وَالْمَلَكُ عَلَىٰ أَرْجَائِهَا ۚ وَيَحْمِلُ عَرْشَ رَبِّكَ فَوْقَهُمْ يَوْمَئِذٍ ثَمَانِيَةٌ (17)
(69:17) and the angels will stand on the sides, with eight of them bearing aloft the Throne *11 of your Lord on that Day.
*11) This is au ambiguous verse the meaning of which is difficult to determine We can neither know what the Throne is nor can understand what will be the nature of the eight angels upholding it on the Day of Resurrection. It is, however. inconceivable that Allah Almighty would be sitting on the Throne and the eight angels would be upholding it along with Him The verse also does not say that Allah at that time would be sitting on the Throne. Besides, the conception of God that the Qur'an gives also prevents one from imagining that the Being Who is free from physical existence as to body, direction and place, should be residing some where and His creatures should sustain Him. Therefore, pursuing any research to determine its meaning would be tantamount to disbelief. However, one should understand that in order to give an idea of AIIah Almighty's rule and sovereignty, and of the matters associated with it, the same scene has been depicted by the Qur'an as of worldly kingship and the same terms have been used for it as are common for kingship and its accompaniments, to enable us to understand matters pertaining to sovereignty of the universe to some extent only by means of this very scene and terms. All this is meant to bring the real Truth within human understanding; it is not, therefore, right to take it literally.