Ibn Khurrāzād narrated to us; ʿAlī ibn Rawḥān narrated to us; Aḥmad ibn Sinān narrated to us; I heard Shaybān ibn Yaḥyā say:
“I know of no road to Paradise more direct than the one taken by the seeker of hadith.”
Kūtāh passed away in Shaʿbān of the year 553 AH.
He was one of the transmitters of the Luwayn recension, taken from Ibn Mājah al-Abharī (1).
With regard to the issue of the nuzūl, affirming it is obligatory, while abstaining from probing its ramifications is preferable; this is the way of the early generations. He only declared, “His descent is in His very Essence,” to rebut those who had resorted to figurative interpretation and claimed, “His descent to the heaven is merely His knowledge.” We seek Allah’s protection from contentious debate in matters of religion.
The same applies to His words, “and your Lord will come” (Q 89:22) and the like: we say, “He comes and He descends,” while we forbid the expression, “He descends in His Essence,” just as we do not say, “He descends by His knowledge.” Rather, we keep silent and do not presume to out-speak the Messenger—peace and blessings be upon him—with invented phrases. Allah knows best.
- Al-ʿAbbāsī, Abū Jaʿfar Aḥmad ibn Muḥammad ibn ʿAbd al-ʿAzīz
The shaykh, imām, righteous worshipper, and hadith transmitter: Abū Jaʿfar Aḥmad ibn Muḥammad ibn ʿAbd al-ʿAzīz ibn ʿAlī ibn Ismāʿīl ibn ʿAlī ibn Sulaymān ibn Yaʿqūb ibn Ibrāhīm ibn Muḥammad ibn the emir Ismāʿīl ibn ʿAlī ibn ʿAbd Allāh ibn al-ʿAbbās ibn ʿAbd al-Muṭṭalib al-ʿAbbāsī, a Meccan who served as the naqīb (head) of the Hāshimites in Mecca.
He was born in 468 AH.