His messengers.”

He said:

“None of the righteous early generations denied that He truly rose over His Throne. They were ignorant only of the manner of His rising, for its true nature is not known.”

Then, after recounting fourteen positions, he said:

“The clearest position is the one jointly supported by the Quranic verses, the transmitted reports, and the virtuous and righteous: Allah is above His Throne, as He has stated in His Book and through His Prophet, without specifying how, distinct from all His creation. This is the position of the righteous early generations, as trustworthy narrators have transmitted from them.”

When we met in Damascus, the books brought in included works by Abū al-Hasan al-Ash‘arī, such as al-Maqālāt (Doctrinal Positions) and al-Ibāna (The Clarification), and works by the leading scholars among his followers, such as al-Qādī Abū Bakr, Ibn Fūrak, al-Bayhaqī, and others. Al-Ibāna was brought in, together with what Ibn ‘Asākir cited in his book Tabyīn Kadhib al-Muftarī fīmā Nusiba ilā al-Ash‘arī (Exposing the Slanderer’s Lies Concerning What Has Been Attributed to al-Ash‘arī). Abū Zakariyyā al-Nawawī had transcribed this in his own hand.

He said in it:

“If someone says, ‘You have rejected the positions of the Mu‘tazilah, the Qadariyyah, the Jahmiyyah, the Harūriyyah, the Rāfidah, and the Murji’ah. Tell us, then, the position you yourselves hold,’ he is told:

‘Our position is to adhere firmly to Allah’s Book, the Sunnah of His Messenger, and what has been transmitted from the Companions, the Successors, and the leading scholars of hadith. To these we hold fast. We profess what Ahmad ibn Hanbal professed—may Allah make his face radiant, raise his rank, and grant him an abundant reward—and shun whatever contradicts his position. For he is the eminent imam through whom Allah made the truth manifest when misguidance appeared, clarified the path, and quelled the innovations of the innovators, the deviations of those who strayed, and the doubts of those who doubted.’”