Al-Bayhaqī and others narrated with an authentic chain of transmission that Abū ‘Ubayd al-Qāsim ibn Sallām said:

“These hadiths which state, ‘Our Lord laughed at His servants’ despair despite the nearness of the change He would bring,’ ‘Hell will not be filled until your Lord places His Foot in it,’ and ‘The Footstool is the place of the two Feet,’ together with the hadiths concerning seeing Allah, are true according to us. Trustworthy narrators transmitted them from one another. However, when asked to interpret them, we do not interpret them, and we never encountered anyone who did so.”

Abū ‘Ubayd was one of the four imams: al-Shāfi‘ī, Ahmad, Ishāq, and Abū ‘Ubayd. His knowledge of jurisprudence, language, and scriptural interpretation is too well known to need describing. He lived at a time when tribulations and deviant doctrines emerged, yet he stated that he had never encountered any scholar who interpreted these reports—that is, in the manner of the Jahmīs.

Al-Lālakā’ī and al-Bayhaqī narrated through their respective chains of transmission that a man said to ‘Abd Allāh ibn al-Mubārak: “Abū ‘Abd al-Rahmān, I dislike descriptions”—meaning descriptions of the Lord.

‘Abd Allāh ibn al-Mubārak replied: “No one dislikes that more than I do. Nevertheless, when the Book states something, we affirm it; and when the transmitted reports convey something, we venture to affirm it”—or words to that effect.

Ibn al-Mubārak meant that we dislike initiating descriptions of Allah on our own authority before they are conveyed by the Book and the transmitted reports.

‘Abd Allāh ibn Ahmad and others narrated through authentic chains of transmission that Ibn al-Mubārak was asked: