(The Statements of the Imams) (1)
76 – Abu Bakr ʿAbd Allah ibn Muhammad informed us; he said (2): Abu Bakr Ahmad ibn ʿAli related to us; Hibat Allah ibn al-Hasan transmitted; Muhammad ibn ʿUbayd Allah ibn al-Hajjaj reported; Ahmad ibn al-Hasan narrated; ʿAbd Allah ibn Ahmad conveyed; my father informed me; Surayj (3) ibn al-Nuʿmān narrated, saying: ʿAbd Allah ibn Nāfiʿ told me that Mālik said, “Allah is in heaven, while His knowledge is in every place; nothing is devoid of it.” (4)
77 – Abu ʿUmar (5) said: “The scholars from among the Companions and the Successors whose interpretations have been transmitted declared concerning His words, ‘No private conversation of three takes place but that He is their fourth’ (Q58:7), that He is upon the Throne and that His knowledge is in every place. No one whose statement carries authoritative weight has differed with them on this.” (6)
78 – And it is related with its chain from Maʿdān (he said) (7): I asked Sufyān al-Thawrī about the verse, ‘And He is with you wherever you are’ (8) (Q57:4). He replied, “It refers to His knowledge.” (10)
(1) This heading in the original belongs to section 22.
(2) The word “qala” is absent from the other manuscripts. In MS M it reads: “Akhbarana Abu Bakr ‘Abd Allah ibn Muhammad ibn ‘Ubayd Allah ibn al-Hajjaj, anba’ana Ahmad ibn al-Hasan.” As you can see, there is confusion and an omission of the narrators preceding Ahmad ibn al-Hasan in the isnad.
(3) In other manuscripts it appears as “Shurayh,” which is erroneous; the original reads Surayj ibn al-Nu‘man, son of Marwan al-Jawhari. See his biography in al-Tahdhib, vol. 3, p. 457.
(4) It is recorded by al-Lalaka‘i, no. 673, vol. 2, p. 401, with the wording “Malaka Allahu fi al-sama’” (“Allah reigned in the heaven”). The correct reading is “Malik: Allahu fi al-sama’” (“Malik: God is in the heaven”), likely a typographical error. It also appears in ‘Abd Allah ibn Ahmad’s Kitab al-Sunnah, no. 11, vol. 1, p. 107, and in al-Ajuri’s al-Shari‘ah, p. 289.
(5) In other manuscripts: “And Abu ‘Umar ibn ‘Abd al-Barr said: ‘All the scholars agree…’”
(6) al-Tamhid, vol. 7, pp. 138–139.
(7) The word “qala” does not appear in MS H.
(8) From other manuscripts.
(9) Surah al-Hadid, 4.
(10) al-Tamhid, vol. 7, p. 142; al-Lalaka‘i, no. 672, vol. 2, p. 401; and Ibn Taymiyya’s Sharh Hadith al-Nuzul, p. 127.