Part One
The creed of Ahl al-Sunnah wa-l-Jamāʿah in summary
First Issue: The Word Istiwāʾ (اسْتِوَاء) in the Language
Istiwāʾ (اسْتِوَاء) is the verbal noun of istawā (اسْتَوَى), the eighth form (iftaʿalah) of the root sīn–wāw–yāʾ (س و ي). Ibn Fāris gives the root one meaning: straightness and evenness between two things. From it come sawāʾ (equal), sawiyy (sound and complete), and al-mustawī (the level). The eighth form adds the sense of the action reaching its completion in the subject.
Ibn Fāris said in Maqāyīs al-Lughah:
Sīn, wāw and yāʾ: a root that indicates straightness and evenness between two things. It is said: hādhā lā yusāwī kadhā, this does not equal that, meaning it does not match it.
Ibn Fāris, Maqāyīs al-Lughah 3/112, root s-w-y
Source, chain and authenticity
Read the page in the source edition (opens in a new tab)
The whole page in Arabic
سوى
السين والواو والياء أصلٌ يدلُّ على استقامةٍ واعتدالٍ بين شيئين. يقال هذا لا يساوى كذا، أى لا يعادله. وفلانٌ وفلانٌ على سَوِيّةٍ من هذا الأمر، أى سواءٍ. ومكان سُوًى، أى مَعْلَمٌ قد عَلِم القومُ الدّخولَ فيه والخروج منه. ويقال أسْوَى الرّجلُ، إذا كان خَلَفُه وولدُه سَويًّا.
وحدثنا على بن إبراهيم القَطّان، عن على بن عبد العزيز، عن أبى عُبيد، عن الكسائىّ قال: يقال كيف أمسيتم؟ فيقال: مستَوُون صالحون. يريدون أولادُنا وماشيتُنا سَوِيّةٌ صالحة.
ومن الباب السِّىُّ: الفضاء من الأرض، فى قول القائل (¬١):
كأنَّ نَعَامَ السِّىِّ باضَ عليهمُ (¬٢)
والسِّىّ: المِثْل. وقولهم سِيّانِ، أى مِثلان.
ومن ذلك قولهم: لا سيّما، أى لا مثلَ ما. هُو من السِّين والواو والياء، كما يقال ولا سَواء. والدّليل على أن السّىَّ المِثل قولُ الحطيئة:
فإيّاكم وحَيَّةَ بطنِ وادٍ … هَمُوزَ النّابِ لكم بسِىِّ (¬٣)
ومن الباب السَّواء: وسَط الدَّارِ وغيرِها، وسمِّى بذلك لاستوائه. قال اللّه جل ثناؤه: ﴿فَاطَّلَعَ فَرَآهُ فِي سَواءِ اَلْجَحِيمِ﴾.
The verb is used in four ways in the Arabic of the Qurʾān, and its meaning is fixed by the way it is construed. First, with no preposition: istawā means to reach completion and full strength, as Allah said of Mūsā: wa-lammā balagha ashuddahu wa-stawā (وَلَمَّا بَلَغَ أَشُدَّهُ وَاسْتَوَى), “when he reached his full strength and became complete”. Second, with the wāw of accompaniment: istawā al-māʾu wa-l-khashabah (اسْتَوَى الْمَاءُ وَالْخَشَبَةُ), the water became level with the wood — that is, equal to it.
Allah, the Exalted, said:
And when he reached his full strength and became complete (istawā), We gave him judgement and knowledge; and thus do We reward those who do good.
Qurʾān 28:14 (al-Qaṣaṣ) Read the verse (opens in a new tab)
Allah, the Exalted, said:
And it was said: O earth, swallow your water, and O sky, withhold; and the water subsided, and the matter was accomplished, and it came to rest (istawat) upon al-Jūdī. And it was said: Away with the wrongdoing people.
Qurʾān 11:44 (Hūd) Read the verse (opens in a new tab)
Third, with ilā (إِلَى): istawā ilā means to turn and direct oneself towards a thing with full intent, as in thumma stawā ilā al-samāʾ (ثُمَّ اسْتَوَى إِلَى السَّمَاءِ); and the Salaf also explained it here as rising, as Abū al-ʿĀliyah said. Fourth, with ʿalā (عَلَى): istawā ʿalā means to rise over a thing, ascend upon it and settle upon it. Allah said of the ark: wa-stawat ʿalā al-jūdiyy (وَاسْتَوَتْ عَلَى الْجُودِيِّ), it came to rest upon al-Jūdī; and of riding animals and ships: li-tastawū ʿalā ẓuhūrihi (لِتَسْتَوُوا عَلَى ظُهُورِهِ), that you settle upon their backs.
So the meaning of istawā ʿalā al-ʿarsh is: ʿalā (عَلَا) — He rose high; irtafaʿah (ارْتَفَعَ) — He ascended; istaqarra (اسْتَقَرَّ) — He settled; ṣaʿidah (صَعِدَ) — He went up. These four words are what the Salaf used to explain it, and every one of them is the plain sense of the verb when it is construed with ʿalā. The meaning is known in the Arabic language, because Allah sent down the Qurʾān in a clear Arabic tongue, commanded His servants to reflect on it, and blamed those who turn away from it. What is not known is the how: we know the meaning, and we do not know the modality.
Allah, the Exalted, said:
That you may settle (li-tastawū) upon their backs, and then remember the favour of your Lord when you have settled upon them, and say: Glorified is He who subjected this to us, and we could not have done it ourselves.
Qurʾān 43:13 (al-Zukhruf) Read the verse (opens in a new tab)
And the istiwāʾ of a creature is not like the istiwāʾ of Allah. The creature is described with istiwāʾ upon a thing — upon the back of an animal, upon a ship — and that istiwāʾ is the istiwāʾ of one who needs what is beneath him. The istiwāʾ of Allah upon His Throne is particular to Him, befits Him and suits Him, and the servants do not know its reality. It must be affirmed for Allah together with the denial of any likeness to the attribute of a creature, and the denial of any knowledge of its modality.
Second Issue: The Word ʿArsh (عَرْش) in the Language
ʿArsh (عَرْش) in the language is taken from raising and elevation. Allah said of Pharaoh: wa-dammarnā mā kānah yaṣnaʿu firʿawnu wa-qawmuhu wa-mā kānū yaʿrishūn (وَمَا كَانُوا يَعْرِشُونَ), “and what they used to raise up” — that is, the buildings they built and raised high. And He said: jannātin maʿrūshātin wa-ghayrah maʿrūshāt (جَنَّاتٍ مَعْرُوشَاتٍ وَغَيْرَ مَعْرُوشَاتٍ), gardens trellised and untrellised: the maʿrūshāt are those for which a raised structure is made, which is called taʿrīsh or ʿarīsh. It is because of this height and elevation that the Throne is called ʿarsh. Even of eating meat from the bone, when a man lifts it to his mouth without cutting it, it is said ʿarashah al-laḥm, because he raises it. So the material of ʿarsh in the language goes back to rising, and this short analysis of the language serves in the answer to the opponents on the question of the Throne.
Allah, the Exalted, said:
And We made the people who had been oppressed inherit the eastern and western parts of the land which We had blessed. And the good word of your Lord was fulfilled for the Children of Israel because of their patience, and We destroyed what Pharaoh and his people used to make and what they used to raise up (yaʿrishūn).
Qurʾān 7:137 (al-Aʿrāf) Read the verse (opens in a new tab)
Allah, the Exalted, said:
And it is He who produces gardens, trellised (maʿrūshāt) and untrellised, and date palms, and crops of different kinds of food, and olives and pomegranates, similar and dissimilar. Eat of its fruit when it bears fruit, and give its due on the day of its harvest, and do not be extravagant; indeed He does not love the extravagant.
Qurʾān 6:141 (al-Anʿām) Read the verse (opens in a new tab)
The Throne is described in the texts as ʿaẓīm (عَظِيم), majīd (مَجِيد) and karīm (كَرِيم). ʿAẓīm: greater than anything else. Majīd: possessed of vastness and beauty. Karīm: in the language of the Arabs the word means that a thing surpasses others of its kind in the qualities for which it is praised — the generous man who gives freely is karīm, the Prophet ﷺ is described as karīm, and even the plants are called karīm in “We caused to grow in it of every noble (karīm) kind”. So when the Throne is called karīm, this requires that it is of the kind of thrones: a throne in its reality, not a throne in a figurative sense, surpassing every throne in every quality by which thrones are described. Allah mentioned the thrones of creatures in the Qurʾān — Yūsuf “raised his parents upon the throne”, and the queen of Sabaʾ “has a great throne” — and the Throne of al-Raḥmān is a throne as these are thrones, and greater than every one of them.
Part Two
The texts of the Qurʾān and the Sunnah
Third Issue: The Verses of the Istiwāʾ
Allah mentioned His istiwāʾ over the Throne after mentioning the creation of the heavens and the earth, and He joined the two with thumma, which in Arabic indicates sequence. He created the heavens and the earth in six days, and then rose over the Throne. The istiwāʾ is therefore an action that Allah did at a time of His choosing, after the creation, and it is among the attributes of action.
Allah, the Exalted, said:
Al-Raḥmān rose over the Throne.
Qurʾān 20:5 (Ṭā Hā) Read the verse (opens in a new tab)
Allah, the Exalted, said:
Indeed your Lord is Allah, who created the heavens and the earth in six days, then rose over the Throne. He covers the night with the day, which pursues it swiftly; and the sun, the moon and the stars, made subservient by His command. Truly, His are the creation and the command; blessed is Allah, Lord of the worlds.
Qurʾān 7:54 (al-Aʿrāf) Read the verse (opens in a new tab)
Allah, the Exalted, said:
It is He who created the heavens and the earth in six days, then rose over the Throne. He knows what enters the earth and what comes out of it, what descends from the heaven and what ascends into it; and He is with you wherever you are. And Allah sees what you do.
Qurʾān 57:4 (al-Ḥadīd) Read the verse (opens in a new tab)
Allah, the Exalted, said:
Then He directed Himself to the heaven while it was smoke, and said to it and to the earth: Come, willingly or unwillingly. They said: We have come willingly.
Qurʾān 41:11 (Fuṣṣilat) Read the verse (opens in a new tab)
In the verse of al-Ḥadīd He mentioned in one breath that He rose over the Throne and that He is with His servants wherever they are. The Salaf explained the withness as His knowledge, sight and encompassing; the verse itself ends: “and Allah sees what you do.” Ahl al-Sunnah take both together: He is above His Throne, and He is with His creation by His knowledge. Neither cancels the other.
Part Three
The chains of transmission, with comments on them
Fourth Issue: The Chains of Mālik's Answer
Al-Bayhaqī reported Mālik's answer by two routes. The route of ʿAbd Allāh ibn Wahb, the Egyptian imam who accompanied Mālik for twenty years, Ibn Ḥajar declared good (jayyid) in Fatḥ al-Bārī. The route of Yaḥyā ibn Yaḥyā al-Naysābūrī — not the Andalusian, but the Khurāsānī imam of whom Aḥmad said that he knew of none like him in his time — carries the famous fourfold wording. Al-Lālakāʾī, al-Ṣābūnī, Abū Nuʿaym and al-Dārimī transmitted it as well, and al-Dhahabī judged: this is established from Mālik.
Al-Dhahabī added that the like of it came before Mālik from his teacher Rabīʿah, and that it is the saying of Ahl al-Sunnah altogether. So the report does not stand on one chain, or on one man: it is the answer of the school of Madīnah, given by the teacher and the student, and transmitted by the imams of the East and the West. And the Mālikī imams after Mālik held to it: Aṣbagh, the greatest of his companions in fiqh, said: He has risen over His Throne, and His knowledge and encompassing are in every place.
The editor's note on this report reads:
إحداهما: عن عبد الله بن وهب بلفظ: " ... الرحمن على العرش استوى كما وصف نفسه، ولا يقال: كيف، وكيف عنه مرفوع، وأنت رجل سوء صاحب بدعة أخرجوه".
والأخرى: عن يحيى بن يحيى بلفظ مثل لفظ المصنف. وقد جود الحافظ ابن حجر طريق ابن وهب، فقال: "وأخرج البيهقي بسند جيد عن عبد الله بن وهب ... فذكره". فتح الباري ١٣/٤٠٦-٤٠٧.
واللالكائي ي شرح أصول اعتقاد أهل السنة، رقم: (٦٦٤) ، ٢/٣٩٨. وأبو عثمان الصابوني في عقيدة السلف، ضمن الرسائل المنيرية ١/١١١. وأبو نعيم في الحلية ٦/٣٢٥-٣٢٦. والدارمي في الرد على الجهمية ص ٢٧. والذهبي في العلو ص ١٠٣، وقال: "هذا ثابت عن مالك، وتقدم نحوه عن ربيعة شيخ مالك، وهو قول أهل السنة قاطبة". تقدم قول ربيعة، برقم: (٧٥) .
وأورده ابن القيم في اجتماع الجيوش الإسلامية ص ٨١، وقال: وكذلك أئمة أصحاب مالك من بعده، قال يحيى بن إبراهيم الطليطلي في كتاب سير الفقهاء -وهو كتاب جليل غزير العلم- حدثني عبد الملك بن حبيب عن عبد الله بن المغيرة عن الثوري عن الأعمش عن إبراهيم قال: كانوا يكرهون قول الرجل: يا خيبة الدهر، وكانوا يقولون: الله هو الدهر، وكانوا يكرهون قول الرجل: رغم أنفي الله، وإنما يرغم أنف الكافر، وكانوا يكرهون قول الرجل: لا والذي خاتمه على فمي، وإنما يختم على فم الكافر، وكانوا يكرهون قول الرجل: والله حيث كان أو إن لله بكل مكان، قال أصبغ: وهو مستو على عرشه، وبكل مكان علمه وإحاطته، وأصبغ من أجل أصحاب مالك وأفقههم.
Al-Bayhaqī reported it in al-Asmāʾ wa-l-Ṣifāt, p. 516, by two routes. The first is from ʿAbd Allāh ibn Wahb, with the wording: “…al-Raḥmān rose over the Throne, as He described Himself; and it is not said ‘how’, for ‘how’ is lifted away from Him; and you are an evil man, a man of innovation; put him out.” The second is from Yaḥyā ibn Yaḥyā, with a wording like that of the author. Al-Ḥāfiẓ Ibn Ḥajar declared the route of Ibn Wahb good, and said: “Al-Bayhaqī reported with a good chain from ʿAbd Allāh ibn Wahb …” and mentioned it (Fatḥ al-Bārī 13/406–407). And al-Lālakāʾī in Sharḥ Uṣūl Iʿtiqād Ahl al-Sunnah, no. 664, 2/398; Abū ʿUthmān al-Ṣābūnī in ʿAqīdat al-Salaf, in al-Rasāʾil al-Munīriyyah 1/111; Abū Nuʿaym in al-Ḥilyah 6/325–326; al-Dārimī in al-Radd ʿalā al-Jahmiyyah, p. 27; and al-Dhahabī in al-ʿUluww, p. 103, who said: “This is established from Mālik, and the like of it has preceded from Rabīʿah, the teacher of Mālik; and it is the saying of Ahl al-Sunnah altogether.” Ibn al-Qayyim cited it in Ijtimāʿ al-Juyūsh al-Islāmiyyah, p. 81, and said: And likewise the imams among the companions of Mālik after him. Yaḥyā ibn Ibrāhīm al-Ṭulayṭulī said in Kitāb Siyar al-Fuqahāʾ — a great book, abundant in knowledge: ʿAbd al-Malik ibn Ḥabīb narrated to me, from ʿAbd Allāh ibn al-Mughīrah, from al-Thawrī, from al-Aʿmash, from Ibrāhīm, who said: They used to dislike a man saying “O the disappointment of time”, and they used to say: Allah is time; and they used to dislike a man saying “my nose is in the dust before Allah”, for it is only the nose of the disbeliever that is put in the dust; and they used to dislike a man saying “no, by the One whose seal is on my mouth”, for it is only the mouth of the disbeliever that is sealed; and they used to dislike a man saying “by Allah, wherever He is”, or “Allah is in every place”. Aṣbagh said: And He has risen over His Throne, and His knowledge and encompassing are in every place. And Aṣbagh is among the greatest of the companions of Mālik and the most learned of them in fiqh.
Editor's note to Ibn Qudāmah, Ithbāt Ṣifat al-ʿUluww, p. 173
Source, chain and authenticity
Read the page in the source edition (opens in a new tab)
The whole page in Arabic
إحداهما: عن عبد الله بن وهب بلفظ: " ... الرحمن على العرش استوى كما وصف نفسه، ولا يقال: كيف، وكيف عنه مرفوع، وأنت رجل سوء صاحب بدعة أخرجوه".
والأخرى: عن يحيى بن يحيى بلفظ مثل لفظ المصنف. وقد جود الحافظ ابن حجر طريق ابن وهب، فقال: "وأخرج البيهقي بسند جيد عن عبد الله بن وهب ... فذكره". فتح الباري ١٣/٤٠٦-٤٠٧.
واللالكائي ي شرح أصول اعتقاد أهل السنة، رقم: (٦٦٤) ، ٢/٣٩٨. وأبو عثمان الصابوني في عقيدة السلف، ضمن الرسائل المنيرية ١/١١١. وأبو نعيم في الحلية ٦/٣٢٥-٣٢٦. والدارمي في الرد على الجهمية ص ٢٧. والذهبي في العلو ص ١٠٣، وقال: "هذا ثابت عن مالك، وتقدم نحوه عن ربيعة شيخ مالك، وهو قول أهل السنة قاطبة". تقدم قول ربيعة، برقم: (٧٥) .
وأورده ابن القيم في اجتماع الجيوش الإسلامية ص ٨١، وقال: وكذلك أئمة أصحاب مالك من بعده، قال يحيى بن إبراهيم الطليطلي في كتاب سير الفقهاء -وهو كتاب جليل غزير العلم- حدثني عبد الملك بن حبيب عن عبد الله بن المغيرة عن الثوري عن الأعمش عن إبراهيم قال: كانوا يكرهون قول الرجل: يا خيبة الدهر، وكانوا يقولون: الله هو الدهر، وكانوا يكرهون قول الرجل: رغم أنفي الله، وإنما يرغم أنف الكافر، وكانوا يكرهون قول الرجل: لا والذي خاتمه على فمي، وإنما يختم على فم الكافر، وكانوا يكرهون قول الرجل: والله حيث كان أو إن لله بكل مكان، قال أصبغ: وهو مستو على عرشه، وبكل مكان علمه وإحاطته، وأصبغ من أجل أصحاب مالك وأفقههم. اهـ.
أقول: ومن عجيب المفارقات أن ترى كثيرا من أصحاب مالك المتأخرين فاقوا عقيدته، ودانوا بغيرها، فسلكوا مسلك الأشاعرة في منهجهم في صفة الاستواء والعلو خاصة، وفي جميع الصفات الأخرى عامة، وإنهم بهذا ينزعون ثقتهم بإمام جليل لا يحيدون قيد أنملة عن مذهبه في الفروع، ويضربون مذهبه في الأصول عرض الحائط، وهو شأن بعض أتباع الأئمة الآخرين -أبي حنيفة والشافعي وأحمد، حيث ذهبوا مذاهب في الأصول فارقوا بها مذاهب أئمتهم الذين نهجوا منهج الوحي، ولم يفارقوا التنزيل، فارتضى أولئك المفارقون مذاهب الكلام والسفسطة التي أوردت بهم إلى الزيغ والضلال، نسأل الله الهداية والثبات على الحق.
It is one of the strange contradictions of history that many of the later followers of Mālik left his creed and took the creed of the Ashʿarīs in the istiwāʾ and the Highness in particular, and in the attributes in general. They do not move a finger's breadth from his school in the branches of fiqh, and throw his school in the foundations against the wall.
Part Four
The explanation of the mufassirūn and the Salaf
Fifth Issue: The Explanation of the Salaf
Al-Bukhārī opened a chapter of Kitāb al-Tawḥīd with the Throne, and placed in it the explanations of two imams of tafsīr from the Followers. Abū al-ʿĀliyah explained istawā ilā al-samāʾ as “He rose”. Mujāhid explained istawā as “He ascended upon the Throne”. These are the two words the Salaf used, rising (irtifāʿ) and ascending (ʿuluww), and both are the plain meaning of the Arabic.
Al-Bukhārī reported in his Ṣaḥīḥ:
Chapter: {And His Throne was upon the water}, {and He is the Lord of the Mighty Throne}. Abū al-ʿĀliyah said: {istawā ilā al-samāʾ}: He rose (irtafaʿah). {fa-sawwāhunnah}: He created them. And Mujāhid said: {istawā}: He ascended (ʿalā) upon the Throne.
al-Bukhārī, al-Ṣaḥīḥ (al-Sulṭāniyyah), Kitāb al-Tawḥīd, 9/124
Source, chain and authenticity
Authentic. It is in the Ṣaḥīḥ of al-Bukhārī, and the ummah received the two Ṣaḥīḥs with acceptance; its full chain is given in the Arabic above.
Read the page in the source edition (opens in a new tab)
The whole page in Arabic
Al-Bukhārī's purpose in his chapter headings is known: the heading is his own judgement. By opening the chapter with these explanations he declared that the istiwāʾ is to be understood with its meaning, against those who said it has no meaning or that it means conquering.
Part Five
The statements of the Salaf
Sixth Issue: The Answer of Mālik
A man came to Mālik ibn Anas and asked how Allah rose over the Throne. Mālik lowered his head until he was covered with sweat, out of reverence for the question and anger at it. Then he gave an answer that became the rule for every attribute: the istiwāʾ is not unknown, the how is not comprehended, faith in it is obligatory, and asking about it is an innovation.
Al-Bayhaqī reported in al-Asmāʾ wa-l-Ṣifāt:
Abū ʿAbd Allāh al-Ḥāfiẓ informed us: Aḥmad ibn Muḥammad ibn Ismāʿīl ibn Mihrān informed me: my father narrated to us: Abū al-Rabīʿ, the nephew of Rishdīn ibn Saʿd, narrated to us, saying: I heard ʿAbd Allāh ibn Wahb say: We were with Mālik ibn Anas when a man came in and said: O Abū ʿAbd Allāh, {al-Raḥmān rose over the Throne}: how is His rising? Mālik lowered his head and heavy sweat took hold of him. Then he raised his head and said: {Al-Raḥmān rose over the Throne}, as He described Himself; and it is not said “how”, for “how” is lifted away from Him. And you are an evil man, a man of innovation. Put him out. So the man was put out.
al-Bayhaqī, al-Asmāʾ wa-l-Ṣifāt, 2/304–305, no. 866
Source, chain and authenticity
Al-Bayhaqī reported in al-Asmāʾ wa-l-Ṣifāt:
Abū Bakr Aḥmad ibn Muḥammad ibn al-Ḥārith al-Faqīh al-Aṣfahānī informed us: Abū Muḥammad ʿAbd Allāh ibn Muḥammad ibn Jaʿfar ibn Ḥayyān, known as Abū al-Shaykh, informed us: Abū Jaʿfar Aḥmad ibn Zīrak al-Yazdī narrated to us: I heard Muḥammad ibn ʿAmr ibn al-Naḍr al-Naysābūrī say: I heard Yaḥyā ibn Yaḥyā say: We were with Mālik ibn Anas when a man came and said: O Abū ʿAbd Allāh, {al-Raḥmān rose over the Throne}: so how did He rise? Mālik lowered his head until heavy sweat covered him. Then he said: The istiwāʾ is not unknown, the how is not comprehended by the mind, faith in it is obligatory, and asking about it is an innovation; and I see you as nothing but an innovator. And he ordered that he be put out.
al-Bayhaqī, al-Asmāʾ wa-l-Ṣifāt, 2/305–306, no. 867
Source, chain and authenticity
The four clauses together are the whole creed of the Salaf. “The istiwāʾ is not unknown”: its meaning is known in the language in which the Qurʾān came down. “The how is not comprehended”: the modality is beyond the reach of the mind. “Faith in it is obligatory”: because Allah stated it. “Asking about it is an innovation”: because the Companions did not ask how, and the one who asks seeks what no one can know.
In the narration of Ibn Wahb, Mālik said: as He described Himself, and it is not said “how”, for “how” is lifted away from Him. If Mālik had held that the istiwāʾ has no meaning, he would have answered: we do not know what it means. He answered instead that the meaning is known and the modality is not. This is the difference between the tafwīḍ of the Salaf and the tafwīḍ of the later schools.
Part Six
The imams after them
Seventh Issue: The Imams After Them
Abū al-Ḥasan al-Ashʿarī, the man whose name the Ashʿarīs carry, gave the istiwāʾ a chapter of al-Ibānah and answered: Allah rises over His Throne with a rising that befits Him. He proved it with the verses of ascent: the good word ascends to Him, and Allah raised ʿĪsā to Himself. The founder of their school argued for the istiwāʾ with the very proofs that his later followers interpret away.
Abū al-Ḥasan al-Ashʿarī said in al-Ibānah ʿan Uṣūl al-Diyānah, ed. Fawqiyyah:
إن قال قائل: ما تقولون في الاستواء؟
قيل له: نقول: إن الله ﷿ يستوي على عرشه استواء يليق به من غير طول استقرار، كما قال: (الرحمن على العرش استوى) (٥ /٢٠) ، وقد قال تعالى: (إليه يصعد الكلم الطيب والعمل الصالح يرفعه) من الآية (١٠ /٣٥) ، وقال تعالى: (بل رفعه الله إليه)
Chapter five: mention of the rising over the Throne. If someone says: What do you say about the istiwāʾ? It is said to him: We say that Allah, Mighty and Majestic, rises over His Throne with a rising that befits Him, without a lengthy settling, as He said: {Al-Raḥmān rose over the Throne}; and He, Exalted is He, said: {To Him ascends the good word, and the righteous deed raises it}; and He, Exalted is He, said: {Rather, Allah raised him to Himself}
Abū al-Ḥasan al-Ashʿarī, al-Ibānah ʿan Uṣūl al-Diyānah, ed. Fawqiyyah, p. 105
Source, chain and authenticity
And the imams of the Sunnah after him wrote the same. Ibn Qudāmah gathered the reports of the Highness in Ithbāt Ṣifat al-ʿUluww. Ibn Taymiyyah listed the seven verses of the istiwāʾ in al-Wāsiṭiyyah as the first proof of the Highness. And the imams of the Najdī daʿwah wrote that the Ashʿarīs interpret the istiwāʾ as conquering, and set against them the way of Ahl al-Sunnah, who affirm what Allah affirmed, deny likeness and modality, and abandon the taʾwīl that leads to denial.
Part Seven
Principles drawn from the evidence
Eighth Issue: The Rules That Follow from the Istiwāʾ
The first rule: the istiwāʾ is a particular Highness over the Throne, which is the highest of created things and their roof. It is distinct from the general Highness of Allah over all creation, which never ceased. So the Highness is an attribute of the Essence, and the istiwāʾ is an attribute of action.
The second rule: Allah's rising over the Throne does not mean that He needs it. He holds the Throne and those who carry it by His power, and the Throne does not hold Him. The creature who sits upon a thing needs what is beneath him; Allah is free of every need, and His istiwāʾ is as befits Him.
The third rule: the istiwāʾ is affirmed with its meaning and without likening. The one who says His istiwāʾ is like the sitting of a king upon his throne has likened, and the one who says it is conquering has denied. Ahl al-Sunnah say what Mālik said.
Part Eight
The claims of the opponents and their refutation
“Istawā means istawlā: He conquered”
The claim
Said by the Muʿtazilah, and after them by the later Ashʿarīs and Māturīdīs
Istawā ʿalā al-ʿarsh means that Allah conquered and took possession of the Throne, as in the verse of poetry: “Bishr conquered (istawā) Iraq without sword or spilt blood.”
Its origin Recorded by al-Ashʿarī in Maqālāt al-Islāmiyyīn as the saying of the Muʿtazilah.
The response
The imams of the Najdī daʿwah named this interpretation among the taʾwīls of the Ashʿarīs, beside interpreting the Descent as the descent of the command and the Hands as two powers. It is answered from the language, from the Salaf, and from the wording of the verses.
The imams of the Najdī daʿwah said, in an answer preserved in al-Durar al-Saniyyah:
الأعضاء والجوارح، تعالى الله عن ذلك علوا كبيرا.
فيحصل بذلك: إثبات ما وصف به نفسه في كتابه، وفي سنة رسوله ﷺ؛ ويحصل أيضا نفي التشبيه والتكييف في صفاته، ويحصل أيضا ترك التأويل، والتحريف، المؤدي إلى التعطيل، ويحصل أيضا إثبات الصفات على ما يليق بجلال الله وعظمته، لا على ما نعقله نحن من صفات المخلوقين، وأما الأشاعرة فيؤلون النصوص الواردة في كتاب الله وسنة رسوله، فيؤلون الاستواء بالاستيلاء، والنّزول بنُزول الأمر، واليدين بالقدرتين والنعمتين، والقدم بقدم صدق، وأمثال ذلك.
As for Ahl al-Sunnah wal-Jamāʿah, they describe Allah with everything with which He described Himself, as befits His majesty and greatness. They affirm the Descent, as the authentic Sunnah came with it from the Messenger of Allah ﷺ, that he said: “Our Lord descends every night to the lowest heaven when the last third of the night remains” to the end. They affirm the attribute of the two Hands as befits His majesty and greatness, and likewise the attribute of the noble Face, as befits His majesty and greatness, and likewise the Laughter that the Sunnah came with, the Wonder, the Anger, the Pleasure, the two Handfuls and the Fingers. They describe Allah with what He described Himself with or what His Messenger described Him with, and from all of that they understand only what befits Allah and His greatness, not what befits creatures of limbs and organs — exalted is Allah far above that. By this is attained the affirmation of what He described Himself with in His Book and in the Sunnah of His Messenger ﷺ; and also the negation of likening and of asking how in His attributes; and also the abandonment of taʾwīl and taḥrīf that lead to taʿṭīl; and also the affirmation of the attributes as befits the majesty and greatness of Allah, not according to what we understand of the attributes of creatures. As for the Ashʿarīs, they interpret the texts that came in the Book of Allah and the Sunnah of His Messenger: they interpret the Istiwāʾ as conquering (istīlāʾ), the Descent as the descent of the command, the two Hands as the two powers and the two blessings, the Foot as a “foot of truthfulness”, and the like.
An answer of the imams of the Najdī daʿwah preserved in al-Durar al-Saniyyah, Kitāb al-Asmāʾ wa-l-Ṣifāt, 3/25–26
Source, chain and authenticity
Read the page in the source edition (opens in a new tab)
The whole page in Arabic
والسنوسي قد خالف أئمة السنة في هذه المسألة ; وعبارته في أم البراهين قال: ومما تستحيل في صفته تعالى عشرون صفة، فذكر منها: وأن يكون في جهة ; قال الشارح لها، وهو محمد بن عمر التلمساني: هذا أيضا من أنواع المماثلة المستحيلة، وهي كونه تعالى في جهة، فلا يقال: إنه تعالى فوق العرش ; فقد تبين لك مخالفته السلف الصالح، ومنها: مسألة الصفات، فإن السنوسي أثبت الصفات السبع فقط.
وأما أهل السنة والجماعة فيصفون الله بجميع ما وصف به نفسه، كما يليق بجلاله وعظمته، فيثبتون النّزول، كما وردت بذلك السنة الصحيحة عن رسول الله ﷺ أنه قال: " ينْزل ربنا كل ليلة إلى سماء الدنيا، حين يبقى ثلث الليل "١ إلخ، ويثبتون صفة اليدين، كما يليق بجلاله وعظمته، وكذلك صفة الوجه الكريم، كما يليق بجلاله وعظمته، وكذلك الضحك الذي وردت به السنة، والتعجب، والغضب، والرضى، والقبضتان، والأصابع، فيصفون الله بما وصف به نفسه، أو وصفه به رسوله، ولا يفهمون من جميع ذلك إلا ما يليق بالله وعظمته، لا ما يليق بالمخلوقات من
الأعضاء والجوارح، تعالى الله عن ذلك علوا كبيرا.
فيحصل بذلك: إثبات ما وصف به نفسه في كتابه، وفي سنة رسوله ﷺ؛ ويحصل أيضا نفي التشبيه والتكييف في صفاته، ويحصل أيضا ترك التأويل، والتحريف، المؤدي إلى التعطيل، ويحصل أيضا إثبات الصفات على ما يليق بجلال الله وعظمته، لا على ما نعقله نحن من صفات المخلوقين، وأما الأشاعرة فيؤلون النصوص الواردة في كتاب الله وسنة رسوله، فيؤلون الاستواء بالاستيلاء، والنّزول بنُزول الأمر، واليدين بالقدرتين والنعمتين، والقدم بقدم صدق، وأمثال ذلك.
وأما أهل السنة والجماعة فيصفون الله بهذه الصفات، وغيرها، مما وصف به نفسه، ولا يحرفون الكلم عن مواضعه، ولا يكيفون، ولا يشبهون; والكلام عندهم في الصفات فرع على الكلام في الذات، فكما أن ذاته لا تشبه ذوات خلقه، فكذلك صفاته لا تشبه صفات خلقه، فإذا ثبت وصفه تعالى بالصفات السبع، على ما يليق بجلاله، فكذلك باقي الصفات.
وأما مسألة الحرف والصوت، فتساق هذا المساق، فإن الله تعالى: قد تكلم بالقرآن المجيد، وبجميع حروفه، فقال: "الم"، وقال: "المص"، وقال: " ق "؛ وكذلك جاء في الحديث: " فينادي يوم القيامة بصوت يسمعه من بعد، كما يسمعه من قرب "١، وفي الحديث: " لا أقول الم حرف، ولكن
From the language: conquering is used of something that resisted and was then overcome. The Throne never resisted its Lord, and nothing contested His possession of it, so that He would conquer it at a certain time. Allah is the Lord and Owner of everything at every time.
From the wording: Allah said that He created the heavens and the earth and then rose over the Throne. If the istiwāʾ were conquering, it would mean that He came to possess the Throne after a time in which He did not possess it. And if it meant conquering, He would have said that He rose over the heavens, the earth, the mountains and everything, since He conquers all of it. He singled out the Throne because the istiwāʾ is particular to it.
From the Salaf: not one of the Companions or the Followers explained istawā as istawlā. The explanations they gave are rising and ascending, as al-Bukhārī recorded. The line of poetry about Bishr has no known poet and no chain among those who transmitted the poetry of the Arabs, and the Book of Allah is not interpreted against the explanation of the Salaf by a line that no one can trace.
From the poet: the only proof they have is a line attributed to al-Akhṭal, a Christian poet — qad istawā Bishrun ʿalā al-ʿIrāq, min ghayri sayfin wa-damin muhrāq — “Bishr has risen over Iraq without sword or spilt blood”. Even the line is not explicit for them: istawā Bishr ʿalā al-ʿIrāq means that he rose to the throne of Iraq and became its ruler. This is the foundation they built on, against the explanation of the Companions and the Followers.
From the Throne itself: those who interpret the istiwāʾ as conquering also interpret the Throne as dominion (al-mulk). But the texts describe the Throne as a created thing distinct from the other creatures: it is called great, noble and glorious; the Sunnah says it has legs, and the Prophet ﷺ said that he will find Mūsā holding one of the legs of the Throne; and the Qurʾān says it is carried: “Those who carry the Throne and those around it glorify the praise of their Lord.” Is it correct to say: those who carry the dominion? They are themselves part of the dominion of Allah. This interpretation does not stand; in reality it is taḥrīf, the changing of words from their places.
Allah, the Exalted, said:
Those who carry the Throne and those around it glorify the praise of their Lord and believe in Him, and ask forgiveness for those who believe: Our Lord, You have encompassed all things in mercy and knowledge, so forgive those who repent and follow Your way, and protect them from the punishment of Hellfire.
Qurʾān 40:7 (Ghāfir) Read the verse (opens in a new tab)
“Istiwāʾ has many meanings, so none can be fixed”
The claim
Said by the mufawwiḍah among the later Ashʿarīs
Istiwāʾ has fifteen meanings in the Arabic language, so it is not possible to say which one is meant, and the meaning must be left to Allah.
Its origin The tafwīḍ of meaning, which empties the texts and leaves them to the interpreters.
The response
A word with several uses does not become meaningless. The Arabs distinguish its meanings by the way it is construed, and the Qurʾān was revealed in that Arabic. Istawā without a preposition is one meaning, with ilā another, with the wāw another, and with ʿalā another. The verses of the Throne all use ʿalā, and there the meaning is fixed.
If the existence of several senses for a word made its meaning unknown, then every word in the Qurʾān with more than one sense would be unknown: ṣalāh, zakāh, ḥaqq, amr and hundreds more. No one says this of the verses of rulings. It is said only of the verses of the attributes, and that shows the purpose of the argument.
“If He is above the Throne, He is a body bounded by it”
The claim
Said by al-Rāzī and the later Ashʿarīs
Whatever is above something is bounded by it and has a size, and whatever has a size is a body, so Allah cannot be above the Throne.
Its origin The Jahmiyyah's proof from bodies, taken over by the Muʿtazilah.
The response
This is the argument the mutakallimūn put to every attribute: what is above is a body, what has a Hand is a body, what speaks is a body. If it were sound, it would deny that Allah is existent, living and knowing too, because everything existent, living and knowing that we see is a body. They affirm these and say: He exists, but not as creatures exist. The answer is the same in the Highness: He is above, but not as creatures are above.
The word “body” is not in the texts, and Ahl al-Sunnah neither affirm nor deny it absolutely. If by it is meant that Allah is composed of parts or needs a place that contains Him, He is free of it. If by it is meant that He is above His creation, distinct from it, then this is what the Qurʾān states, and a word invented by the people of kalām does not cancel it.
“We pass over the words of the istiwāʾ without any meaning”
The claim
Said by the mufawwiḍah
The people of tafwīḍ: “These texts must be passed over as words, without any meaning being understood from them and without being explained.”
Its origin The later schools' claim that the Salaf consigned the meanings.
The response
This means that the verses of the istiwāʾ are read as hollow words, not reflected upon and not understood. Both sayings are false: the saying of the people of tafwīḍ and the saying of the people of taʾwīl. The one empties the word of its meaning, and the other replaces its meaning with another.
Mālik answered both in one sentence: the istiwāʾ is known. The meaning is known in the Arabic language. Had the Salaf held that it had no meaning, Mālik would have said: we do not know what it means. He said instead that the istiwāʾ is known and the how is unknown. The mufawwiḍ reverses Mālik's words: he says the meaning is unknown, and so he leaves nothing that the “how” could be denied of.
Sources
- Abū al-Ḥasan al-Ashʿarī, al-Ibānah ʿan Uṣūl al-Diyānah, ed. Fawqiyyah
- An answer of the imams of the Najdī daʿwah preserved in al-Durar al-Saniyyah, Kitāb al-Asmāʾ wa-l-Ṣifāt
- Editor's note to Ibn Qudāmah, Ithbāt Ṣifat al-ʿUluww
- Ibn Fāris, Maqāyīs al-Lughah
- Qurʾān
- al-Bayhaqī, al-Asmāʾ wa-l-Ṣifāt
- al-Bukhārī, al-Ṣaḥīḥ (al-Sulṭāniyyah), Kitāb al-Tawḥīd