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evelation 161(God) most gracious is firmly established on the throne (of authority)[ al-#arsh]. (•§-H§" 20:5)Say: If there had been (other) gods with Him, as they say, behold,they would certainly have sought out a way to the Lord of thethrone [ al-#arsh]! ( Al-Isr§" 17:42)In verse 7 of Sårat Håd it is said that ‘His throne was over thewaters’. This does not imply that a chair was literally placed overthe oceans. It rather means that before this universe was created withall its planets, galaxies, and stars, the world consisted of just hydrogen,water particles, and Allah’s command ruled ‘over the waters’.Then came the period, as verse 54 of Sårat Al-A#r§f says, when Godcreated the heavens and the earth, which became His ‘seat ofpower’:He draws the night as a veil over the day, each seeking the other inrapid succession. He created the sun, the moon, and the stars, (all)governed by laws under His command. Is it not His to create and togovern? Blessed be God, the cherisher and sustainer of the worlds!( Al-A#r§f 7:54)Finally, Allah’s authority will reign over a new world, the Afterlife,or rather: a new ‘becoming’ of this universe, transformed into a newexistence with new laws that will host Allah’s ‘seat of power’. On‘that day’, eight angels will bear the throne, this being a metaphorfor Allah as merciful God on the Day of Judgement (69:17; 20:5). Insum, the word al-#arsh is a generic term for the (metaphorical) placewhere Allah’s power resides. It is dependent on the material state ofthe universe but has by no means a concrete spatial connotation.This is also true for verse 42 of Sårat al-Isr§" which refers to the(only theoretical) possibility that other gods, if they were ‘with Him’,would have competed with one another to become the one whocommands over right and wrong, that is, to become the ‘Lord of thethrone’, Allah. It certainly does not mean a race by those gods to aspecific chair!Summary of TerminologyA. Transformation into perceptible revelation ( al-ja#l):a. al-qur"§nWe have made it [ ja#ln§hu] a qur"an in Arabic, that you may beable to understand (and learn wisdom). ( Al-Zukhruf 43:3)