

Both qualities oppose Islam. But the response says that the people of pure negation often resemble the arrogant rejecters more strongly, because their way is built on refusing what is due to Allah and stripping away what the heart naturally knows and seeks.

The Parallel With The People Of The Book

From here the reply moves to a broader pattern. The Qur’an describes the Jews as especially marked by arrogance and hardness of heart. The section says that corrupted scholars and theologians often resemble them in this. They know much, but then refuse to follow what they know. So the resemblance is not accidental.

Among the Jahmi theologians, especially the Mu’tazilah and those like them, there is a strong likeness to this pattern. Some of the Jewish rabbis even adopted principles close to the 5 principles of the Mu’tazilah, including denial of attributes, denial of qadar, and reinterpretation of their revealed texts.

The Core Of The Refutation

Ar Razi’s claim is that Allah is not confined to a space or direction in any sense that would allow sensory indication toward Him. The reply answers by showing what this actually does. It removes Allah from above the Throne, above the heavens, and above the universe. It makes the highest part of creation no different from the lowest in relation to the Lord. It leaves above the Throne nothing but negation.

Then the response shows that people cannot remain with that. So they split. Some fall into saying Allah is everywhere or in everything. Others remain on pure denial.

One side falls into open shirk. The other falls into arrogant negation. The Qur’an is then brought to show that the religion of all the prophets is Islam, meaning submission to Allah alone, turning the face to Him alone, and worshipping Him alone. That path leaves no room either for dissolving Him into creation or for emptying the heart of Him altogether.

So the answer to Ar Razi here is not only that his claim is false. It is that the claim destroys the meaning of the Lord above the creation, and once that happens, the outcome is always 1 of 2 corrupt paths, either association or denial.

Ar Razi then said in Ta’sis al Taqdis, Chapter Four, in which he presents arguments that Allah is not confined to a space or direction in the sense that it would be valid to point to Him with sensory perception, such as saying, “He is here or there.” He mentioned 8 arguments for this, though some of them are built on what he had already said earlier about denying that He is a body, since he had concluded that this denial leads to denying that He is above the Throne. But most of the arguments are not built on that.

This chapter includes the claim that He is not upon the Throne, nor above the heavens, and that the Messenger ﷺ was not taken up to Him, and that nothing ascends to Him, and that nothing descends from Him, and that eyes, heads, or hands are not raised to Him in supplication. Rather, hearts do not turn upward with the intention of seeking Him at all, neither in supplication, nor in worship, nor in anything else.

It includes the claim that above the universe there is no Lord and no God, and that above it there is nothing but absolute nonexistence and total negation. That what is above the Throne and what is beneath the 7th earth are equal in that regard. Just as He is not inside the earth, He is not above the Throne either. In fact, some of them say that He is in every place, or in every being, either meaning that His management is within them, or that His essence is in every place, or that His essence is every being. (As mentioned in: Maqalat al Islamiyyin by Abu al Hasan al Ashari p. 212, al Ibanah by Abu al Hasan al Ashari pp. 48 to 52, al Radd ala al Zanadiqah wa al Jahmiyyah by Imam Ahmad pp. 104 to 109, 135 to 149, and al Radd ala al Jahmiyyah by al Darimi p. 17.)

And as for what is above the Throne, they say that there is nothing there, because according to them, He is not there. And there is no other created thing above the universe for them to claim that He is there either by way of management, or by His essence, or that His existence is that existence. These are the doctrines of the Jahmiyyah, both their speculative theologians and their devout followers.

Yet there is a group who say that He is above the Throne in His essence and also in every place. This is as mentioned by Abu Hasan al Ashari in al Maqalat in relation to Zuhayr al Athari and Abu Muadh al Tumani.

(Zuhayr al Athari used to say that Allah, the Exalted, is in every place and at the same time established over the Throne, and that He is seen with the eyes without how, and that His essence is present in every place. He said He is not a body, nor confined, and that it is not valid to describe Him as joining or touching. He said the Quran is the speech of Allah, originated but not created, and that it exists in multiple places at once. He affirmed the doctrine of exception, istithna, like the Murji’ah who do so. On the matter of qadar he followed the Mu’tazilah, and he claimed that the rebellious sinners among the People of the Qiblah are believers with their faith, but sinful for their major sins, and that their matter is left to Allah. See al Maqalat by al Ashari p. 299.)

(Abu Muadh al Tumani was one of the leaders of the Murji’ah and the head of the Tumaniyyah group to whom the sect is attributed. He agreed with Zuhayr in most views but disagreed with him regarding the Quran. He said the speech of Allah is originated but not created and that it exists in Allah and not in a place. He claimed that faith is what protects from disbelief and is the name for the set of traits, and that leaving any of them, even one, is disbelief.

The total of those traits is faith, but an individual 1 is not called faith nor a part of faith. He said that any obligation not unanimously deemed disbelief to leave is part of the legislation of faith but not itself faith, and that whoever leaves such an obligation is to be described as having done a sinful act, but not as a sinner in absolute terms unless he denies it. He said that whoever slaps or kills a prophet is a disbeliever, not because of the act itself, but because of the hatred, enmity, and disdain shown for the prophet’s right. See al Maqalat by al Ashari pp. 139 to 140, 300, al Farq bayn al Firaq by al Baghdadi pp. 203 to 204, al Milal wa al Nihal by al Shahrastani 1/191 to 192, and al Firaq al Islamiyyah by al Kirmani pp. 84 to 85.)

And their associates said that they believe Allah is in every place and that He is nevertheless established over His Throne, and that He is seen with the eyes without how, and that His essence is present in every place, and that He is not a body, nor limited, and that it is not valid to attribute joining or contact to Him.

They claim that He will come on the Day of Judgement, as He said: “And your Lord will come” (al Fajr: 22).

This, among those who deny that He is a body, resembles the saying of some who affirm corporeality, namely those who say He has no limit. The mutakallimun, the theologians, of the Jahmiyyah lean more toward absolute negation, for sometimes the discussion ends up describing existence with attributes of nonexistence and comparing it to such.

As for their worshippers, they do intend and seek the One they worship, and intention cannot be directed to absolute nonexistence. That is why many of them end up saying He is in every place, or that He is existence itself.

And among the common people, they are closer to this position, because hearts naturally seek to worship something that exists. The children of Adam have associated others with Allah by worshipping many of His created beings. So when they are told something that leads to worshipping everything, like what the people of ittihadiyyah say, they are not as repelled by that as they would be by having their hearts emptied of worship entirely.

These people commit open shirk, while the others, those who follow pure denial, have hearts more dominated by denial. That is why among them there is greater arrogance and hardness of heart than in the former group. But both arrogance and association go against Islam, the religion with which Allah sent His messengers and revealed His books.

For Islam means to worship Allah alone without partner. So whoever worships Allah and another besides Him has committed shirk, just like the polytheists of the Arabs and others. And whoever refuses to worship Allah, like Pharaoh and the like, has denied Him, and is more of a disbeliever than the polytheists, even if he had gods that he worshipped.

And because Islam is the universal religion of Allah which the first and last among the believing servants of Allah all agreed upon.

As Nuh عليه السلام said: “But if you turn away, then I have not asked you for any reward. My reward is only upon Allah, and I have been commanded to be among the Muslims” (Yunus: 72).

And it is said about Ibrahim عليه السلام: “When his Lord said to him: Submit, he said: I submit to the Lord of the worlds” (al Baqarah: 131).

And: “Ibrahim was neither a Jew nor a Christian, but he was upright and a Muslim, and he was not among the polytheists” (Al Imran: 67).

And: “Say: Indeed, my Lord has guided me to a straight path, an upright religion, the way of Ibrahim, upright, and he was not among the polytheists” (al Anam: 161).

And: “Ibrahim enjoined his sons with it, and so did Yaqub: O my sons, Allah has chosen for you the religion, so do not die except as Muslims” (al Baqarah: 132).

And Yusuf عليه السلام said: “Cause me to die a Muslim, and join me with the righteous” (Yusuf: 101).

Just as he said: “Indeed, I have left the religion of people who do not believe in Allah, and they are disbelievers in the Hereafter. And I have followed the religion of my forefathers, Ibrahim, Ishaq, and Yaqub. It is not for us to associate anything with Allah.

That is from the bounty of Allah upon us and upon the people, but most people do not give thanks. O my companions of the prison: Are separate lords better, or Allah, the One, the Overwhelming? You do not worship besides Him but names which you have named, you and your fathers. Allah has sent down no authority for them. Judgement belongs only to Allah. He has commanded that you worship none but Him. That is the upright religion, but most people do not know” (Yusuf: 37 to 40).

And Musa عليه السلام said: “O my people, if you have believed in Allah, then rely upon Him, if you are Muslims” (Yunus: 84).

And He said: “Indeed, We sent down the Torah, in it was guidance and light. The prophets who had submitted judged by it for the Jews” (al Maidah: 44).

And Bilqis said: “My Lord, indeed I have wronged myself, and I submit with Sulayman to Allah, Lord of the worlds” (al Naml: 44). (Bilqis was the daughter of al Hadhad ibn Sharhabil, from the lineage of Ya‘fur ibn Sakkak from Himyar. She was the queen of Saba from the people of Ma’rib.

She is referred to in the Quran, though not named. She succeeded her father in rule in Ma’rib. After she killed Dhu al Adh‘ar, she took control of the entire region of Yemen, marched with her armies into Babylon and Persia, subdued the people, and returned to Yemen. She made Saba her capital. The prophet king Sulayman son of Dawud appeared and the people of Yemen accepted his call to Allah, for they had been worshipping the sun. Sulayman married Bilqis, and she remained with him for 7 years and some months. She died and was buried in Tadmor.)

And He said: “And who is better in religion than one who submits his face to Allah while doing good?” (al Nisa: 125).

And He said: “They say none will enter Paradise except those who are Jews or Christians. That is their wishful thinking. Say: Bring your proof if you are truthful. Yes, whoever submits his face to Allah while doing good, his reward is with his Lord, and no fear shall be upon them, nor shall they grieve” (al Baqarah: 111 to 112).

This is general for the first and the last.

As He said: “Do they seek other than the religion of Allah, while to Him has submitted all that is in the heavens and the earth, willingly or unwillingly, and to Him they will be returned? Say: We believe in Allah, and what was sent down to us, and what was sent down to Ibrahim, Ismail, Ishaq, Yaqub, and the Tribes, and what was given to Musa and Isa and the prophets from their Lord. We make no distinction between any of them, and we are Muslims to Him. And whoever seeks a religion other than Islam, it will never be accepted from him, and in the Hereafter he will be among the losers” (Al Imran: 83 to 85).

And He said: “Allah bears witness that there is no god but Him, and so do the angels and those of knowledge, maintaining justice. There is no god but Him, the Mighty, the Wise. Indeed, the religion with Allah is Islam” (Al Imran: 18 to 19).

Then He said: “And those who were given the Book did not differ except after knowledge had come to them, out of envy among themselves. And whoever disbelieves in the signs of Allah, then Allah is swift in reckoning. So if they argue with you, say: I have submitted my face to Allah, and so have those who follow me. And say to those who were given the Book and the unlettered ones: Have you submitted? If they submit, then they are guided. But if they turn away, then your duty is only to convey, and Allah is seeing of the servants” (Al Imran: 19 to 20).

His saying: “Indeed, the religion with Allah is Islam, and those who were given the Book did not differ except after knowledge had come to them, out of envy among themselves” (Al Imran: 19) shows that they differed over the religion of Allah, which is Islam, after knowledge had come to them, and it was envy that led them to dispute.

Just as He said: “He has legislated for you in religion what He enjoined upon Nuh, and what We revealed to you, and what We enjoined upon Ibrahim, Musa, and Isa: that you establish the religion and not divide within it. What you call them to is hard upon the polytheists.

Allah chooses for Himself whom He wills and guides to Himself whoever turns to Him. And they did not divide except after knowledge had come to them, out of envy among themselves. And were it not for a word that had already preceded from your Lord for a set term, it would have been decided between them.

And those who were made to inherit the Book after them are surely in grave doubt about it. So to that call, and remain upright as you were commanded, and do not follow their desires, and say: I believe in what Allah has sent down of Book, and I was commanded to be just between you.

Allah is our Lord and your Lord. For us are our deeds, and for you are your deeds. There is no argument between us and you. Allah will gather us together, and to Him is the return” (al Shura: 13 to 15).

The disagreement of the People of the Book over the religion of Allah, which is Islam, has been addressed in other places.

Among the signs of this is that the Jews are more prone to arrogance and hardness of heart. They know the truth and do not follow it. This is how Allah described them in the Quran. And whoever among the scholars and theologians has become corrupt bears resemblance to them.

That is why among the Jahmi theologians from the Mu’tazilah and others, there is much resemblance. Even some of the Jewish rabbis affirmed the same 5 principles of the Mu’tazilah. Among them are those who deny qadar, the attributes, and reinterpret what is in the Torah, all of which show clear parallels with the Mu’tazilah.

Bayan Talbis Al Jahmiyyah (3/287-297)