He also related that al-Dahhāk ibn Muzāhim said, concerning Allah’s words:
“There is no private conversation among three”:
“He is over His Throne, and His knowledge is with them wherever they may be.” A similar statement was related from Sufyān al-Thawrī.
It was also related from Ibn Mas‘ūd that he said: “Allah is above the Throne, and nothing of your deeds is hidden from Him.”
Abū ‘Umar ibn ‘Abd al-Barr said:
“Ahl al-Sunnah unanimously affirm all the attributes mentioned in the Quran and Sunnah, believe in them, and understand them in their real rather than figurative sense. However, they do not specify how any of them are, nor define them by a circumscribed description. As for the adherents of innovation—the Jahmiyyah, all the Mu‘tazilah, and the Khawārij—they all deny these attributes and understand none of them in their real sense. They claim that whoever affirms them likens Allah to His creation, whereas those who affirm them regard these people as denying the One who is worshipped. The truth concerning these attributes is what is affirmed by those who uphold what Allah’s Book and the Sunnah of His Messenger, may Allah bless him and grant him peace, declare. These are the leaders of the community.”
Abū ‘Umar also said:
“The position of Ahl al-Sunnah and the leading scholars of jurisprudence and transmitted reports concerning this matter and similar matters is to believe in and accept as true what has come from the Prophet, may Allah bless him and grant him peace, concerning them, without defining any of these attributes or specifying how they are.”
The shaykh versed in spiritual knowledge, Abū Muhammad ‘Abd al-Qādir ibn Abī Sālih al-Kīlānī, said in his book al-Ghunya:
“As for knowing the Creator through signs and proofs—to state it briefly—it consists in knowing with certainty that Allah is One, uniquely One.”
He continued until he said:
“He is in the direction above, risen over the Throne, possessing all dominion, and His knowledge encompasses all things.”
He said:
“It is not permissible to describe Him as being everywhere. Rather, it should be said that He is in heaven, over the Throne, as He said:
‘The Most Merciful rose over the Throne.’”
He cited verses and hadiths until he said: “One should affirm the attribute of rising over the Throne