83- Imam Abū al-Ḥasan ʿAlī ibn ʿAsākir ibn al-Murraḥḥib al-Baṭāʾiḥī, the Qurʾān-reciter, informed us; he said (1): al-Amīn Abū Ṭālib ʿAbd al-Qādir ibn Muḥammad ibn ʿAbd al-Qādir al-Yūsufī informed us; he said (2): Abū Isḥāq Ibrāhīm ibn ʿUmar al-Barmakī informed us; Abū Bakr Muḥammad ibn ʿAbd Allāh ibn Bakhīt (3) informed us; he said (4): Abū Ḥafṣ ʿUmar ibn Muḥammad ibn ʿĪsā al-Jawharī informed us; he said (5): Abū Bakr Aḥmad ibn Muḥammad ibn Hāniʾ al-Ṭāʾī, known as al-Athram, narrated to us; he said: ʿAlī ibn al-Ḥasan ibn Shaqīq narrated to me; he said: I asked Ibn al-Mubārak, “How do we know our Lord?” He replied, “In the seventh heaven, upon His Throne, and we do not say as the Jahmiyyah say, ‘He is here and there.’” (6)
84- Abū Bakr (7) al-Athram said: Muḥammad ibn Ibrāhīm al-Qaysī narrated to me; he said: I asked Aḥmad ibn Ḥanbal, “It is related from Ibn al-Mubārak that he was asked, ‘How do we know our Lord?’ and he answered, ‘In the seventh heaven, upon His Throne.’” Aḥmad said, “That is exactly how we hold it.” (8)
85- Al-Athram said: Abū ʿAbd Allāh al-Qaysī (9) also narrated to us; he said: I heard Wahb ibn Jarīr say, “All that the Jahmiyyah want is to claim that there is nothing in heaven.” (10)
(1) “qal” does not appear in the other manuscripts.
(2) “qal” does not appear in the other manuscripts.
(3) In manuscripts H and R it reads “mujib”; in M it reads “najib”, which is incorrect.
(4) “qal” does not appear in the other manuscripts.
(5) “qal” does not appear in the other manuscripts.
(6) Abd Allah ibn Ahmad transmits it in Kitab al-Sunnah, nos. 22 and 598 (vol. 1, pp. 111, 307); al-Bukhari in Kitab Khilq Af'al al-'Ibad, p. 8; al-Darimi in Al-Radd 'ala al-Jahmiyyah, p. 9 and in Al-Radd 'ala Bishr al-Marisi, p. 103; Ibn al-Qayyim in Ijtima' al-Juyush al-Islamiyyah, p. 76 (he deemed it authentic); al-Bayhaqi in Al-Asma' wa al-Sifat, p. 538.
(7) Absent from the original.
(8) Mentioned by Ibn Abi Ya'la in Al-Tabaqat (as narrated by Muhammad ibn Ibrahim al-Qaysi from Imam Ahmad), vol. 1, p. 267; by Ibn Taymiyyah in Dar' Ta'arud al-'Aql wa al-Naql, vol. 2, p. 34. Its source appears in Al-Khallal, with its isnad provided.
(9) In the original and manuscript H: al-Anisi; in Ijtima' al-Juyush al-Islamiyyah, and in M and R: al-Awsi. No biographical entry has been found.
(10) al-Dhahabi records it with its isnad from Muhammad ibn Hammad via Ibn Wahb, in Al-'Uluw, p. 118; Ibn al-Qayyim includes it in Ijtima' al-Juyush al-Islamiyyah, p. 78.