[The Meaning of: ‘Allah is a Thing Unlike Things’]

Answer: Allah is a “thing,” except that He has no need of a place, because He is not like other things that need a place.
Furthermore, one does not ask about Allah with “What is He?” nor “Where is He?” nor “In what place is He?”; He, exalted is He, is only known by His acts – “There is nothing like unto Him.”
The word “thing” (shayʾ) can correctly be applied to:
1. Bodies and accidents; each of them is called a “thing.”
2. That which is impossible may be called a “thing.” For example, you say: “The existence and non-existence of a human being at one and the same time is an impossible thing”; and “A human being sitting in two places at one and the same time is an impossible thing.”
3. Fasting is a thing which Allah has made obligatory, and the days and nights of your past life are things that have gone; each day of them and each night is a thing that has gone, whose return is impossible. Thus fasting and the days and nights that have passed are known “things” that have no place.
4. And Allah, blessed and exalted, is a “thing” different from all things: “There is nothing like unto Him.” [al-Shura:11]

Source: Min Thimār al-ʿIlm wa al-Ḥikmah vol.3