the hadith any statement that the Throne does not become empty of Him, or that it does become empty of Him, as those who advance such claims maintain. The hadith contains neither the wording of those who affirm this nor that of those who deny it.

These people say that they interpret the descent as something other than descent. Indeed, some of them may deny a descent that subsists in Him and regard the descent as something created and separate from Him. The sound arguments in Ibn Mandah’s refutation are, for the most part, directed against these people alone. However, he added statements on account of which he was accused of innovation. For this reason, they preferred his father, Abū ‘Abd Allāh, to him. Ismā‘īl ibn Muhammad ibn al-Fadl al-Taymī and others criticized him on this account, as is well known of them.

‘Abd al-Rahmān said:

My father said, in refutation of someone who interpreted the descent as something other than descent and sought to invalidate authentic reports by citing fabricated hadiths:

“This man who turns away claimed to accept the hadith of descent, yet distorted it for those attending his gathering. In his sermon, he denied the proof Allah revealed in His Book and what the Messenger, may Allah bless him and grant him peace, explained: that He Himself descends. He interpreted the descent as referring to commands and prohibitions, rather than actual descent. He claimed that their imams, who were versed in the fundamentals, declared Allah far above moving from place to place. He thus invalidated all the reports cited in this chapter, since his position differed from the hadith’s apparent meaning and he relied upon false interpretation and unsound reasoning.

“His saying, exalted is He,

‘There is nothing like Him,’

rules out likening Him to anything in every respect and in every sense. Yet this wretched, pitiable man could find no way to disparage the imams except through this approach, which is