and was accepted with a deference greater than that accorded to the king; his word was obeyed for nearly sixty years without a single rival. Whenever he attended the public assembly he would wear sumptuous garments and ride fine mounts, saying, “I do this only to honor the religion and to spite its enemies, so that when they observe my dignity and elegance they will be drawn to Islam.”

Yet when he returned home he would resume his patched cloak(1), sit with the Sufis in the khanqah, eat with them, and in no way set himself apart. From him the people of Herat learned to hasten the dawn prayer, and they commonly named their children with ʿAbd prefixed to one of the divine names(2).

Abu Saʿid al-Samʿani said: “Abu Ismaʿil openly upheld the sunnah, called people to it, and urged them to adhere to it. He was satisfied with what he shared with the novices and never took anything from the oppressors. He did not go beyond the literal wording that appears in the Book and the sunnah; he believed in whatever was authenticated, without explicitly stating what anthropomorphism might dictate. On one occasion he said, ‘Whoever has not seen my gathering and my reminders yet still disparages me, I grant him absolution.’(3)

I say: Most of what he transmitted in his book (al-Faruq) consists of authentic or fair reports. In it there is a chapter affirming that Allah is established upon His Throne above the seventh heaven, separate from His creation, with proofs from the Quran and the sunnah. He then cites the evidences from verses and hadiths … until he says:

“In various reports it is stated that Allah is in the seventh heaven upon the Throne, while His knowledge, power, hearing, seeing, and mercy are in every place.”

It is said that Shaykh al-Islam held three hundred and sixty sessions on the exegesis of His saying, “Indeed, those for whom the best reward has preceded from Us…” (Al-Anbiyaʾ 21:101).