677 — Abū ʿAbd Allah Ahmad ibn Muhammad ibn Shāhīn narrated to us, saying: ⦗1103⦘ Yūsuf ibn Mūsā al-Qattān narrated to us, saying: Jarīr narrated to us, from Mutarrif, from al-Shaʿbī, from ʿĀʾisha—may Allah be pleased with her—who said: The Messenger of Allah—may Allah bless him and grant him peace—used to say, “O Allah, You are the First, and nothing is before You. You are the Last, and nothing is after You. You are the Ascendant, and nothing is above You. You are the Intimate, and nothing is nearer than You.”

Muhammad ibn al-Husayn—may Allah have mercy on him—said: Among the ways they confuse those without knowledge is by citing the saying of Allah, Glorious and Exalted: “He is Allah in the heavens and on earth,” and His saying, Glorious and Exalted: “He is God in heaven and God on earth” [al-Zukhruf: 84]. Through all of this, they seek only to sow discord, as Allah Most High said: “They follow what is ambiguous therein, seeking discord and seeking its interpretation” [Āl ʿImrān: 7].

⦗1104⦘ According to the learned adherents of truth, the meaning of “He is Allah in the heavens and on earth. He knows what you conceal and what you reveal, and He knows what you earn” is as the scholars have stated and as the Sunnah has established: Allah, Glorious and Exalted, is above His Throne, while His knowledge encompasses all His creation. “He knows what they conceal and what they reveal” [al-Baqarah: 77], and “He knows what is spoken aloud and knows what you conceal” [al-Anbiyāʾ: 110].

As for His saying, Glorious and Exalted, “He is God in heaven and God on earth” [al-Zukhruf: 84], it means that He—glorious is His remembrance—is the God of those in the heavens and the God of those on earth. He is worshipped as God in the heavens and worshipped as God on earth. This is how the scholars explained it.