Part One
The creed of Ahl al-Sunnah wa-l-Jamāʿah in summary
First Issue: The Word ʿArsh (عَرْش) and What the Throne Is
Ibn Fāris traces the root to one meaning, and it is the meaning of height in something that has been built.
Ibn Fāris said in Maqāyīs al-Lughah, under the root ʿayn–rāʾ–shīn:
سرير الملِك. وهذا صحيحٌ، قال اللّه تعالى: ﴿وَرَفَعَ أَبَوَيْهِ عَلَى اَلْعَرْشِ﴾.
ʿAyn, rāʾ and shīn: one sound root that indicates elevation in something built, and then it is borrowed for other things. From it is al-ʿarsh. Al-Khalīl said: al-ʿarsh is the couch of the king. And this is correct. Allah, the Exalted, said: “And he raised his parents upon the throne.”
Ibn Fāris, Maqāyīs al-Lughah 4/264, root ʿ-r-sh
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وعرَّسُوا * ساعةً فى كُثْب أسْنُمَةٍ … ومنهمُ بالقَسُوميّاتِ مُعتَرَكُ (¬١)
وقال ذو الرُّمَّة:
معرّساً فى بياض الصُّبح وَقعتُه … وسائر السَّير إلاّ ذاك مُنجذِبُ (¬٢)
ومن الباب: عَرَستُ البعيرَ أعرُسُه عَرْساً، وهو أن تشدَّ عنقه مع يديه وهو باركٌ. وهذا يرجع إلى ما قلناه.
وممّا يقرُب من هذا الباب المعرَّس: الذى عُمِلَ له عَرْس (¬٣)، وهو الحائطُ يُجعَل (¬٤) بينَ حائِطَى البَيْت، لا يبلغ به أقصاه، ثم يوضع الجائز من طرف العَرس الداخل إلى أقصى البيت، ويسقّف البيتُ كلُّه.
ومن أمثالهم: «لا مَخْبَأَ لعِطرٍ بعدَ عروس»، وأصله أن رجلاً تزوّجَ امرأةً فلمَّا بنَى بها وجدها تَفِلَة، فقال لها: أين الطيِّب؟ فقالت: خَبَأته! فقال:
لا مخبأَ لعطرٍ بعدَ عَروس.
عرش
العين والراء والشين اصلٌ صحيح واحد، يدلُّ على ارتفاعٍ فى شئٍ مبنىّ، ثم يستعارُ فى غير ذلك. من ذلك العَرْش، قال الخليل: العرش:
سرير الملِك. وهذا صحيحٌ، قال اللّه تعالى: ﴿وَرَفَعَ أَبَوَيْهِ عَلَى اَلْعَرْشِ﴾.
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.
Allah said of Pharaoh and his people:
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).
Sūrat al-Aʿrāf, 7:137 Read the verse (opens in a new tab)
So al-ʿarsh is something raised. The same root gives the trellis in the next verse.
And He said in Sūrat al-Anʿām:
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.
Sūrat al-Anʿām, 6:141 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.
What the Throne is in reality was stated by the Ḥanafī commentator on al-Ṭaḥāwī’s creed, against those of the people of kalām who took it from the philosophers.
Ibn Abī al-ʿIzz said:
A party of the people of kalām held that the Throne is a sphere, round on all its sides, encompassing the world from every direction, and they sometimes call it the Atlas sphere and the ninth sphere. This is not correct, because it is established in the Sharīʿah that it has legs and that angels carry it, as he ﷺ said: “The people will swoon, and I will be the first to recover, and there will be Mūsā, holding one of the legs of the Throne, and I do not know whether he recovered before me or was recompensed for the swoon at the Mount.” And the Throne in the language is the couch of a king, as He, the Exalted, said of Bilqīs: “And she has a great throne.” It is not a sphere, and the Arabs did not understand that from it, and the Qurʾān came down only in the language of the Arabs. So it is a couch with legs that the angels carry, and it is like a dome over the world, and it is the roof of the created things.
Ibn Abī al-ʿIzz, Sharḥ al-ʿAqīdah al-Ṭaḥāwiyyah (al-Maktab al-Islāmī) p. 278
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وذهب طائفة من أهل الكلام إلى أن العرش فلك مستدير من جميع جوانبه محيط بالعالم من كل جهة، وربما سموه: الفلك الأطلس، والفلك التاسع! وهذا ليس بصحيح، لأنه قد ثبت في الشرع أن له قوائم تحمله الملائكة، كما قال ﷺ: "فإن الناس يصعقون، فأكون أول من يفيق، فإذا أنا بموسى آخذ بقائمة من قوائم العرش، فلا أدري أفاق قبلي أم جُوزي بصعقة الطور" (¬٣). والعرش في اللغة: عبارة عن السرير الذي للملك، كما قال تعالى عن بلقيس: ﴿وَلَهَا عَرْشٌ عَظِيمٌ﴾ [النمل: ٢٣]. وليس هو فلكا، ولا تفهم منه العرب ذلك، والقرآن إنما نزل بلغة العرب، فهو: سرير ذو قوائم تحمله الملائكة، وهو كالقبة على العالم، وهو سقف المخلوقات، فمن شعر أمية ابن أبي الصلت:
مجدوا الله فهو للمجد أهل … ربنا في السماء أمسى كبيرا
بالناء العالي الذي بهر النا … س وسوى فوق السماء سريرا
شرجعاً لا يناله بصر العيـ … ـن ترى حوله الملائك صورا
الصور هنا: جمع: أصور، وهو: المائل العنق لنظره إلى العلو. والشرجع: هو العالي المنيف. والسرير: هو العرش في اللغة. ومن شعر عبد الله بن رواحة ﵁، الذي عرض به عن القراءة لامرأته حين اتهمته بجاريته:
Five things are affirmed of the Throne by what follows: that it is a created thing and existed before the heavens and the earth; that it was upon the water; that it has legs and bearers; that it is above Paradise and is the highest and greatest of created things; and that Allah rose over it. Whoever takes any of the five away is left with something other than the Throne that Allah named.
Part Two
The texts of the Qurʾān and the Sunnah
Second Issue: The Throne in the Book and the Sunnah
Allah praised Himself by His Throne and described it. He is its Lord, and He called it great, noble and glorious.
He said at the end of Sūrat al-Tawbah:
So if they turn away, say: Allah suffices me; there is no god but He; upon Him I rely, and He is the Lord of the Mighty Throne.
Sūrat al-Tawbah, 9:129 Read the verse (opens in a new tab)
Great (ʿaẓīm) is the first description. Sūrat al-Muʾminūn gives the second.
And He said in Sūrat al-Muʾminūn:
So exalted is Allah, the True King; there is no god but He, the Lord of the Noble Throne.
Sūrat al-Muʾminūn, 23:116 Read the verse (opens in a new tab)
Noble (karīm) is the second, and Sūrat al-Burūj gives the third, where the word “glorious” is read in two ways. Whichever way it is read, the Throne is named as His possession.
And He said in Sūrat al-Burūj:
Possessor of the Throne, the Glorious.
Sūrat al-Burūj, 85:15 Read the verse (opens in a new tab)
He also said that He is the Lord of the Throne in the verse that gives the proof for His oneness, and He mentioned the Throne together with His being raised in ranks in the verse of Sūrat Ghāfir.
He said in Sūrat Ghāfir:
Exalted in ranks, Possessor of the Throne. He sends the Spirit by His command upon whom He wills of His servants, to warn of the Day of Meeting.
Sūrat Ghāfir, 40:15 Read the verse (opens in a new tab)
The Throne has bearers now, and there will be eight of them on the Day of Judgement.
He said in Sūrat al-Ḥāqqah:
And the angels will be on its sides, and eight will carry the Throne of your Lord above them on that Day.
Sūrat al-Ḥāqqah, 69:17 Read the verse (opens in a new tab)
The Messenger ﷺ was permitted to describe one of them.
Abū Dāwūd reported in his Sunan, from Jābir ibn ʿAbd Allāh, that the Prophet ﷺ said:
I have been permitted to speak of an angel of the angels of Allah, of the bearers of the Throne: the distance between the lobe of his ear and his shoulder is a journey of seven hundred years.
Abū Dāwūd, al-Sunan no. 4727 (ed. Muḥyī al-Dīn 4/232)
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Other angels surround it and glorify their Lord around it, and Sūrat al-Zumar closes with them.
He said at the end of Sūrat al-Zumar:
And you will see the angels surrounding the Throne, glorifying the praise of their Lord. And it will be judged between them in truth, and it will be said: Praise be to Allah, Lord of the worlds.
Sūrat al-Zumar, 39:75 Read the verse (opens in a new tab)
It stands above the highest of Paradise, and the Prophet ﷺ gave that as the reason for asking for al-Firdaws.
Al-Bukhārī reported in his Ṣaḥīḥ, from Abū Hurayrah, that the Messenger of Allah ﷺ said:
When you ask Allah, ask Him for al-Firdaws, for it is the middle of Paradise and the highest of Paradise. I see that above it is the Throne of the Most Merciful, and from it the rivers of Paradise burst forth.
al-Bukhārī, al-Ṣaḥīḥ no. 2790 (al-Sulṭāniyyah 4/16)
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.
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The sun is beneath it. The Prophet ﷺ asked Abū Dharr where the sun goes, and he answered it himself.
Al-Bukhārī reported in his Ṣaḥīḥ from Abū Dharr that the Prophet ﷺ said to him:
… when the sun set: Do you know where it goes? I said: Allah and His Messenger know best. He said: It goes until it prostrates beneath the Throne, and it asks permission and is given permission. And soon it will prostrate and it will not be accepted from it, and it will ask permission and will not be given permission, and it will be said to it: Return from where you came. So it will rise from its place of setting. That is His saying, the Exalted: “And the sun runs to a resting place of its own. That is the decree of the Mighty, the Knowing.”
al-Bukhārī, al-Ṣaḥīḥ no. 3199 (al-Sulṭāniyyah 4/107–108)
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.
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⦗١٠٨⦘
إِبْرَاهِيمَ التَّيْمِيِّ ، عَنْ أَبِيهِ ، عَنْ أَبِي ذَرٍّ ﵁ قَالَ: «قَالَ النَّبِيُّ ﷺ لِأَبِي ذَرٍّ حِينَ غَرَبَتِ الشَّمْسُ: تَدْرِي أَيْنَ تَذْهَبُ قُلْتُ: اللهُ وَرَسُولُهُ أَعْلَمُ قَالَ: فَإِنَّهَا تَذْهَبُ حَتَّى تَسْجُدَ تَحْتَ الْعَرْشِ فَتَسْتَأْذِنَ فَيُؤْذَنُ لَهَا وَيُوشِكُ أَنْ تَسْجُدَ فَلَا يُقْبَلَ مِنْهَا وَتَسْتَأْذِنَ فَلَا يُؤْذَنَ لَهَا يُقَالُ لَهَا: ارْجِعِي مِنْ حَيْثُ جِئْتِ فَتَطْلُعُ مِنْ مَغْرِبِهَا فَذَلِكَ قَوْلُهُ تَعَالَى: ﴿وَالشَّمْسُ تَجْرِي لِمُسْتَقَرٍّ لَهَا ذَلِكَ تَقْدِيرُ الْعَزِيزِ الْعَلِيمِ﴾.»
It has legs. On the Day of Resurrection the Messenger ﷺ will find Mūsā holding one of them.
Al-Bukhārī reported in his Ṣaḥīḥ, from Abū Saʿīd al-Khudrī, that the Prophet ﷺ said:
The people will swoon on the Day of Resurrection, and I will be the first over whom the earth splits open, and there will be Mūsā, holding one of the legs of the Throne. I do not know whether he was among those who swooned, or was recompensed by the first swoon.
al-Bukhārī, al-Ṣaḥīḥ no. 2412 (al-Sulṭāniyyah 3/121)
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.
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It shook. Jābir heard this from the Prophet ﷺ, and when a man tried to turn it to the bier on which the body was carried, he rejected that and repeated the wording with the Name of the Most Merciful.
Al-Bukhārī reported in his Ṣaḥīḥ, after the Prophet’s saying ﷺ “The Throne shook at the death of Saʿd ibn Muʿādh”:
A man said to Jābir: But al-Barāʾ says: The bier shook. He said: There were grudges between these two clans. I heard the Prophet ﷺ say: The Throne of the Most Merciful shook at the death of Saʿd ibn Muʿādh.
al-Bukhārī, al-Ṣaḥīḥ no. 3803 (al-Sulṭāniyyah 5/35)
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.
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وَعَنِ الْأَعْمَشِ: حَدَّثَنَا أَبُو صَالِحٍ، عَنْ جَابِرٍ، عَنِ النَّبِيِّ ﷺ مِثْلَهُ. فَقَالَ رَجُلٌ لِجَابِرٍ: فَإِنَّ الْبَرَاءَ يَقُولُ: اهْتَزَّ السَّرِيرُ فَقَالَ: إِنَّهُ كَانَ بَيْنَ هَذَيْنِ الْحَيَّيْنِ ضَغَائِنُ، سَمِعْتُ النَّبِيَّ ﷺ يَقُولُ: اهْتَزَّ عَرْشُ الرَّحْمَنِ لِمَوْتِ سَعْدِ بْنِ مُعَاذٍ.
It has a weight, and that weight is one of the measures by which a Muslim glorifies his Lord in the morning.
Muslim reported in his Ṣaḥīḥ, from Juwayriyah, that the Prophet ﷺ said:
Glorified is Allah and by His praise, to the number of His creatures, to the pleasure of Himself, to the weight of His Throne and to the ink of His words.
Muslim, al-Ṣaḥīḥ no. 2726 (ed. ʿAbd al-Bāqī 4/2090)
Source, chain and authenticity
Authentic. It is in the Ṣaḥīḥ of Muslim, and the ummah received the two Ṣaḥīḥs with acceptance; its full chain is given in the Arabic above.
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٧٩ - (٢٧٢٦) حدثنا قتيبة بن سعيد وَعَمْرٌو النَّاقِدُ وَابْنُ أَبِي عُمَرَ (وَاللَّفْظُ لِابْنِ أبي عمر). قالوا: حَدَّثَنَا سُفْيَانُ عَنْ مُحَمَّدِ بْنِ عَبْدِ الرَّحْمَنِ، مَوْلَى آلِ طَلْحَةَ، عَنْ كُرَيْبٍ، عَنْ ابْنِ عباس، عن جويرية؛
أَنَّ النَّبِيَّ ﷺ خَرَجَ من عندها بكرة حين صلى الصبح، وهي في مسجدها. ثم رجع بعد أن أضحى، وهي جالسة. فقال "ما زلت على الحال التي فارقتك عليها؟ " قالت: نعم. قال النبي ﷺ "لقد قلت بعدك أربع كلمات، ثلاث مرات. لو وزنت بما قلت منذ اليوم لوزنتهن: سبحان الله وبحمده، عدد خلقه ورضا نفسه وزنة عرشه ومداد كلماته".
And it was there before the heavens and the earth, upon the water, as the Prophet ﷺ told the people of Yemen.
Al-Bukhārī reported in Kitāb al-Tawḥīd of his Ṣaḥīḥ, from ʿImrān ibn Ḥuṣayn:
ʿAbdān narrated to us, from Abū Ḥamzah, from al-Aʿmash, from Jāmiʿ ibn Shaddād, from Ṣafwān ibn Muḥriz, from ʿImrān ibn Ḥuṣayn, who said: I was with the Prophet ﷺ when some people of Banū Tamīm came to him, and he said: Accept the glad tidings, O Banū Tamīm. They said: You have given us glad tidings, so give us something. Then some people of Yemen came in, and he said: Accept the glad tidings, O people of Yemen, since Banū Tamīm did not accept them. They said: We accept. We have come to you to gain understanding of the religion, and to ask you about the beginning of this matter, what it was. He said: “Allah was, and there was nothing before Him, and His Throne was upon the water; then He created the heavens and the earth, and He wrote everything in the Reminder.”
al-Bukhārī, al-Ṣaḥīḥ (al-Sulṭāniyyah), Kitāb al-Tawḥīd, 9/124, no. 7418
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.
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The Companions held this as plainly as it is said here. ʿAbd Allāh ibn Rawāḥah recited it to his wife to persuade her that he was reciting the Qurʾān, and she took it for the Qurʾān. Ibn ʿAbd al-Barr reported the account, and Ibn Abī al-ʿIzz quotes the verses as evidence on the meaning of the Throne.
ʿAbd Allāh ibn Rawāḥah said, as Ibn ʿAbd al-Barr reported in al-Istīʿāb:
وأن العرش فوق الماء حق … وفوق العرش رب العالمينا
وتحمله ملائكة غلاظ … ملائكة الإله مسومينا
فقالت امرأته: صدق الله، وكذبت عيني، وكانت لا تحفظ القرآن ولا تقرؤه.
I bear witness that the promise of Allah is true, and that the Fire is the abode of the disbelievers; and that the Throne above the water is true, and above the Throne is the Lord of the worlds; and stern angels carry it, the angels of God, marked. His wife said: Allah has spoken the truth, and my eye has lied. She had not memorised the Qurʾān and could not read it.
Ibn ʿAbd al-Barr, al-Istīʿāb (ed. al-Bajāwī) 3/901; also Ibn Abī al-ʿIzz, Sharḥ al-Ṭaḥāwiyyah p. 279
Source, chain and authenticity
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وأن العرش فوق الماء حق … وفوق العرش رب العالمينا
وتحمله ملائكة غلاظ … ملائكة الإله مسومينا
فقالت امرأته: صدق الله، وكذبت عيني، وكانت لا تحفظ القرآن ولا تقرؤه.
وروينا من وجوه من حديث أبى الدرداء، قال: لقد رأيتنا مع رسول الله ﷺ في بعض أسفاره في اليوم الحار الشديد حتى إن الرجل ليضع من شدة الحر يده على رأسه، وما في القوم صائم إلا رسول الله ﷺ وعبد الله بن رواحة.
(١٥٣١) عبد الله بن رئاب
روى عن النبي ﷺ، حديثه عندي مرسل، رواه معمر، عن كثير بن سويد، عنه.
(١٥٣٢) عبد الله بن زائدة بن الأصم
هو ابن أم مكتوم (¬١) القرشي العامري الأعمى. هكذا قال قتادة: ابن أم مكتوم عبد الله بن زائدة. وقال غيره:
عبد الله بن قيس بن زائدة. وسنذكره في موضعه، وقد تقدم ذكره في صدر العبادلة (¬٢).
(١٥٣٣) عبد الله بن الزبعرى بن قيس بن عدى بن سعد بن سهم القرشي السهمي الشاعر
أمه عاتكة بنت عبد الله بن عمرو بن وهب بن حذافة بن جمح، كان من أشد الناس على رسول الله ﷺ وعلى أصحابه بلسانه ونفسه، وكان من أشعر الناس وأبلغهم. يقولون: إنه أشعر قريش قاطبة.
“Above the Throne is the Lord of the worlds” is a Companion’s line of verse, and it describes the Throne as carried by angels. Isḥāq ibn Rāhawayh said what this whole chapter comes to.
Ḥarb al-Kirmānī said in his Masāʾil, in the chapter on the Istiwāʾ:
Isḥāq dictated that Allah, Blessed and Exalted, described Himself in His Book with attributes, so that creation has no need to describe Him with other than what He described Himself with. Among them is His saying: “In shadows of clouds, and the angels”, and His saying: “And you will see the angels surrounding the Throne”, and verses like it that describe the Throne. And the reports concerning the Throne are firmly established, and the highest and firmest thing concerning it is the saying of Allah: “The Most Merciful rose over the Throne.”
Ḥarb al-Kirmānī, Masāʾil Ḥarb (ed. Fāyiz Ḥābis) 3/1117
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باب: في الاستواء
أملى إسحاق أن الله ﵎ وصف نفسه في كتابه بصفات استغنى الخلق أن يصفوه بغير ما وصف به نفسه، من ذلك قوله: ﴿يَأْتِيَهُمُ اللهُ فِي ظُلَلٍ مِّنَ الْغَمَامِ وَالْمَلآئِكَةُ﴾ [البقرة: ٢١٠] وقوله: ﴿وَتَرَى الْمَلَائِكَةَ حَافِّينَ مِنْ حَوْلِ الْعَرْشِ﴾ وآيات مثلها تصف العرش، وقد ثبتت الروايات في العرش، وأعلى شيء فيه وأثبته قول الله: ﴿الرَّحْمَنُ عَلَى الْعَرْشِ اسْتَوَى﴾ [طه: ٥].
سمعت أبا جعفر أحمد بن سعيد - قال أبو محمد: هذا أحمد بن سعيد الدارمي خراساني، وليس هذا الرباطي، وقد كتبت عن الرباطي أيضًا - يقول: سمعت أبي يقول: سمعت خارجة بن مصعب يقول: الجهيمة كفار، لا تنكحوا إليهم، ولا تنكحوهم، ولا تعودوا مرضاهم، ولا تشهدوا جنائزهم، وبلغوا نسائهم أنهن طالق، أنهن لا يحللن لأزواجهن،
Part Three
The claims of the opponents and their refutation
“The Throne means dominion”
The claim
Said by the Muʿtazilah and the later Ashʿarīs who explain the verse by conquering
“The Throne is an expression for dominion and power, so ‘He rose over the Throne’ means that His dominion is complete.”
Its origin The Jahmiyyah.
The response
Those who interpret the Istiwāʾ as conquering also interpret the Throne as dominion (al-mulk), and then the verse says nothing. The texts describe the Throne as a created thing distinct from the other creatures, as the chapter on the Throne shows. Ibn Abī al-ʿIzz asks one question of it.
Ibn Abī al-ʿIzz said:
As for the one who changes the speech of Allah and makes the Throne an expression for dominion, what will he do with His saying, the Exalted: “And eight will carry the Throne of your Lord above them on that Day”, and His saying: “And His Throne was upon the water”? Will he say: And eight will carry His dominion on that Day? And His dominion was upon the water? And that Mūsā, upon him be peace, is holding one of the legs of the dominion? Does anyone with sense who knows what he is saying say this?
Ibn Abī al-ʿIzz, Sharḥ al-ʿAqīdah al-Ṭaḥāwiyyah (al-Maktab al-Islāmī) p. 279
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وأن العرش فوق الماء طاف … وفوق العرش رب العالمينا
وتحمله ملائكة شداد … ملائكة الإله مسومينا
ذكره ابن عبد البر وغيره من الأئمة، وروى أبو داود عن النبي ﷺ أنه قال: "أذن لي أن أحدث عن ملك من ملائكة الله ﷿ من حملة العرش، إن ما بين [شحمة] أذنه إلى عاتقه مسيرة سبعمائة عام" (¬١). ورواه ابن أبي حاتم ولفظه: "تخفق الطير سبعمائة عام".
وأما من حرف كلام الله، وجعل العرش عبارة عن الملك، كيف يصنع بقوله تعالى: ﴿وَيَحْمِلُ عَرْشَ رَبِّكَ فَوْقَهُمْ يَوْمَئِذٍ ثَمَانِيَةٌ﴾ [الحاقة: ١٧]. وقوله: ﴿وَكَانَ عَرْشُهُ عَلَى الْمَاءِ﴾ [هود: ٧]. أيقول: ويحمل ملكه يومئذ ثمانية؟! وكان ملكه على الماء! ويكون موسى ﵇ آخذا من قوائم الملك؟! هل يقول هذا عاقل يدري ما يقول؟!
وأما الكرسي فقال تعالى: ﴿وَسِعَ كُرْسِيُّهُ السَّمَاوَاتِ وَالْأَرْضَ﴾ [البقرة: ٢٥٥]. وقد قيل: هو العرش، والصحيح أنه غيره، نقل ذلك عن ابن عباس ﵄ وغيره، روى ابن أبي شيبة في كتاب صفة العرش، والحاكم في مستدركه، وقال: إنه على شرط الشيخين ولم يخرجاه، عن سعيد بن جبير عن ابن عباس، في قوله تعالى: ﴿وَسِعَ كُرْسِيُّهُ السَّمَاوَاتِ وَالْأَرْضِ﴾ [البقرة: ٢٥٥]، أنه قال: الكرسي موضع القدمين، والعرش لا يقدر قدره إلا الله تعالى (¬٢). وقد روي مرفوعا، والصواب أنه موقوف على ابن عباس، وقال السدي: السماوات والأرض في جوف الكرسي بين يدي العرش. وقال ابن جرير: قال أبو ذر ﵁: سمعت رسول الله ﷺ يقول: "ما الكرسي في العرش إلا كحلقة من حديد ألقيت
Those who carry the Throne glorify the praise of their Lord, as Allah said in Sūrat Ghāfir, and they are themselves part of His dominion. Is it correct to say: those who carry the dominion? This does not stand. It is taḥrīf, the changing of words from their places.
And Allah said of the bearers of the Throne:
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.
Sūrat Ghāfir, 40:7 Read the verse (opens in a new tab)
The dominion of Allah is everything that exists. Then “the Throne was upon the water” would mean that everything was upon the water, and the water would be outside the dominion. Whoever falls into this has made Allah speak nonsense in order to avoid His meaning.
“If He is upon the Throne, the angels are carrying Him”, and “is He larger or smaller than the Throne?”
The claim
The first is said by al-Rāzī in Taʾsīs al-Taqdīs. The second is said by al-Marīsī and his companion, as al-Dārimī records
“If He is above the Throne and the Throne has bearers, then the bearers carry Him, and He needs them. And is He larger than the Throne, or smaller, or its equal?”
Its origin Bishr al-Marīsī.
The response
Al-Rāzī says: if He is above the Throne and the Throne has bearers, then either they carry the Throne alone, and then the Throne has no share in His being above it, or they carry the Throne and what is above it, and then Allah is carried, and whatever is carried needs what carries it. His older companion al-Marīsī framed it another way: is Allah larger than the Throne, or smaller, or its equal? If He is smaller, you have made the Throne greater than He. If He is larger, you have made Him exceed the Throne. If He is equal, then the Throne with the heavens and the earth is greater than He. Al-Dārimī answered the second in his Naqḍ, and it is the answer of one who was close to the Salaf and spoke as they spoke.
Al-Dārimī said in al-Naqḍ ʿalā al-Marīsī, in the chapter on what has come concerning the Throne:
وَقَدْ بَلَغَنَا أَنَّهُمْ حِينَ حَمَلُوا العَرْشَ وَفَوْقَهُ الجَبَّارُ فِي عِزَّتِهِ، وَبَهَائِهِ ضَعُفُوا عَنْ حَمْلِهِ وَاسْتَكَانُوا، وَجَثَوْا عَلَى رُكَبِهِمْ، حَتَّى لُقِّنُوا «لَا حَوْلَ وَلَا قُوَّةَ إِلَّا بِالله» فَاسْتَقَلُّوا بِهِ بِقُدْرَةِ الله وَإِرَادَتِهِ.
لَوْلَا ذَلِكَ مَا اسْتَقَلَّ بِهِ العَرْشُ، وَلَا الحَمَلَةُ، وَلَا السَّمَاوَاتُ وَالأَرْضُ، وَلَا مَنْ فِيهِنَّ.
وَلَوْ قَدْ شَاءَ لَاسْتَقَرَّ عَلَى ظَهْرِ بَعُوضَةٍ فَاسْتَقَلَّتْ بِهِ بِقُدْرَتِهِ، وَلُطْفِ رُبُوبِيَّتِهِ، فَكَيْفَ عَلَى عَرْشٍ عَظِيمٍ أَكْبَرَ مِنَ السَّمَاوَاتِ السَّبْعِ وَالأَرَضِينَ السَّبْعِ؟ وَكَيْفَ يُنْكَرُ أَيُّهَا النَّفَّاج أَنَّ عَرْشَهُ يُقِلُّهُ، أو العَرش أَكْبَرَ مِنَ السَّمَاوَاتِ السَّبْعِ وَالأَرَضِينَ السَّبْعِ؟ وَلَوْ كَانَ العَرْشُ فِي السَّمَاوَات وَالأَرضين مَا وَسِعَتْهُ، ولَكِنَّهُ فَوْقَ السَّمَاءِ السَّابِعَةِ.
فَكَيْفَ تُنْكِرُ هَذَا وَأَنْتَ تَزْعُمُ أَنَّ اللهَ فِي الأَرْضِ، وَفِي جَمِيعِ أَمْكِنَتِهَا، وَالأَرْضُ دُونَ العَرْشِ فِي العَظَمَةِ وَالسَّعَةِ؟ فَكَيْفَ تُقِلُّهُ الأَرْضُ فِي دَعْوَاكَ وَلَا يُقِلُّهُ العَرْشُ الَّذِي أَعْظَمُ مِنْهَا وَأَوْسَعُ؟ وَأَدْخِلْ هَذَا القيَاس الَّذِي أَدْخَلْتَ عَلَيْنَا فِي عِظَمِ العَرْشِ وَصِغَرِهِ وَكِبَرِهِ عَلَى نَفْسِكَ، وَعَلَى أَصْحَابِكَ فِي الأَرْضِ وَصِغَرِهِا، حَتَّى تَسْتَدِلَّ عَلَى جَهْلِكَ وَتَفْطِنَ لِمَا تُورِدُ عَلَيْكَ حَصَائِدُ لِسَانِكَ، فَإِنَّكَ لَا تَحْتَجُّ بِشَيْءٍ إِلَّا وَهُوَ رَاجِعٌ عَلَيْكَ وَآخِذٌ بِحَلْقِكَ.
It is said to this babbler and braggart: Allah is greater than everything and larger than every creature. The Throne did not bear Him by its size or its strength, and the bearers of the Throne did not bear Him by their strength, and they did not lift His Throne by the firmness of their build. They carried it by His power, His will, His intention and His support. Had that not been so, they would not have been able to carry it. It has reached us that when they carried the Throne, and above it the Compeller in His might and His splendour, they were too weak to carry it and humbled themselves and fell on their knees, until they were taught “There is no might and no power except by Allah”, and they lifted it by the power of Allah and His intention. Had that not been so, neither the Throne nor the bearers nor the heavens and the earth nor those in them would have lifted it. Had He willed, He would have settled upon the back of a gnat, and it would have lifted Him by His power and the gentleness of His lordship; so how about a mighty Throne, greater than the seven heavens and the seven earths? How do you deny, O braggart, that His Throne lifts Him, when the Throne is greater than the seven heavens and the seven earths? If the Throne were in the heavens and the earths they would not contain it, but it is above the seventh heaven. How do you deny this, when you claim that Allah is on the earth and in all its places, and the earth is less than the Throne in its size and its breadth? How can the earth lift Him in your claim, and the Throne not lift Him, which is greater and wider than it? Bring this reasoning of yours about the greatness of the Throne, its smallness and its largeness, against yourself and your companions concerning the earth and its smallness, until you have grasped your ignorance and understood what the harvest of your tongue brings upon you. For you bring no argument except that it returns upon you and takes you by the throat.
al-Dārimī, al-Naqḍ ʿalā al-Marīsī (ed. al-Shawāmī) p. 173; also Ibn Taymiyyah, Bayān Talbīs al-Jahmiyyah 3/242–243
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The last line is the point. The Jahmī says that He is in every place, and every place is smaller than the Throne. If He cannot be carried by the Throne, how is He carried by a cellar? He has asked for a measurement between the Lord and one of His creatures, while he himself places Him in the smallest of them.
Ibn Taymiyyah divides the answer to al-Rāzī by the two sayings on the bearers, and he leaves him with nothing on either.
Ibn Taymiyyah said in Bayān Talbīs al-Jahmiyyah:
فإنهم ينازعونه في المقدمتين جميعًا فيقال من جهة الأولين لانسلم أن من حمل العرش يجب أن يحمل من فوقه فالمقدمة الأولى ممنوعة وذلك أن من حمل السقف لايجب أن يحمل ما فوقه إلا أن يكون ما فوقه معتمدًا عليه وإلا فالهواء والطير وغير ذلك مما هو فوق السقف ليس محمولاً لما يحمل السقف وكذلك السموات فوق الأرض وليست الأرض حاملة السموات وكل سماء فوقها سماء وليست السفلى حاملة للعليا فإذا لم يجب في المخلوقات أن يكون الشيء حاملاً لما فوقه بل قد يكون وقد لا يكون لم يلزم أن يكون العرش حاملاً للرب تعالى إلا بحجة تبين ذلك وإذا لم يكن العرش حاملاً لم يكن حملة العرش حاملة لما فوقه بطريق الأولى الوجه الثاني أن الطائفة الأخرى تمنع المقدمة الثانية فيقولون لا نسلم أن العرش وحملته إذا كانوا حاملين لله لزم أن يكون الله محتاجًا إليهم فإن الله هو الذي يخلقهم ويخلق قواهم وأفعالهم فلا يحملونه إلا بقدرته ومعونته كما لا يفعلون شيئًا
من الأفعال إلا بذلك فلا يحمل في الحقيقة نفسه إلا نفسه كما أنه سبحانه إذا دعاه عباده فأجابهم وهو سبحانه الذي خلقهم وخلق دعاءهم وأفعالهم فهو المجيب لما خلقه وأعان عليه من الأفعال وكذلك إذا فرح بتوبة التائب من عباده أو غضب من معاصيهم وغير ذلك مما فيه إثبات نوع تحول عن أفعال عباده فإن هذا يقوله كثير من أهل الكلام مع موافقة جمهور أهل الحديث وغيرهم فيه مقامان مشكلان أحدهما مسألة حلول الحوادث والثانية تأثير المخلوق فيه وجواب المسألة الأولى مذكور في غير هذا الموضع وجواب السؤال الثاني أنه لا خالق ولا بارئ ولا مصور ولا مدبر لأمر الأرض والسماء إلا هو فلا حول ولا قوة إلا به وكل ما في عباده من حول وقوة فبه هو سبحانه فيعود المر إلى أنه هو المتصرف بنفسه ﷾ الغني عما سواه
People hold two sayings on the bearers of the Throne. One is that the bearers of the Throne carry the Throne and do not carry the One above it. The other is that they carry the Throne and the One above it. So what each of the two parties says in answer to this proof is mentioned, for they dispute both of his premises. It is said on behalf of the first: We do not grant that whoever carries the Throne must carry the One above it. The first premise is refused. For whoever carries a roof does not have to carry what is above it, unless what is above it rests upon it. The air, the birds and other things that are above the roof are not carried by whoever carries the roof. Likewise the heavens are above the earth, and the earth does not carry the heavens, and every heaven has a heaven above it, and the lower does not carry the higher. So since it is not necessary among created things that a thing carry what is above it, for sometimes it does and sometimes it does not, it does not follow that the Throne carries the Lord, the Exalted, except by a proof that makes that clear. And if the Throne does not carry Him, then the bearers of the Throne do not carry what is above it, a fortiori. The second aspect is that the other party refuses the second premise. They say: We do not grant that if the Throne and its bearers carry Allah, it follows that Allah needs them. For Allah is the One who creates them, their strengths and their actions, and they do not carry Him except by His power and His aid, just as they do not do anything except by that. So in reality, nothing carries Him but Himself. Just as when His servants call upon Him and He answers them, He, Glorified is He, is the One who created them and created their supplication and their actions. So He is the One who answers what He created and aided of actions. And there is no creator, no maker, no fashioner and no arranger of the affair of the earth and the heaven but He. So there is no might and no power except by Him, and all that is in His servants of might and power is by Him, Glorified is He. So the matter returns to this: that He is the One who acts by Himself, the One free of need of everything else.
Ibn Taymiyyah, Bayān Talbīs al-Jahmiyyah 3/238–240
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فإنهم ينازعونه في المقدمتين جميعًا فيقال من جهة الأولين لانسلم أن من حمل العرش يجب أن يحمل من فوقه فالمقدمة الأولى ممنوعة وذلك أن من حمل السقف لايجب أن يحمل ما فوقه إلا أن يكون ما فوقه معتمدًا عليه وإلا فالهواء والطير وغير ذلك مما هو فوق السقف ليس محمولاً لما يحمل السقف وكذلك السموات فوق الأرض وليست الأرض حاملة السموات وكل سماء فوقها سماء وليست السفلى حاملة للعليا فإذا لم يجب في المخلوقات أن يكون الشيء حاملاً لما فوقه بل قد يكون وقد لا يكون لم يلزم أن يكون العرش حاملاً للرب تعالى إلا بحجة تبين ذلك وإذا لم يكن العرش حاملاً لم يكن حملة العرش حاملة لما فوقه بطريق الأولى الوجه الثاني أن الطائفة الأخرى تمنع المقدمة الثانية فيقولون لا نسلم أن العرش وحملته إذا كانوا حاملين لله لزم أن يكون الله محتاجًا إليهم فإن الله هو الذي يخلقهم ويخلق قواهم وأفعالهم فلا يحملونه إلا بقدرته ومعونته كما لا يفعلون شيئًا
من الأفعال إلا بذلك فلا يحمل في الحقيقة نفسه إلا نفسه كما أنه سبحانه إذا دعاه عباده فأجابهم وهو سبحانه الذي خلقهم وخلق دعاءهم وأفعالهم فهو المجيب لما خلقه وأعان عليه من الأفعال وكذلك إذا فرح بتوبة التائب من عباده أو غضب من معاصيهم وغير ذلك مما فيه إثبات نوع تحول عن أفعال عباده فإن هذا يقوله كثير من أهل الكلام مع موافقة جمهور أهل الحديث وغيرهم فيه مقامان مشكلان أحدهما مسألة حلول الحوادث والثانية تأثير المخلوق فيه وجواب المسألة الأولى مذكور في غير هذا الموضع وجواب السؤال الثاني أنه لا خالق ولا بارئ ولا مصور ولا مدبر لأمر الأرض والسماء إلا هو فلا حول ولا قوة إلا به وكل ما في عباده من حول وقوة فبه هو سبحانه فيعود المر إلى أنه هو المتصرف بنفسه ﷾ الغني عما سواه وهؤلاء يقولون هذا الذي ذكرناه أكمل في صفة الغني
So al-Rāzī’s proof takes two premises: that whoever carries the lower carries the higher, and that whoever is carried needs his carrier. The first is false among creatures themselves, for the first heaven does not carry the second. The second holds of a creature carried by another creature that he did not make and does not sustain. And al-Rāzī wants the conclusion to hold of the Lord, who made the bearers and made their strength. On the first saying his proof has no first premise, and on the second it has no second premise, and these are all the sayings there are.
And the charge returns upon the one who raises it. He also says that the Lord is the One who answers the supplication of the servants, while He is the One who made their supplication. So he has not understood what he affirms there, and he uses his failure to understand against the Throne.
Al-Rāzī: “If He were upon the Throne, the Throne would have been created first”
The claim
Said by Fakhr al-Dīn al-Rāzī in Asās al-Taqdīs
Fakhr al-Dīn al-Rāzī: “If He were settled upon the Throne, it would have been more fitting to begin with the creation of the Throne before the heavens, because on that view the Throne is a place for Him and the heavens are places for His servants, and the mind finds it closer that one prepares a place for oneself before preparing places for one's servants. But it is known that the heavens were created before the Throne, by His saying: He created the heavens and the earth in six days, then rose over the Throne; and ‘then’ indicates sequence.”
Its origin Answered by Ibn Taymiyyah in Bayān Talbīs al-Jahmiyyah.
The response
Allah, the Exalted, said in Sūrat al-Aʿrāf:
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.
Sūrat al-Aʿrāf, 7:54 Read the verse (opens in a new tab)
Al-Rāzī’s argument supposes that the Throne is a need of the One above it. The Qurʾān speaks of the Throne before the creation of the heavens and the earth.
And He said in Sūrat Hūd:
And He is the One who created the heavens and the earth in six days, and His Throne was upon the water, that He might test you, which of you is best in deed. And if you say: You will be raised after death, those who disbelieve will surely say: This is nothing but clear magic.
Sūrat Hūd, 11:7 Read the verse (opens in a new tab)
And it says what He did when the earth was ready, so the order is stated by Allah Himself.
And He said in Sūrat al-Baqarah:
It is He who created for you all that is on the earth; then He directed Himself to the heaven and made them seven heavens; and He is Knowing of all things.
Sūrat al-Baqarah, 2:29 Read the verse (opens in a new tab)
Ibn Taymiyyah answered this in Bayān Talbīs al-Jahmiyyah, and he opened his answer with a judgement on the man: this one and his like bring no argument except that it turns against them. The answer has four parts.
First: the argument helps his opponents. He says that if Allah were above the Throne, the Throne would have been created first. That is exactly what happened. So by his own reasoning, the order of creation supports the Highness.
Second: his claim that the heavens were created before the Throne has no basis. No one among the earlier or later scholars said it. The verse says that Allah rose over the Throne after creating the heavens and the earth; it does not say that He created the Throne then. Where in the verse is “then He created the Throne”? If the Throne had been created at that time, its creation would have been mentioned before the rising over it.
Third: the Qurʾān and the Sunnah state the opposite. Allah said: He created the heavens and the earth in six days, and His Throne was upon the water. The Throne was there while the heavens and the earth were being created. And the Prophet ﷺ answered the people of Yemen: Allah was, and there was nothing before Him, and His Throne was upon the water; then He created the heavens and the earth. Al-Bukhārī put this ḥadīth under the chapter of the Throne in Kitāb al-Tawḥīd.
Fourth: even if it were supposed that the Throne was created after the heavens, nothing would prevent Allah from being above it. Allah created the earth, and then directed Himself to the heaven and made it seven heavens above it. What is created later can be above what was created earlier. So al-Rāzī's argument fails on every assumption, and on the true assumption it proves the opposite of what he wanted.
Sources
- Abū Dāwūd, al-Sunan
- Ibn Abī al-ʿIzz, Sharḥ al-ʿAqīdah al-Ṭaḥāwiyyah (al-Maktab al-Islāmī)
- Ibn Fāris, Maqāyīs al-Lughah
- Ibn Taymiyyah, Bayān Talbīs al-Jahmiyyah
- Ibn ʿAbd al-Barr, al-Istīʿāb (ed. al-Bajāwī)
- Muslim, al-Ṣaḥīḥ
- Qurʾān
- al-Bukhārī, al-Ṣaḥīḥ
- al-Bukhārī, al-Ṣaḥīḥ (al-Sulṭāniyyah), Kitāb al-Tawḥīd
- al-Dārimī, al-Naqḍ ʿalā al-Marīsī (ed. al-Shawāmī)
- Ḥarb al-Kirmānī, Masāʾil Ḥarb (ed. Fāyiz Ḥābis)