Where Is Allah ?

Allaah, the Exalted, has described Himself in His Book, and by the tongue of His Messenger
sallallaahu 'alayhi wa sallam as Sublime, Supreme, and Lofty. The Qur'aan is full of proofs relevant
to the Loftiness of Allaah.

Ahlus-Sunnah wal-Jama'ah believe in and confirm all of the attributes of Allaah without distorting
their meaning, and that Allaah is above His seven heavens, above His 'Arsh, and separated from His
creatures, and His creatures are separated from Him.

This discourse will provide the Scriptural proofs of the Loftiness of Allaah is an indivisible part of
the inherent faculty of knowing Allaah with which Allaah has created mankind. Although the
aqeedah of Loftiness of Allaah is part of man's innate knowledge and cannot be subjected to
hypothetical of philosophical argumentation, there are some deviated sects who follow their whims
and deny this intuitive and self-evident fact. For this reason, they have twisted Scriptural proofs and
distorted them, and manipulated the texts to conform with their deviant argument.

All of the divine attributes are intrinsically related to the attribute of divine Loftiness. Therefore,
accepting or rejecting them must be based on accepting or rejecting the Loftiness of Allaah.
Whoever believes that Allaah is above His 'Arsh [The Throne of Allaah] and separated from His
creatures, also believes in the rest of the attributes of Allaah, and believes as well that the heaves
and the earth submit to His will, and that He is the Great Rubb of the worlds. Allaah does whatever
He wills and rules according to His Own wishes. Glory be to Him.

Denial of the divine Loftiness is one of the basic doctrinal heresy promoted by the Jahmites
[Jahmites are the followers of Jahm bin Safan (d. 128-745), a radical heretic. Among other things,
they deny that Allaah, the Exalted, is above His Arsh, and they allege that He is everywhere] and
their off-shoots of today in order to confuse the Muslims' minds. Denying this divine attribute also
leads by necessity to the denial of the attribute of the istiwaa of Allaah above His Arsh. There is no
doubt that the denial of the attributes of Allaah clashes with the clear Qur'aanic verses in which the
unique essential attributes and beautiful names of Allaah confirmed. These attributes must be
affirmed as identical with Allaah.

The essential divine attributes of Allaah constitute an integral part of His essence and are not
superadded to it. They are accepted literally by Ahlus-Sunnah wal-Jama'h without questioning the
'how' of these attributes. To deny them is clear unbelief and heresy. It is for this reason this
discourse has been prepared to deal with the creed of Loftiness of Allaah, or the question, 'Where is
Allaah?' with the Scriptural evidences from the Qur'aan and the authentic prophetic traditions, as
well as the traditions of those earlyMuslims, the pious predecessors.