Is Allah Confined to a Place?

 

 

         It is proven in the Quran and Sunnah and by the consensus of the Salaf that Allah is above His Heavens over His Throne as befits His Majesty. He is above all things, and there is nothing that is above Him. God says in the Quran: 

 

“Allah, it is He Who has created the heavens and the earth, and all that is between them in six days. Then He rose over (istawa) the Throne (in a manner that suits His Majesty). You (mankind) have none, besides Him, as a Wali (protector or helper) or an intercessor. Will you not then remember (or receive admonition)?” (Q. 32:4) 

 

“Surely, your Lord is Allah Who created the heavens and the earth in six days and then rose over (istawa) the Throne (in a manner that suits His Majesty), disposing the affair of all things.” (Q. 10:3)

 

“He is the First (nothing is before Him) and the Last (nothing is after Him), the Most High (nothing is above Him) and the Most Near (nothing is nearer than Him).” (Q. 57:3)

 

The Prophet ﷺ said: “You are the Most High and there is nothing above You…” Sunan Ibn Majah 3831

 

This is the view of Ahl al-Sunnah wa’l-Jama’ah who affirm that Allah is above His creation and that He is also with the believers as the text must be read in its plain meaning while still denying the likeness to creatures. Most of the exegetists said that what is meant is that He is near by means of His angels whose task it is to record people’s deeds. Furthermore, those who said that it means that He is near explained it as meaning that He is nearby through His knowledge and His love of us and not physical closeness. It is not that God is ontologically everywhere or that He is confined to one place. Nor is it the case that Allah being above His Throne is metaphorical or non-literal that He is above it in power or ownership even though God does own it as with everything else as a non-literalist reading strips God of His attribute of ascending over the Throne. One needs to understand the ascending over the Throne in the proper context without likening God to His creation. The meaning is clear but the modality or “how-ness” is known only to Allah. God ascending or descending does not necessarily entail that He enters creation or is in creation or is confined to a physical place. There was a time before creation where Allah was alone and when He created creation the Throne is the highest part of it. God is not in a place because there is no universe or place after the Throne, Allah having ascended over it. The meaning of God’s attributes must be understood through analogical predication which is described in my blog post, “Overview of Athari Metaphysics”.

No one disputes the Earth is below the sky no matter where on Earth they happen to be. If one is living in the North, South, East, or West, the sky is above. No one says the sky in the East is below the West or vice versa. The sky being above is a fixed direction above the spherical Earth. No matter where one is situated, God is above them. Does God surround the Earth like the sky surrounds it?

           

“It must be known that the upper and lower world relative to the Creator—Exalted is He—is extremely small… ‘The whole Earth will be in His grip on the Day of Resurrection, and the Heavens will be rolled up in His right Hand’ (Q. 39:67)…God—Exalted is He—surrounds all created things in a manner that befits His majesty. For the seven Heavens and the Earth in His hand is smaller than a chick pea in the hand of one of us” (Ibn Taymiyya. Majmū ‘ al-fatāwā, 6:559-60).

 

It is clear that it should not be difficult to imagine Allah lying in the direction above from any point on a spherical Earth folded in the palm of His hand.

         According to Jon Hoover’s interpretation of Ibn Taymiyya, there is no direction, space, or existent thing above creation except God and thus He does not direct Himself toward or away from anything else above. There is no existent space above creation outside God that God could be said to occupy. Space does not exist separately from spatially extended objects. Space refers to the boundaries and sides of an object inside of which the object is found and which cannot exist independently of the object itself. Without the object, there is no space. Spatially extended objects do not need the space they occupy, rather special extension subsists in the object and depends upon the object. Space is not a thing in itself but the space that God is in subsists in His essence. It is not illogical for Allah to be above His Throne but it is illogical for God to enter His creation. In other words, God is beyond the created world and there is nothing above creation except for Him. God’s relationship with what is above creation is not directional in the way we understand physical direction. There is no existence of any space outside of God above creation. The space in which God is present is not an independent entity but is part of God’s essence. I believe it was Al Razi who was contrary to Ibn Taymiyya on most of these points, so there is room for interpretation (but Ibn Taymiyya is correct). All good is from Allah, and all the mistakes in this blog are mine.