and ‘Rāfidism,’ ‘Mu‘tazilism,’ ‘Murji’ism,’ and ‘the Quran,’ he wrote to Ahmad ibn Hanbal: ‘Write to me the Sunnah of the Messenger of Allah, may Allah bless him and grant him peace.’ He wrote back: ‘In the name of Allah, the Most Merciful, the Especially Merciful. To proceed.’ Then, among the things he mentioned in the letter was: ‘Allah descends to the lowest heaven, and the Throne is not left without Him.’” He had also been asked about a report narrated from Ishāq ibn Rāhawayh to the same effect.
‘Abd al-Rahmān claimed that this wording is rejected in the reports transmitted from these two and from others, and that the scholars of transmitted reports classify it as a rejected report. He said:
“Ahmad ibn Muhammad al-Barda‘ī is unknown. No one named ‘Ahmad ibn Muhammad’ is known among Ahmad’s companions, among those who narrated from Ahmad ibn Muhammad ibn Hanbal, such as Ahmad ibn Muhammad ibn Hāni’, and Abū Bakr al-Athram, and Ahmad ibn Muhammad ibn al-Hajjāj, and Abū Bakr al-Marwadhī (*), and Ahmad ibn Muhammad ibn ‘Īsā al-Barānī, the judge; Ahmad ibn Muhammad al-Sā’igh; Ahmad ibn Muhammad ibn Ghālib al-Qāss, known as Ghulām Khalīl; and Ahmad ibn Muhammad ibn Mazīd al-Warrāq.”
Ibn al-Jawzī added: Ahmad ibn Muhammad ibn Khālid, Abū Bakr, the judge; Ahmad ibn Khālid, Abū al-‘Abbās al-Barānī; Ahmad ibn Muhammad ibn ‘Abd Allāh ibn Sadaqah; Ahmad ibn Muhammad ibn ‘Abd Allāh ibn Sālih al-Asadī; Ahmad ibn Muhammad ibn ‘Abd al-Hamīd al-Kūfī; Ahmad ibn Muhammad ibn Yahyā al-Kahhāl; Ahmad ibn Muhammad ibn al-Bukhārī; and Ahmad ibn Muhammad ibn Battah