the Sunnis, and Abu Bakr ʿAbd al-ʿAziz (1) likewise transmitted the two positions on the authority of the Sunnis drawn from the companions of Imām Aḥmad and others.
Similarly, the very same debate is found between the scholars of ḥadīth and the Ṣūfīs, among the jurists of the Mālikī, Shāfiʿī, Ḥanafī, and Ḥanbalī schools, and even among the various factions of the theologians and the philosophers in this very field. This is not the place (2) to elaborate on that; what precedes is the verbatim wording of the reply issued in the Egyptian fatwa.
I then said (3): As for the inquirer’s question about His words,
“The Most Merciful rose over the Throne” (4),
that is true exactly as Allah has informed us. The people of the Sunnah are unanimous upon what Rabīʿah ibn Abī ʿAbd al-Raḥmān (5), Mālik ibn Anas, and others have stated:
= to his migration.
Sheikh al-Islam (may Allah have mercy on him) mentioned that more than one person reported that al-Harith retracted from that, such as Abu Bakr al-Kalabazi and Mu‘ammar ibn Ziyad. See Dar‘ Ta‘arud al-‘Aql wa al-Naql, vol. 2, pp. 6–7; vol. 7, pp. 147–149; and al-Ta‘rīf li-Madhhab Ahl al-Tasawwuf by al-Kalabazi, p. 40.
(1) It was noted above that the Sheikh (may Allah have mercy on him) explained in Dar‘ Ta‘arud al-‘Aql wa al-Naql, vol. 2, p. 18, that Abu Bakr ‘Abd al-‘Aziz in his book al-Shāfi‘ presented the two views among the followers of Ahmad (may Allah have mercy on him).
(2) In some manuscripts: labassat; in printed editions: mawdi‘an labassat. The Sheikh (may Allah have mercy on him) also referred briefly to this dispute in Dar‘ Ta‘arud al-‘Aql wa al-Naql, vol. 2, pp. 19–20.
(3) In the margin of the original manuscript: “Pause to discuss his statement {ar-Raḥmān ‘alā al-‘arsh istawā} (The Most Merciful established Himself above the Throne).”
(4) Sūrah Ṭā Hā, verse 5.
(5) He is Abu ‘Uthmān Rabi‘ah ibn Abī ‘Abd al-Raḥmān Furūkh al-Taymī al-Madīnī, an imam, jurist, and mujtahid known for his sound judgment—hence called Rabi‘ah al-Ra’y. Malik ibn Anas, Sufyān al-Thawrī, and others narrated from him. Aḥmad ibn Ḥanbal said of him: “Rabi‘ah is reliable.” He died in 136 AH. See Tārīkh Baghdād by al-Baghdādī, vol. 8, pp. 420–426; Tadhkirat al-Ḥuffāẓ by al-Dhahabī, vol. 1, pp. 157–158.