18. `Ali ibn Ahmad ibn Muhammad ibn `Imran al-Daqqaq said: Muhammad ibn Abu `Abd Allah al-Kufi said: Muhammad ibn Isma`il al-Barmaki said, on the authority of `Ali ibn al`Abbas, on the authority of al-Hasan ibn Rashid, on the authority of Ya`qub ibn Ja`far al-Ja`fari that Abu Ibrahim Musa ibn Ja`far said:

A group of people were mentioned before him who claimed that Allah, the Blessed and Exalted, comes down to the Heaven of this world. He therefore replied, Verily, Allah, the Blessed and Exalted, does not come down, and does not need to come down. Verily, for Him both Close and Far are alike. What is close is not far from Him, and what is far is not close to Him. He is never in need, but everything is in need of Him. He is the Almighty. There is no god but He, the Honorable, the All-Wise. As for the statement of the attributers: “Verily, He, the Blessed and Exalted, comes down,” the only ones who say such a thing are those who describe Him in terms of decrease and increase. Every moving thing requires something that moves it or by which it is moved. Thus, they assumed with Allah assumptions; hence, they were destroyed. So beware of limiting Him or seeing boundaries for Him such as decrease and increase, motion and decline, or rising and sitting. For, verily, Allah is loftier than the attribute of the attributers, the description of the describers, and the imagination of the imaginers! Rely on the Honorable, the Most Merciful, who sees you when you stand, when you bend, and when you prostrate.