—al-Dawraqi—that is, Aḥmad ibn Ibrāhīm—narrated: “ʿAlī ibn al-Ḥasan ibn Shaqīq told us: I asked Ibn al-Mubārak, ‘How should we know our Lord?’
He replied, ‘He is above the seventh heaven, over His Throne; we do not say, as the Jahmiyyah do, that He is here on earth.’
ʿAbd Allāh ibn Aḥmad also relates in this book, with his chain, from Ibn al-Mubārak: A man said to him, ‘Abū ʿAbd al-Raḥmān, I fear Allah—exalted is He—because of how often I invoke curses on the Jahmiyyah.’
He answered, ‘Do not fear, for they claim that the God who is in heaven is nothing at all.’
ʿAbd Allāh ibn Idrīs said, ‘Any hadith that Ibn al-Mubārak does not recognize, we wash our hands of.’
And it is reported from Ibn al-Mubārak that he said, ‘Authentic hadith keeps one busy enough from its unsound counterpart.’ (1)
Yahyā ibn Aḥmad al-Judhāmī informed us; Muḥammad ibn ʿImād informed us; Ibn Rifāʿah informed us; Abū al-Ḥasan al-Khilaʿī informed us; Ibn al-Ḥājj informed us; Abū al-Faḍl Muḥammad ibn ʿAbd al-Raḥmān al-Ramli informed us; al-ʿAbbās ibn al-Faḍl al-Asfāṭī narrated to us; Aḥmad ibn Yūnus narrated to us:
‘I heard Ibn al-Mubārak recite some Quran and then say, “Whoever claims that this is created has disbelieved in Allah the Magnificent.”’