It has reached us - and Allaah knows best - regarding His, the Most High's saying, "He is al-Awwal and al-Aakhir...", that He is the first, before every thing and He is the Last, after everything, and adh-Dhaahir, above everything, and al-Baatin, closest to everything, and his closeness (qurb) is with His knowledge and He (Himself) is above the Throne.

And the intent here is that His uluww (aboveness, elevation) is from the attributes of praise that are binding for Him. It is not permissible for Him to be described with the opposite of uluww, ever. And for this reason, the Prophet (sallallaahu alayhi wasallam) said in the authentic hadeeth:

You are the first (al-Awwal) there is nothing before You, and you are the last (al-Aakhir) there is nothing after You, and You are the Most High, (adh-Dhaahir) there is nothing above you, and you are the Nearest (al-Baatin) there is nothing nearer than You.

And he did not say, "below you (tahtaka)" and we have spoken about this hadeeth in other than this place.

And when it is like that, then those who opposed the Book and the Sunnah and what the Salaf were upon, they do not make Him (as one) described with uluww (aboveness, highness) exclusive to sufool (lowness). Rather, they either describe Him with both aboveness and lowness, or (with words) that necessitate that, or they negate both highness and lowness from him, and they are of two types.

For the Jahmiyyah [who] say that He (Allaah) is in every place with His Essence, or that He is neither within the universe, nor outside of it, [then] they do not describe Him with "highness" exclusive of "lowness". For if He was in a location [according to the view of the Jahmites], then amongst the locations are those which are elevated and those which are low, thus, He would be [upon the belief of the Jahmites] high in the high (location) and low in the low (location). Rather, when they said, "He is in every place", then they have made all the locations to be places that He occupies, and as containers and receptacles, and they made them, in reality, to be higher than Him (i.e. above Him). For a place contains that which is inside (it), and the vessel and container (both) contain that which is surrounded (by them), and the container is above what is contained (by it).

And the Salaf, the leading Scholars and all of the Scholars of the Sunnah, when they say, "He is above the Throne", and "He is above the heaven, above everything", they do not say that there is something that contains Him or surrounds Him, or that it is a place, or container, or receptacle for Him, Sublime and Exalted is He from that, rather He is above everything, and He is free from need of everything, and everything is needy of Him, and He is above everything, and He is the carrier of the Throne and its carriers with His power and ability, and every created thing is in need of Him, and He is free of need of the Throne and from every created thing.