This statement and others like it are public: the Ummah has received it in general transmission without confining it to anyone nor concealing it from anyone. The Companions and the Successors would recall it, be moved by it, and transmit it in both private and public gatherings. It is contained in the Islamic works read in such assemblies—Sahih al-Bukhari and Sahih Muslim, Muwattaʾ Malik, Musnad Ahmad, Sunan Abū Dāwūd, al-Tirmidhī, al-Nasaʾī, and the like among the Muslims’ collections. Yet whoever infers from this hadith and its counterparts anything from which God must be sanctified—such as likening Him to created attributes or ascribing to Him any deficiency incompatible with His perfectness—has erred in this. And whoever outwardly refrains from it, or claims that the hadith indicates or necessitates such a meaning, has likewise erred. For attributing to Him, exalted be He, in this hadith the attribute of descent is no different from attributing any of His other attributes… (Sharḥ Ḥadīth al-Nuzūl, p. 5). Imam Ibn Khuzaymah states: “We bear witness—uttered by the tongue, affirmed by the heart—fully assured of what these reports convey regarding the mention of the Lord’s descent, without specifying the modality (kayf), for our Prophet, the Chosen One, did not describe to us how our Creator descends to the lowest heaven; he only informed us that He descends. Allah, Mighty and Majestic, nor His Prophet—may Allah’s blessings and peace be upon him—left unclear what Muslims need in matters of their religion. Thus we profess and affirm what these reports mention of the descent, without being compelled to define its attribute or its modality, since the Prophet ﷺ did not explain the how of the descent. Indeed, it is firmly established and authentic in these reports that Allah, Mighty and Majestic, is above the lowest heaven, to which our Prophet ﷺ informed us He descends—since in Arabic it is impossible to say ‘He descends from below to above,’ and in discourse it is understood that descent is from above to below.” (Al-Tawḥīd, pp. 125–126). This is the creed that must be held regarding the description of Allah, Exalted, with descent. The theologians (mutakallimūn) have ventured to treat this attribute in the same manner as they did the other transmitted attributes—especially the attribute of istiwāʾ (divine establishment)—applying a uniform approach so as to preserve their doctrine of denying the attribute of ‘height’ (‘uluww). And Allah is the One whose help is sought. (1) Sura Ṭā-Hā, verse 5. (2) Sura al-Furqān, verse 59. (3) Sura al-Mulk, verse 16. (4) Sura Fāṭir, verse 10. (5) Sura an-Naḥl, verse 50.