Excerpt from the book: Allāh Kahān Hai?
By: Shaykh Ghulam Mustafa Zaheer Ameenpuri
Regarding the verse:
﴿ما يكون من نجوى ثلاثةٍ إلا هو رابعهم﴾
(“There is no private conversation among three except that He is the fourth of them.”)
— [al-Mujādilah: 7]
He commented:
هو على العرش، وعلمه معهم
“He is on the Throne, but His knowledge is with them.”
كنا والتابعون متوافرون نقول: إن الله تعالى ذكره فوق عرشه، ونؤمن بما وردت السنة به من صفاته جل وعلا
“We, and the Tabiʿīn in great numbers, used to say: Verily, Allah – the Exalted – is above His Throne, and we believe in all the attributes reported in the Sunnah.”
This narration was deemed authentic by:
Ibn Taymiyyah commented:
“Imām al-Awzāʿī said this after the emergence of Jahm (ibn Ṣafwān), who denied Allah being above His Throne and rejected His attributes – to make it known that the way of the Salaf is contrary to his.”
Ibn al-Qayyim added:
“This narration conveys the creed of Imām al-Awzāʿī and the Tabiʿīn.”
الله عز وجل في السماء، وعلمه في كل مكان، لا يخلوا من علمه مكان
“Allah – the Almighty – is above the heavens (i.e., upon the Throne), and His knowledge is in every place. No place is void of His knowledge.”
إنما يدورون على أن يقولوا: ليس في السماء إله يعني الجهمية
“The gist of the Jahmiyyah’s belief is that there is no God above the heavens.”
Narrated by the trustworthy ḥāfiẓ ʿAlī bin al-Ḥasan bin Shaqīq (d. 215 AH):
سألت عبد الله بن المبارك: كيف ينبغي لنا أن نعرف ربنا عز وجل؟ قال: على السماء السابعة على عرشه، بائن من خلقه، ولا نقول كما تقول الجهمية: إنه هاهنا في الأرض
“I asked Ibn al-Mubārak: How should we know our Lord? He said: Above the seventh heaven upon His Throne, distinct from His creation. We do not say, as the Jahmiyyah say, that He is here on the earth.”
al-Dhahabī said:
“This narration is authentic and firmly established.”
Ibn Taymiyyah said:
“This report was narrated with authentic chains by ʿAbd Allāh ibn Aḥmad and others.”
Ibn al-Qayyim noted:
“This narration is almost mutawātir (mass-transmitted) from him.”
أرادوا أن ينفوا أن يكون الرحمن على العرش استوى، وأرادوا أن ينفوا أن يكون القرآن كلام الله تعالى، أرى أن يستتابوا، فإن تابوا وإلا ضربت أعناقهم
“They (the Jahmiyyah) intend to negate that the Most Merciful has established Himself upon the Throne and to deny that the Qur’ān is the speech of Allah. Such people should be asked to repent; if they refuse, their necks should be struck.”
When asked, “Who are the Jahmiyyah?” he bowed his head in reflection, then said:
من توهم الرحمن على العرش استوى خلاف ما في قلوب العباد، فهو جهمي
“Whoever interprets ‘The Most Merciful rose over the Throne’ in a way contrary to what resides in the hearts of the people (i.e., His elevation), he is a Jahmī.”
Shādh ibn Yaḥyā is trustworthy. Imām Aḥmad said, “I know him,” and praised him.
al-Dhahabī described him as:
“A truthful Shaykh.”
“This is the creed of the Muslims, and this is the apparent meaning of the word ‘istawā’ for those Muslims who remain upon sound, unaltered natural disposition (fiṭrah) — those not deviated into taʿṭīl (negation) or tashbīh (likening Allah to creation). This is precisely what Yazīd ibn Hārūn – whose imamate, nobility, and virtue are unanimously agreed upon – intended. He was of the generation of Atbāʿ al-Tābiʿīn. He said: Whoever interprets ‘al-Raḥmān ʿala al-ʿArsh istawā’ in a way contrary to what is settled in people’s hearts is a Jahmī. What Allah planted in the fiṭrah of His creation is that their Lord is above the heavens.”
al-Dhahabī (d. 748 AH) clarified:
العامة، مراده بهم جمهور الأمة وأهل العلم
“By ‘common people’, Yazīd ibn Hārūn meant the majority of the Ummah and the scholars.”
He added:
“What he said is the truth. Had the meaning of ‘istiwā’ been different from what the sound-hearted and rightly guided fitrah affirms, the Companions and Tābiʿīn would have been obligated to explain it otherwise. Only a fool may imagine that Allah being ‘above’ means He is physically confined or encased by the Throne – such understanding is ignorance. I do not believe any of the common Muslims think or say this, let alone that Yazīd ibn Hārūn intended it.”
قال شيخ الإسلام:
“What is embedded in the hearts of the common folk is that which Allah has instilled in the fiṭrah — when in distress or need, they turn upwards to their Lord. They do not look left or right. This is not due to any external instruction, but simply the pure fitrah upon which every human is born. Every child is born upon this fiṭrah until someone turns him into a Jahmī or teaches him to deny it.”
✔ The scholars of the second Islamic century — from the Tābiʿīn and Atbāʿ al-Tābiʿīn — unanimously affirmed Allah’s elevation above His Throne.
✔ They rejected the false beliefs of the Jahmiyyah, who denied Allah’s attributes and His being above the Throne.
✔ Their statements are authentic, well-preserved, and represent the creed of the Salaf.
By: Shaykh Ghulam Mustafa Zaheer Ameenpuri
❖ Sayings of the Early Imāms from the Second Century AH
✿ Imām Muqātil bin Ḥayyān (d. before 150 AH)
Regarding the verse:
﴿ما يكون من نجوى ثلاثةٍ إلا هو رابعهم﴾
(“There is no private conversation among three except that He is the fourth of them.”)
— [al-Mujādilah: 7]
He commented:
هو على العرش، وعلمه معهم
“He is on the Throne, but His knowledge is with them.”
Reference: Tafsīr al-Ṭabarī: 12/28, al-Sharīʿah by al-Ājurri: 655 – chain authentic
✿ Shaykh al-Islām Imām al-Awzāʿī (d. 157 AH)
كنا والتابعون متوافرون نقول: إن الله تعالى ذكره فوق عرشه، ونؤمن بما وردت السنة به من صفاته جل وعلا
“We, and the Tabiʿīn in great numbers, used to say: Verily, Allah – the Exalted – is above His Throne, and we believe in all the attributes reported in the Sunnah.”
Reference: Asmāʾ wa al-Ṣifāt by al-Bayhaqī: 2/304, no. 865 – chain ḥasan
This narration was deemed authentic by:
- Ibn Taymiyyah — Majmūʿ al-Fatāwā: 5/39
- Ibn al-Qayyim — Ijtimāʿ al-Juyūsh al-Islāmiyyah: 131
- al-Dhahabī — Tadhkirat al-Ḥuffāẓ: 1/180
- Ibn Ḥajar — Fatḥ al-Bārī: 13/408 – chain graded "jayyid"
Ibn Taymiyyah commented:
“Imām al-Awzāʿī said this after the emergence of Jahm (ibn Ṣafwān), who denied Allah being above His Throne and rejected His attributes – to make it known that the way of the Salaf is contrary to his.”
Reference: Majmūʿ al-Fatāwā: 5/39
Ibn al-Qayyim added:
“This narration conveys the creed of Imām al-Awzāʿī and the Tabiʿīn.”
Reference: Ijtimāʿ al-Juyūsh al-Islāmiyyah: 135
✿ Imām Mālik bin Anas (d. 179 AH)
الله عز وجل في السماء، وعلمه في كل مكان، لا يخلوا من علمه مكان
“Allah – the Almighty – is above the heavens (i.e., upon the Throne), and His knowledge is in every place. No place is void of His knowledge.”
Reference: al-Sharīʿah by al-Ājurri: 3/1076–1077, nos. 652–653; Masāʾil al-Imām Aḥmad by Abū Dāwūd: 263; al-Tamhīd by Ibn ʿAbd al-Barr: 7/138 – chain authentic
✿ Imām Ḥammād bin Zayd (d. 179 AH)
إنما يدورون على أن يقولوا: ليس في السماء إله يعني الجهمية
“The gist of the Jahmiyyah’s belief is that there is no God above the heavens.”
Reference: al-ʿUlū lil-ʿAliyy al-Ghaffār by al-Dhahabī: 2/970 – chain authentic
✿ Imām ʿAbd Allāh ibn al-Mubārak (d. 181 AH)
Narrated by the trustworthy ḥāfiẓ ʿAlī bin al-Ḥasan bin Shaqīq (d. 215 AH):
سألت عبد الله بن المبارك: كيف ينبغي لنا أن نعرف ربنا عز وجل؟ قال: على السماء السابعة على عرشه، بائن من خلقه، ولا نقول كما تقول الجهمية: إنه هاهنا في الأرض
“I asked Ibn al-Mubārak: How should we know our Lord? He said: Above the seventh heaven upon His Throne, distinct from His creation. We do not say, as the Jahmiyyah say, that He is here on the earth.”
Reference: al-Sunnah by ʿAbd Allāh ibn Aḥmad: 1/111, 1/174–175, no. 216; al-Radd ʿalā al-Marīsī by al-Dārimī: 103; al-Radd ʿalā al-Jahmiyyah: 50; Asmāʾ wa al-Ṣifāt by al-Bayhaqī: 903 – chain authentic
al-Dhahabī said:
“This narration is authentic and firmly established.”
Reference: Kitāb al-ʿArsh: 2/240
Ibn Taymiyyah said:
“This report was narrated with authentic chains by ʿAbd Allāh ibn Aḥmad and others.”
Reference: Fatāwā al-Ḥamawiyyah: 91
Ibn al-Qayyim noted:
“This narration is almost mutawātir (mass-transmitted) from him.”
Reference: Ijtimāʿ al-Juyūsh al-Islāmiyyah: 213–214
✿ Imām ʿAbd al-Raḥmān ibn Mahdī al-ʿAnbarī (d. 198 AH)
أرادوا أن ينفوا أن يكون الرحمن على العرش استوى، وأرادوا أن ينفوا أن يكون القرآن كلام الله تعالى، أرى أن يستتابوا، فإن تابوا وإلا ضربت أعناقهم
“They (the Jahmiyyah) intend to negate that the Most Merciful has established Himself upon the Throne and to deny that the Qur’ān is the speech of Allah. Such people should be asked to repent; if they refuse, their necks should be struck.”
Reference: Asmāʾ wa al-Ṣifāt by al-Bayhaqī: 546 – chain ḥasan
✿ Imām Yazīd ibn Hārūn (d. 206 AH)
When asked, “Who are the Jahmiyyah?” he bowed his head in reflection, then said:
من توهم الرحمن على العرش استوى خلاف ما في قلوب العباد، فهو جهمي
“Whoever interprets ‘The Most Merciful rose over the Throne’ in a way contrary to what resides in the hearts of the people (i.e., His elevation), he is a Jahmī.”
Reference: Masāʾil al-Imām Aḥmad by Abū Dāwūd: 268; Khalq Afʿāl al-ʿIbād by al-Bukhārī: 11 – chain ḥasan
Shādh ibn Yaḥyā is trustworthy. Imām Aḥmad said, “I know him,” and praised him.
al-Dhahabī described him as:
“A truthful Shaykh.”
Reference: Siyar Aʿlām al-Nubalāʾ: 10/434
✿ Ibn Taymiyyah (d. 728 AH)
“This is the creed of the Muslims, and this is the apparent meaning of the word ‘istawā’ for those Muslims who remain upon sound, unaltered natural disposition (fiṭrah) — those not deviated into taʿṭīl (negation) or tashbīh (likening Allah to creation). This is precisely what Yazīd ibn Hārūn – whose imamate, nobility, and virtue are unanimously agreed upon – intended. He was of the generation of Atbāʿ al-Tābiʿīn. He said: Whoever interprets ‘al-Raḥmān ʿala al-ʿArsh istawā’ in a way contrary to what is settled in people’s hearts is a Jahmī. What Allah planted in the fiṭrah of His creation is that their Lord is above the heavens.”
Reference: Fatāwā al-Kubrā: 5/153
al-Dhahabī (d. 748 AH) clarified:
العامة، مراده بهم جمهور الأمة وأهل العلم
“By ‘common people’, Yazīd ibn Hārūn meant the majority of the Ummah and the scholars.”
Reference: Mukhtaṣar al-ʿUlū: 168
He added:
“What he said is the truth. Had the meaning of ‘istiwā’ been different from what the sound-hearted and rightly guided fitrah affirms, the Companions and Tābiʿīn would have been obligated to explain it otherwise. Only a fool may imagine that Allah being ‘above’ means He is physically confined or encased by the Throne – such understanding is ignorance. I do not believe any of the common Muslims think or say this, let alone that Yazīd ibn Hārūn intended it.”
Reference: Kitāb al-ʿArsh: 2/282–283
✿ Ibn al-Qayyim (d. 751 AH)
قال شيخ الإسلام:
“What is embedded in the hearts of the common folk is that which Allah has instilled in the fiṭrah — when in distress or need, they turn upwards to their Lord. They do not look left or right. This is not due to any external instruction, but simply the pure fitrah upon which every human is born. Every child is born upon this fiṭrah until someone turns him into a Jahmī or teaches him to deny it.”
Reference: Ijtimāʿ al-Juyūsh al-Islāmiyyah: 214
Conclusion
✔ The scholars of the second Islamic century — from the Tābiʿīn and Atbāʿ al-Tābiʿīn — unanimously affirmed Allah’s elevation above His Throne.
✔ They rejected the false beliefs of the Jahmiyyah, who denied Allah’s attributes and His being above the Throne.
✔ Their statements are authentic, well-preserved, and represent the creed of the Salaf.
