Zamakhsharī Asked Ghazālī, and What the ʿArsh Can Mean

Zamakhsharī asked Ghazālī about this ayah. Ghazālī responded to him, saying: idhā staḥāla an taʿrifa nafsaka bi-kayfiyyatin aw ayniyyatin, fa-kayfa yalīqu bi-ʿubūdiyyatika an taṣifahu taʿālā bi-ayna aw kayfa, wa huwa muqaddasun ʿan dhālik. Then he gave a whole poem.

That is: if you are unable even to understand your own self, the intricate nature of your own self, then how can you ask about Allah (swt), and understand Him? How is it even possible for your servitude, at your level of servitude, even to ask about Allah (swt), so that you describe Him with an ayna or a kayfa? That is: where is He (ayna, where is He?), or kayfa, how is He?

And that is something that the Prophet (peace be upon him) also prohibits in a hadith, by saying: lā tafakkarū fī dhāti Allāh. Do not brood over, and ponder, and reflect over the essence of Allah; but think over His attributes, His signs, His bounties around you. That is what gives us a window to Allah; but not thinking of His essence, because it is too far beyond us.

So now, in this verse put forward to Imam Mālik, for instance, Allah says istawā. He says that the istiwāʾ is known, but its description is unknown, or not comprehensible. So to take this in detail: the word ʿarsh, or throne, is used in the Qur'an and in Arabic, and sometimes it means the elevated seat that is encircled by the angels, like the ʿArsh. What is the ʿArsh? ʿArsh means the special throne that is encircled by angels. This is obviously the apparent understanding of the Sharīʿah.

But this word can also be used in Arabic, in accepted Arabic conversation, as dominion, mulk. As the poet says: when the throne, or the ʿurūsh, of the sons of Marwān were diminished, meaning that their power and dominion diminished, even though they did not have any physical thrones.