Part One
The creed of Ahl al-Sunnah wa-l-Jamāʿah in summary
First Issue: The Word Kursī (كُرْسِيّ) and What the Kursī Is
The Kursī in the language is what is sat upon and what the feet are set upon. Ibn Fāris gives the root one meaning, and it is a thing piled and gathered upon another.
Ibn Fāris said in Maqāyīs al-Lughah, under the root kāf–rāʾ–sīn:
Kāf, rāʾ and sīn: a sound root that indicates something packed upon something else, and its being gathered. So al-kirs is what has packed down of dung and urine in dwellings. And al-kurrāsah, the quire, is derived from this, because it is leaves one upon another.
Ibn Fāris, Maqāyīs al-Lughah 5/169, root k-r-s
Source, chain and authenticity
Read the page in the source edition (opens in a new tab)
The whole page in Arabic
وكارَزَ [عن (¬٢)] فلانٍ، إذا فرّ عنه واختبأ منه. وأمَّا الكُرْز فهو الجُوَالِق؛ وسمِّي بذلك لأنّه يُخْبأ فيه الشيء. وقول رؤبة:
* كَالكُرَّزِ المربوطِ بينَ الأوتادْ (¬٣) *
فهذا فارسيٌّ معرب. يقولون: الكُرَّز: البازِي في سنته الثانية. والكَرَّاز:
كبشٌ يعلِّق عليه الراعي كُرْزَه، وهو شيءٌ له كالجُوَالِق. فأمَّا الكَرِيز (¬٤) وهو الأَقِط، فليس من الباب، لأنه من الإبدال والأصل فيه الصاد.
كرس
الكاف والراء والسين أصلٌ صحيح يدلُّ على تلبُّدِ شيءٍ فوقَ شيء وتجمُّعه. فالكِرْس: ما تلبَّدَ من الأبعار والأبوال في الدِّيار. واشتقت الكُرَّاسَة من هذا، لأنَّها ورقٌ بعضُه فوقَ بعض (¬٥). وقال:
يا صاحِ هل تعرفُ رسماً مُكْرَسَا … قال نَعَم أعرفُه، وأَبْلَسَا (¬٦)
والكَرَوَّس: العظيم الرَّأس، وهو من هذا كأنه شيء كُرِّس، أي جُمِع
So a kursī is a built thing with its parts gathered upon one another. Nothing in the root has to do with knowing. It is not the Throne either, for the texts below distinguish them, and they set the size of one against the size of the other. Al-Ḥasan is reported as saying that the Kursī is the Throne, through Juwaybir from al-Ḍaḥḥāk as al-Ṭabarī gives it, and the Prophet’s saying ﷺ on the two of them answers that.
Part Two
The texts of the Qurʾān and the Sunnah
Second Issue: The Kursī and the Throne in the Sunnah
Abū Dharr asked the Prophet ﷺ which verse was the greatest of what had been sent down to him, and the answer gave the measure of the creation against the Kursī and of the Kursī against the Throne.
Al-Bayhaqī reported in al-Asmāʾ wa-l-Ṣifāt, from Abū Dharr:
I came in to the Messenger of Allah ﷺ while he was in the mosque, and he mentioned the ḥadīth. He said in it: I said: Which verse that Allah has sent down to you is the greatest? He said: “The verse of the Kursī.” Then he ﷺ said: “O Abū Dharr, the seven heavens in comparison with the Kursī are only as a ring thrown in a desert land, and the excellence of the Throne over the Kursī is as the excellence of the desert over that ring.”
al-Bayhaqī, al-Asmāʾ wa-l-Ṣifāt 2/299–300, no. 861
Source, chain and authenticity
Read the page in the source edition (opens in a new tab)
The whole page in Arabic
Al-Bayhaqī says after it that Yaḥyā ibn Saʿīd al-Saʿdī is alone in this route, and that it has a witness by a sounder chain. Al-Ṭabarī reports the same from Abū Dharr through Ibn Zayd, and from him the other comparison.
Al-Ṭabarī reported in Jāmiʿ al-Bayān:
Yūnus narrated to me: Ibn Wahb informed us: Ibn Zayd said on His saying “His Kursī encompasses the heavens and the earth”: My father narrated to me: The Messenger of Allah ﷺ said: “The seven heavens in the Kursī are only as seven dirhams thrown into a shield.” He said: And Abū Dharr said: I heard the Messenger of Allah ﷺ say: “The Kursī in the Throne is only as a ring of iron thrown down in the middle of a desert land.”
al-Ṭabarī, Jāmiʿ al-Bayān (Dār al-Tarbiyah wa-l-Turāth ed.) 5/399, no. 5794
Source, chain and authenticity
Read the page in the source edition (opens in a new tab)
The whole page in Arabic
٥٧٩٤ - حدثني يونس، قال: أخبرنا ابن وهب، قال: قال ابن زيد في قوله:"وسع كرسيه السموات والأرض" قال ابن زيد: فحدثني أبي قال: قال رسول الله ﷺ:"ما السموات السبع في الكرسي إلا كدراهم سبعة ألقيت في ترس= قال: وقال أبو ذر: سمعت رسول الله ﷺ يقول: ما الكرسي في العرش إلا كحلقة من حديد ألقيت بين ظهري فلاة من الأرض (٢) .
* * *
وقال آخرون: الكرسي: هو العرش نفسه.
* ذكر من قال ذلك:
٥٧٩٥ - حدثني المثنى، قال: حدثنا إسحاق، قال: حدثنا أبو زهير، عن جويبر، عن الضحاك، قال: كان الحسن يقول: الكرسي هو العرش.
* * *
قال أبو جعفر: ولكل قول من هذه الأقوال وجه ومذهب، غير أن الذي هو أولى بتأويل الآية ما جاء به الأثر عن رسول الله ﷺ، وهو ما:-
The heavens and the earth are in the Kursī, and the Kursī is as nothing in the Throne, and the Lord is above the Throne. A Muslim who reads the verse in his prayers and at his sleep is told this so that he knows the greatness of the One who said it. The Companions asked about it in those terms, according to the report of al-Rabīʿ that al-Ṭabarī gives: this Kursī encompasses the heavens and the earth, so how is the Throne? And Allah revealed “They have not esteemed Allah with the esteem that is His due.”
Part Three
The explanation of the mufassirūn and the Salaf
Third Issue: The Kursī: The Explanation of Ibn ʿAbbās
Allah, the Exalted, said in the greatest verse of His Book:
Allah — there is no god but He, the Living, the Sustainer of all. Neither drowsiness overtakes Him nor sleep. To Him belongs whatever is in the heavens and whatever is on the earth. Who is it that can intercede with Him except by His permission? He knows what is before them and what will be after them, and they encompass nothing of His knowledge except what He wills. His Kursī encompasses the heavens and the earth, and their preservation does not tire Him. And He is the Most High, the Most Great.
Sūrat al-Baqarah, 2:255 Read the verse (opens in a new tab)
The Kursī is mentioned in the greatest verse of the Book of Allah, Āyat al-Kursī, and it is described as encompassing the heavens and the earth. Ibn ʿAbbās, the interpreter of the Qurʾān, explained what it is.
Al-Ḥākim reported in al-Mustadrak from Saʿīd ibn Jubayr, from Ibn ʿAbbās:
Abū al-ʿAbbās Muḥammad ibn Aḥmad al-Maḥbūbī narrated to us: Muḥammad ibn Muʿādh narrated to us: Abū ʿĀṣim narrated to us: Sufyān narrated to us, from ʿAmmār al-Duhnī, from Muslim al-Baṭīn, from Saʿīd ibn Jubayr, from Ibn ʿAbbās, who said: The Kursī is the place of His two feet, and the Throne: its measure cannot be measured. [al-Ḥākim:] This ḥadīth is ṣaḥīḥ on the condition of the two Shaykhs, and they did not transmit it. [al-Dhahabī, Talkhīṣ:] On the condition of al-Bukhārī and Muslim.
al-Ḥākim, al-Mustadrak 2/310 no. 3116 (ed. al-ʿIlmiyyah); ed. al-Risālah 4/145 (1424/2567). Gradings: al-Ḥākim and al-Dhahabī, as stated
Source, chain and authenticity
Al-Ḥākim narrates from Saʿīd ibn Jubayr from Ibn ʿAbbās that the Kursī is the place of the two Feet, and judges the chain authentic on the condition of al-Bukhārī and Muslim; al-Dhahabī agrees. Al-Dārimī cites the same report against al-Marīsī as the well-known, authentic explanation of Ibn ʿAbbās. Wakīʿ grew angry with a man who shuddered at ʿUmar's report about the Kursī, saying that al-Aʿmash and Sufyān narrated these ḥadīths without rejecting them.
Al-Dārimī said to Bishr al-Marīsī:
(٨٤) حَدَّثَنَاه عَبْدُ اللهِ بْنُ أَبِي شَيْبَةَ، وَيَحْيَى الحِمَّانِيُّ، عَنْ وَكِيعٍ، عَنْ سُفْيَانَ، عَنْ عَمَّارٍ الدُّهْنِيِّ، عَنْ مُسْلِمٍ البَطِينِ، عَنْ سَعِيدِ بن جُبَير، عَن ابْنِ عَبَّاسٍ قَالَ: «الكُرْسِيُّ مَوْضِعُ القَدَمَيْنِ، وَالعَرْشُ لَا يُقَدِّرُ قَدْرَهُ إِلَّا الله ﷿» (٢).
فَهَذَا الَّذِي عَرَفْنَاهُ عَنِ ابْنِ عَبَّاسٍ صَحِيحًا مَشْهُورًا.
We have narrated, O Marīsī, from the trustworthy, well-known imams, from Ibn ʿAbbās, on the explanation of 'the foot', the opposite of the interpretation you claimed. (84) ʿAbd Allāh ibn Abī Shayba and Yaḥyā al-Ḥimmānī narrated it to us, from Wakīʿ, from Sufyān, from ʿAmmār al-Duhnī, from Muslim al-Baṭīn, from Saʿīd ibn Jubayr, from Ibn ʿAbbās, who said: 'The Kursī is the place of the two feet, and the Throne: no one can measure its measure except Allah, Mighty and Majestic.' This is what we know from Ibn ʿAbbās as authentic and well known.
al-Dārimī, Naqḍ (ed. al-Shawāmī) p. 146 no. 84; ed. al-Almaʿī 1/395–401
Source, chain and authenticity
Read the page in the source edition (opens in a new tab)
The whole page in Arabic
وَادَّعَيْتَ أَيُّهَا المَرِيسِيُّ أَنَّ الحَدِيثَ حَقٌّ، وَمَعْنَاهُ عِنْدَكَ: أَنَّهَا لَا تَمْتَلِئُ حَتَّى يَضَعَ الجَبَّارُ قَدَمَهُ فِيهَا، فَقُلْتَ: مَعْنَى «قَدَمِهِ»: أَهْلُ الشِّقْوَةِ الَّذِينَ سَبَقَ لَهُمْ فِي عِلْمِهِ أَنَّهُمْ صَائِرُونَ إِلَيْهَا، كَمَا قَالَ ابْنُ عَبَّاسٍ -بِبَاطِلِ زَعْمِكَ- فِي تَفْسِيرِ قَوْلِ الله تَعَالَى: ﴿وَبَشِّرِ الَّذِينَ آمَنُوا أَنَّ لَهُمْ قَدَمَ صِدْقٍ عِنْدَ رَبِّهِمْ﴾ [يونس: ٢] قَالَ: «مَا قَدَّمُوا مِنْ أَعْمَالِهِمْ».
فَقَدْ رَوَيْنَا أَيُّهَا المَرِيسِيُّ عَنِ الثِّقَاتِ الأَئِمَّةِ المَشْهُورِينَ، عَنِ ابْنِ عَبَّاسٍ ﵄ فِي تَفْسِيرِ القَدَمِ خِلَافَ مَا ادَّعَيْتَ مِنْ تَأْوِيلِكَ هَذَا.
(٨٤) حَدَّثَنَاه عَبْدُ اللهِ بْنُ أَبِي شَيْبَةَ، وَيَحْيَى الحِمَّانِيُّ، عَنْ وَكِيعٍ، عَنْ سُفْيَانَ، عَنْ عَمَّارٍ الدُّهْنِيِّ، عَنْ مُسْلِمٍ البَطِينِ، عَنْ سَعِيدِ بن جُبَير، عَن ابْنِ عَبَّاسٍ قَالَ: «الكُرْسِيُّ مَوْضِعُ القَدَمَيْنِ، وَالعَرْشُ لَا يُقَدِّرُ قَدْرَهُ إِلَّا الله ﷿» (٢).
فَهَذَا الَّذِي عَرَفْنَاهُ عَنِ ابْنِ عَبَّاسٍ صَحِيحًا مَشْهُورًا.
فَمَا بَالُكَ تَحِيدُ عَنِ المَشْهُورِ المَنْصُوصِ مِنْ قَوْله وتتعلق بالمغمور مِنْهُ، الملتبس الَّذِي يتَحَمَّل المعَانِي.
Al-Dārimī has given what is known from Ibn ʿAbbās. The report from ʿUmar on the Kursī comes by way of Aḥmad.
ʿAbd Allāh ibn Aḥmad reported in Kitāb al-Sunnah:
587 — My father narrated to me: Wakīʿ narrated to us the hadith of Isrāʾīl, from Abū Isḥāq, from ʿAbd Allāh ibn Khalīfah, from ʿUmar (may Allah be pleased with him), who said: “When the Lord, Mighty and Majestic, sits upon the Kursī…” A man, whom my father named, shuddered in Wakīʿ's presence; Wakīʿ became angry and said: “We found al-Aʿmash and Sufyān narrating these hadiths, not rejecting them.”
ʿAbd Allāh ibn Aḥmad, Kitāb al-Sunnah 1/302 no. 587
Source, chain and authenticity
The Kursī is the place of the two Feet, and the Throne, no one can estimate its measure except Allah. Ibn ʿAbbās gave that explanation, with an authentic chain, and the imams received it: al-Dārimī held it against al-Marīsī, and ʿAbd Allāh ibn Aḥmad reported it in Kitāb al-Sunnah. The Kursī is not the Throne, and it is not the knowledge of Allah.
The report on the Kursī does not stop at Ibn ʿAbbās. Others from the Salaf said the same.
ʿAbd Allāh, the son of Imām Aḥmad, reported from his father in Kitāb al-Sunnah:
1021. My father narrated to me: Wakīʿ narrated to us, from Sufyān, from ʿAmmār al-Duhnī, from Muslim al-Baṭīn, from Saʿīd ibn Jubayr, from Ibn ʿAbbās, may Allah be pleased with them both, who said: The Kursī is the place of His two feet, and the Throne: no one can measure its measure.
ʿAbd Allāh ibn Aḥmad, al-Sunnah 2/454 no. 1021; also 1/301 (323/542)
Source, chain and authenticity
This is the route of Wakīʿ from Sufyān, and al-Ḥākim has it through Abū ʿĀṣim from Sufyān, and he said that it is authentic on the condition of the two Shaykhs. Al-Dhahabī agreed. Al-Dārimī called it authentic and well known.
Al-Bayhaqī reported the same from Abū Mūsā al-Ashʿarī in al-Asmāʾ wa-l-Ṣifāt, and he then added an explanation of his own:
859. … from ʿUmārah ibn ʿUmayr, from Abū Mūsā, may Allah be pleased with him, who said: The Kursī is the place of the two feet, and it creaks as a camel-saddle creaks. [al-Bayhaqī:] We have also narrated this from Ibn ʿAbbās, and we mentioned that its meaning, as we see it, is that it is placed relative to the Throne as the place of the feet relative to a couch (sarīr), and that there is no affirmation of a place for Allah, glorified be He, in it.
al-Bayhaqī, al-Asmāʾ wa-l-Ṣifāt 2/296–297 no. 859. Abū Mūsā's report also in al-Ṭabarī, Jāmiʿ al-Bayān 4/538, and ʿAbd Allāh ibn Aḥmad, al-Sunnah (via al-Jāmiʿ li-ʿUlūm Aḥmad 3/307)
Source, chain and authenticity
“As we see it”, he says, so the explanation is marked as his. He has narrated that the Kursī is the place of the two Feet, and he says that it means that its position relative to the Throne is like that of a footstool relative to a couch, with no affirmation of a place for Allah in it. The report says “His two Feet”, and an explanation that removes the possessive pronoun explains something other than the report. The Ashʿarī who cites Abū Mūsā as his forefather has here a report from him that he cannot accept.
Al-Ṭabarī reported in Jāmiʿ al-Bayān, on the verse of the Kursī in Sūrat al-Baqarah:
حدَّثني المثنَّى، قال: ثنا إسحاقُ، قال: ثنا أبو زُهَيرٍ، عن جُويبرٍ، عن الضَّحَّاكِ قولَه: ﴿وَسِعَ كُرْسِيُّهُ السَّمَاوَاتِ وَالْأَرْضَ﴾ قال: كُرْسِيُّه الذي يُوضَعُ تحتَ العَرْشِ الذي يَجْعَلُ الملوكُ عليه أقدامَهم
Mūsā ibn Hārūn narrated to me: ʿAmr ibn Ḥammād narrated to us: Asbāṭ narrated to us, from al-Suddī: 'His Kursī encompasses the heavens': the heavens and the earth are within the Kursī, and the Kursī is in front of the Throne, and it is the place of His two feet. … al-Muthannā narrated to me: Isḥāq narrated to us: Abū Zuhayr narrated to us, from Juwaybir, from al-Ḍaḥḥāk, on His word 'His Kursī encompasses the heavens and the earth': He said: His Kursī, which is placed beneath the Throne, on which kings put their feet.
al-Ṭabarī, Jāmiʿ al-Bayān (ed. al-Turkī) 4/538, on al-Baqarah 255
Source, chain and authenticity
Read the page in the source edition (opens in a new tab)
The whole page in Arabic
حدَّثني عليُّ بنُ مُسلمٍ الطُّوسيُّ، قال: ثنا عبدُ الصمدِ بنُ عبد الوارثِ، قال: ثنى أبي، قال: ثنا محمدُ بنُ جُحَادةَ، عن سلَمةَ بن كُهَيلٍ، عن عُمارةَ بن عُميرٍ، عن أبي موسى، قال: الكُرْسيُّ مَوْضِعُ القدَمين، وله أَطِيطٌ كَأَطِيطِ الرَّحْلِ (¬١).
حدَّثني موسى بنُ هارونَ، قال: ثنا عمرُو بنُ حمادٍ، قال: ثنا أسباطُ، عن السديِّ: ﴿وَسِعَ كُرْسِيُّهُ السَّمَاوَاتِ﴾: فإن السماواتِ والأرضَ في جوفِ الكُرْسِيِّ، والكُرْسِيُّ بين يَدَيِ العَرْشِ، وهو مَوْضِعُ قَدَميْه (¬٢).
حدَّثني المثنَّى، قال: ثنا إسحاقُ، قال: ثنا أبو زُهَيرٍ، عن جُويبرٍ، عن الضَّحَّاكِ قولَه: ﴿وَسِعَ كُرْسِيُّهُ السَّمَاوَاتِ وَالْأَرْضَ﴾ قال: كُرْسِيُّه الذي يُوضَعُ تحتَ العَرْشِ الذي يَجْعَلُ الملوكُ عليه أقدامَهم (¬٣).
حدَّثنا أحمدُ بنُ إسحاقَ، قال: ثنا أبو أحمدَ الزُّبَيْرِيُّ، عن سفيانَ، عن عمارٍ الدُّهْنيِّ، عن مسلمٍ البَطِينِ، قال: الكُرْسِيُّ مَوْضِعُ القدمَيْن (¬٤).
Al-Suddī gives the same words as Ibn ʿAbbās: the place of His two Feet. Al-Ḍaḥḥāk's report, through Juwaybir, who is weak, gives the comparison with kings, and it is the only foothold in the tafsīrs for the explanation that al-Bayhaqī offered.
And al-Dāraquṭnī reported in al-Ṣifāt, from al-ʿAbbās al-Dūrī, what Abū ʿUbayd al-Qāsim ibn Sallām said when these reports were mentioned:
فَقَالَ: هَذِهِ الْأَحَادِيثُ صِحَاحٌ حَمَلَهَا أَصْحَابُ الْحَدِيثِ والفقهاء بعضهم على بَعْضٍ، وهِيَ عِنْدَنَا حَقٌّ لَا نَشُكُّ فِيهَا، وَلَكِنْ إِذَا قِيلَ: كَيْفَ وَضَعَ قَدَمَهُ؟ وَكَيْفَ ضَحِكَ؟ قُلْنَا: لَا يُفَسَّر هَذَا وَلَا سَمِعْنَا أَحَدًا يُفَسِّرُهُ
57. Muḥammad ibn Makhlad narrated to us: al-ʿAbbās ibn Muḥammad al-Dūrī narrated to us, saying: I heard Abū ʿUbayd al-Qāsim ibn Sallām, when he mentioned the chapter narrated about the vision, the Kursī and the place of the two feet, our Lord's laughing at the despair of His servants while His change [for them] is near, where our Lord was before He created the heaven, and that Hell will not be filled until your Lord, Mighty and Majestic, places His foot in it and it says 'Enough, enough', and reports like these. He said: These ḥadīths are authentic; the people of ḥadīth and the jurists have carried them one from another, and they are true according to us; we do not doubt them. But if it is said: How did He place His foot? How did He laugh? we say: This is not explained, and we have not heard anyone explain it.
al-Dāraquṭnī, al-Ṣifāt (ed. al-Faqīhī) pp. 68–69 no. 57; ed. al-Ghunaymān p. 39; Abū Yaʿlā, Ibṭāl al-Taʾwīlāt p. 53; al-Aṣbahānī, al-Ḥujjah 1/475
Source, chain and authenticity
Read the page in the source edition (opens in a new tab)
The whole page in Arabic
٥٧ حدَّثنا مُحَمَّدُ بْنُ مَخْلَدٍ٢، ثنا الْعَبَّاسُ بْنُ مُحَمَّدٍ الدُّورِيُّ٣ قَالَ: سَمِعْتُ أَبَا عُبَيْدٍ الْقَاسِمَ بْنَ سَلَّامٍ٤، وَذَكَرَ الْبَابَ الَّذِي يروى في الرُّؤْيَةَ وَالْكُرْسِيَّ وَمَوْضِعَ الْقَدَمَيْنِ، وَضَحِكِ رَبِّنَا مِنْ قُنُوطِ عِبَادِهِ، وَقُرْبِ غِيَرِهِ، وَأَيْنَ كَانَ رَبُّنَا قَبْلَ أَنْ يَخْلُقَ السَّمَاءَ وَأَنَّ جَهَنَّمَ لَا تَمْتَلِئُ حَتَّى يَضَعَ رَبُّكَ ﷿ قَدَمَهُ فِيهَا فَتَقُولُ: قَطْ قَطْ، وَأَشْبَاهَ هَذِهِ الْأَحَادِيثِ.
فَقَالَ: هَذِهِ الْأَحَادِيثُ صِحَاحٌ حَمَلَهَا أَصْحَابُ الْحَدِيثِ والفقهاء بعضهم على بَعْضٍ، وهِيَ عِنْدَنَا حَقٌّ لَا نَشُكُّ فِيهَا، وَلَكِنْ إِذَا قِيلَ: كَيْفَ وَضَعَ قَدَمَهُ؟ وَكَيْفَ ضَحِكَ؟ قُلْنَا: لَا يُفَسَّر هَذَا وَلَا سَمِعْنَا أَحَدًا يُفَسِّرُهُ١.
٥٨ حدَّثنا مُحَمَّدُ بْنُ مَخْلَدٍ، ثنا الْعَبَّاسُ بْنُ مُحَمَّدٍ الدُّورِيُّ، قَالَ: سَمِعْتُ يَحْيَى بن معين يقول: شهدت زكرياء بن عدي يسأل، وكيف؟ فَقَالَ: يَا أَبَا سُفْيَانَ إِنَّ هَذِهِ الْأَحَادِيثُ يَعْنِي مِثْلَ الْكُرْسِيِّ مَوْضِعِ الْقَدَمَيْنِ، وَنَحْوَ هَذَا. فَقَالَ وَكِيعٌ: أَدْرَكْنَا إِسْمَاعِيلَ بْنَ أَبِي خَالِدٍ، وَسُفْيَانَ وَمَسْعُودًا٢ يُحَدِّثُونَ بَهَذِهِ الْأَحَادِيثِ وَلَا يُفَسِّرُونَ شَيْئًا.
٥٩ حدَّثنا مُحَمَّدُ بْنُ مَخْلَدٍ، ثنا مُحَمَّدُ بْنُ إِسْحَاقَ الصَّاغَانِيُّ، ثنا مُحَمَّدُ بْنُ سُلَيْمَانَ لُوَيْنٌ٣ قَالَ: قِيلَ لِابْنِ عُيَيْنَةَ: هَذِهِ الْأَحَادِيثُ التي
He lists the vision, the Kursī and the place of the two Feet, the laughter, where our Lord was before He created the heaven, and the Foot in Hell, and he says: these ḥadīths are authentic, and the people of ḥadīth and the jurists have carried them from one another. Abū ʿUbayd is an imam of the Arabic language as well as of ḥadīth, and he did not find anything in those words that the Arabic would not bear.
Part Four
The claims of the opponents and their refutation
“The Kursī is His knowledge”
The claim
Reported by al-Ṭabarī through Jaʿfar ibn Abī al-Mughīrah from Saʿīd ibn Jubayr from Ibn ʿAbbās, and used by the later interpreters
The Kursī that encompasses the heavens and the earth is Allah's knowledge.
Its origin The denial of the Kursī as a real created thing, by those who deny the Feet.
The response
Al-Ṭabarī said in Jāmiʿ al-Bayān:
ذكرُ من قال ذلك
حدَّثنا أبو كُريبٍ وسَلْمُ بنُ جُنادةَ، قالا: ثنا ابن إدريسَ، عن مُطَرِّفٍ، عن جعفرِ بن أبى المغيرةِ، عن سعيدِ بن جبيرٍ، عن ابن عباسٍ: ﴿وَسِعَ كُرْسِيُّهُ﴾ قال: كُرْسِيُّه عِلْمُه (¬٢).
حدَّثني يعقوبُ بنُ إبراهيمَ، قال: ثنا هُشيمٌ، قال: أخبَرَنا مُطَرِّفٌ، عن جعفرِ بن أبي المغيرةِ، عن سعيدِ بن جبيرٍ، عن ابن عباسٍ مثلَه، وزاد فيه: ألا تَرَى إلى قولِه: ﴿وَلَا يَئُودُهُ حِفْظُهُمَا﴾
The people of interpretation differed over the meaning of the Kursī, which Allah informed in this verse that it encompasses the heavens and the earth. Some said: it is the knowledge of Allah. Those who said this: Abū Kurayb and Salm ibn Junādah narrated to us: Ibn Idrīs narrated to us, from Muṭarrif, from Jaʿfar ibn Abī al-Mughīrah, from Saʿīd ibn Jubayr, from Ibn ʿAbbās: “His Kursī encompasses”: he said, His Kursī is His knowledge. Yaʿqūb ibn Ibrāhīm narrated to me: Hushaym narrated to us: Muṭarrif informed us, from Jaʿfar ibn Abī al-Mughīrah, from Saʿīd ibn Jubayr, from Ibn ʿAbbās, the like of it, and he added in it: do you not see His saying “and the guarding of them does not tire Him”?
al-Ṭabarī, Jāmiʿ al-Bayān (ed. al-Turkī) 4/537, on al-Baqarah 2:255
Source, chain and authenticity
Read the page in the source edition (opens in a new tab)
The whole page in Arabic
حدَّثني موسى بنُ هارونَ، قال: ثنا عمرُو بنُ حمادٍ، قال: ثنا أسباطُ، عن السديِّ: ﴿وَلَا يُحِيطُونَ بِشَيْءٍ مِنْ عِلْمِهِ﴾ يقولُ: لا يَعْلَمُون بشيءٍ من عِلْمِهِ إِلا بما شاء هو أن يُعْلِمَهم (¬١).
القولُ في تأويلِ قولِه جل ثناؤه: ﴿وَسِعَ كُرْسِيُّهُ السَّمَاوَاتِ وَالْأَرْضَ﴾.
اختلف أهلُ التأويلِ في معنى "الكُرْسيِّ" الذي أخبرَ اللهُ في هذه الآيةِ أنه وَسِع السماواتِ والأرضَ؛ فقال بعضُهم: هو عِلْمُ اللهِ.
ذكرُ من قال ذلك
حدَّثنا أبو كُريبٍ وسَلْمُ بنُ جُنادةَ، قالا: ثنا ابن إدريسَ، عن مُطَرِّفٍ، عن جعفرِ بن أبى المغيرةِ، عن سعيدِ بن جبيرٍ، عن ابن عباسٍ: ﴿وَسِعَ كُرْسِيُّهُ﴾ قال: كُرْسِيُّه عِلْمُه (¬٢).
حدَّثني يعقوبُ بنُ إبراهيمَ، قال: ثنا هُشيمٌ، قال: أخبَرَنا مُطَرِّفٌ، عن جعفرِ بن أبي المغيرةِ، عن سعيدِ بن جبيرٍ، عن ابن عباسٍ مثلَه، وزاد فيه: ألا تَرَى إلى قولِه: ﴿وَلَا يَئُودُهُ حِفْظُهُمَا﴾ (¬٣)؟
وقال آخرون: الكُرْسِيُّ مَوْضِعُ القَدَمَين.
The explanation of Ibn ʿAbbās that is authentic and well known is that the Kursī is the place of the two Feet, as al-Ḥākim and al-Dārimī transmit it with sound chains.
Set the two reports side by side, both through Saʿīd ibn Jubayr from Ibn ʿAbbās. In one, a single narrator, Jaʿfar ibn Abī al-Mughīrah, has “His knowledge”. In the other, Sufyān al-Thawrī, from ʿAmmār al-Duhnī, from Muslim al-Baṭīn, has “the place of His two Feet”, with Wakīʿ and Abū ʿĀṣim reporting it from Sufyān, and al-Ḥākim and al-Dhahabī grading it authentic on the condition of the two Shaykhs. Abū Mūsā reports the same, and al-Suddī says the same. And the Arabs do not call knowledge kursī. A chair has its name from being sat on and from its parts being gathered together. Nobody has found this word in a poem or a proverb meaning knowledge, except by appealing to the verse itself.
Al-Zamakhsharī: “a picture of His greatness, and there is no Kursī there”
The claim
Said by al-Zamakhsharī in al-Kashshāf, and by those who took it from him
“His Kursī encompasses the heavens and the earth” is only a picture of His greatness and an imagining. There is no Kursī there, no sitting and no one who sits. Or the Kursī is His knowledge, or His dominion.
Its origin The Muʿtazilah.
The response
He gives four explanations of a verse and starts with the one that takes out all of it. He also tells us in the same place that he reads the verse of the Grasp in the same way.
Al-Zamakhsharī said in al-Kashshāf, on Āyat al-Kursī:
The kursī is what is sat upon, and it does not exceed the seat of the one sitting. There are four ways in His saying “His Kursī encompasses”. The first is that His Kursī is not too narrow for the heavens and the earth, because of its extent and breadth. And it is nothing but a picture of His greatness and an imagining only. There is no Kursī there, no sitting and no one who sits; like His saying “They have not esteemed Allah with the esteem that is His due, and the whole earth will be in His grasp on the Day of Resurrection and the heavens folded in His right Hand”, without any conception of a grasp, a folding and a right Hand. It is only an imagining of the greatness of His affair, and a sensory representation. Do you not see His saying “They have not esteemed Allah with the esteem that is His due”? The second is: His knowledge encompasses, and He called knowledge a kursī, naming it by its place, which is the kursī of the scholar.
al-Zamakhsharī, al-Kashshāf 1/301, on al-Baqarah 2:255
Source, chain and authenticity
Read the page in the source edition (opens in a new tab)
The whole page in Arabic
Ibn Sīnā said it of the Resurrection. Al-Zamakhsharī says it of the Kursī and of the Grasp, and the man who reasons this way has no ground on which to stop the philosopher from saying it of Paradise.
He says “Do you not see His saying: They have not esteemed Allah with the esteem that is His due?”, and he reads it as proof for himself. Now read the ḥadīth of Ibn Masʿūd on that verse, in the chapter on the Hands: the rabbi spoke of the heavens on a Finger, the Messenger of Allah ﷺ laughed in confirmation of him, and he recited this verse. And Ibn ʿUmar saw him ﷺ on the pulpit closing and opening his hand as he said it. So the verse which al-Zamakhsharī makes an imagining was explained by the one on whom it came down, with his hand.
And his second explanation has a “kursī of the scholar” that exists only for the sake of the explanation. The Arabs have no such word for knowledge, and the man has named the knowledge of Allah after a piece of furniture in order to avoid affirming a Kursī for Allah. His third and fourth are of the same kind. Four explanations of one word, and in none of them is the word the word. The Salaf had one explanation, from Ibn ʿAbbās and Abū Mūsā, and the imams received it.
“Al-Shāfiʿī declared a disbeliever whoever says that Allah sits on the Throne”
The claim
Later Ashʿarīs and Māturīdīs, citing the Taʿlīqah of al-Qāḍī Ḥusayn
Al-Shāfiʿī stated that whoever believes that Allah is sitting on the Throne is a disbeliever, so the Ḥanbalīs and those with them are under his verdict.
The response
The quotation is real. Read the page and see whose words they are.
Al-Qāḍī Ḥusayn al-Marwarrūdhī said in al-Taʿlīqah:
اختلف أهل القبلة إلا ما نص عليه الشافعي ﵀، وهم الذين ينفون علم الله تعالى بالمعدومات ويقولون: لم يعلم الله الأشياء حتى كانت، وهذا خلاف قوله تعالى (ولو ردوا لعادوا لما نهوا عنه)، فيكفر بهذه المخالفة، وكذا من قال بخلق القرآن، أو لم يؤمن بالقدر أو اعتقد ان الله تعالى جالس على العرش، فإنه يحكم بكفره، ولا تصح الصلاة خلف هؤلاء.
As for the people of differing schools and those who dissent in the fundamentals (uṣūl), it is to be examined: if we declare him a disbeliever for his belief, prayer behind him is not valid; and the position of most jurists is that he is not declared a disbeliever. [None of] the people of the qiblah [are declared disbelievers] except what al-Shāfiʿī, may Allah have mercy on him, stated explicitly: they are those who deny Allah's knowledge of non-existent things and say 'Allah did not know things until they existed', which contradicts His word 'And if they were returned, they would return to what they were forbidden' [al-Anʿām 28]; such a one is declared a disbeliever for this contradiction. And likewise whoever says the Qurʾān is created, or does not believe in the decree, or believes that Allah, the Exalted, is sitting (jālis) upon the Throne: he is judged a disbeliever, and prayer behind these is not valid.
al-Qāḍī Ḥusayn al-Marwarrūdhī (d. 462), al-Taʿlīqah 2/1031
Source, chain and authenticity
Read the page in the source edition (opens in a new tab)
The whole page in Arabic
فأما أهل المذاهب المختلفة والمخالفون في الأصول ينظر فيه إن كنا نكفره باعتقاده لا تصح الصلاة خلفه، ومذهب أكثر الفقهاء ألا يكفر.
اختلف أهل القبلة إلا ما نص عليه الشافعي ﵀، وهم الذين ينفون علم الله تعالى بالمعدومات ويقولون: لم يعلم الله الأشياء حتى كانت، وهذا خلاف قوله تعالى (ولو ردوا لعادوا لما نهوا عنه)، فيكفر بهذه المخالفة، وكذا من قال بخلق القرآن، أو لم يؤمن بالقدر أو اعتقد ان الله تعالى جالس على العرش، فإنه يحكم بكفره، ولا تصح الصلاة خلف هؤلاء.
قال: وكان القفال: ﵀ يرى الصلاة خلف كل واحد المعتزلة والروافض للقبلة.
وكل من لا يكفر من أهل القبلة، والمظهر للبدع تقبل شهادته، وتكره الصلاة خلفه.
ومن سب النبي ﷺ يكفر بذلك لقوله ﷺ، من سب نبيا فد كفر، ومن سب صحابيا فقد فسق.
فأما من سب الشيخين، أو الحسينين ففيه وجهان:
أحدهما: يكفر، لأن الأمة اجتمعت على إمامتهم.
والثاني: يفسق لأجل الخبر، ولا يكفر.
He names one category as what al-Shāfiʿī stated explicitly: those who deny Allah's knowledge of things before they exist. Then he adds “and likewise” other categories, and whoever believes that Allah is jālis upon the Throne is one of these. So the clause belongs to a jurist who died in 462. He gives no chain for it to al-Shāfiʿī, who died in 204. Whoever wants al-Shāfiʿī's creed has it in the reports with chains from his companions, and has no need of a sentence that was written two and a half centuries after his death. The word jālis in any case is the jurist's word for a belief he condemns, and the verses say “He rose over the Throne”.
Sources
- Ibn Fāris, Maqāyīs al-Lughah
- Qurʾān
- al-Bayhaqī, al-Asmāʾ wa-l-Ṣifāt
- al-Dāraquṭnī, al-Ṣifāt (ed. al-Faqīhī)
- al-Dārimī, Naqḍ (ed. al-Shawāmī)
- al-Qāḍī Ḥusayn al-Marwarrūdhī (d.
- al-Zamakhsharī, al-Kashshāf
- al-Ḥākim, al-Mustadrak
- al-Ṭabarī, Jāmiʿ al-Bayān (Dār al-Tarbiyah wa-l-Turāth ed.)
- al-Ṭabarī, Jāmiʿ al-Bayān (ed. al-Turkī)
- ʿAbd Allāh ibn Aḥmad, Kitāb al-Sunnah
- ʿAbd Allāh ibn Aḥmad, al-Sunnah