the Book and the Sunnah.”

Then it was related through his chain of transmission that al-Fudayl ibn ‘Iyād said: “If a Jahmī says, ‘I disbelieve in a Lord who descends and ascends,’ say, ‘I believe in a Lord who does whatever He wills.’”

I say:

It was from Zakariyyā ibn Yahyā al-Sājī that Abū al-Hasan al-Ash‘arī learned what he learned of the foundational principles of the people of the Sunnah and hadith, as well as much of what he transmitted in his book Maqālāt al-Islāmiyyīn (The Doctrines of the Muslims) concerning their doctrine. He reported from them what Hammād ibn Zayd had stated: that Allah is above the Throne and draws near to His creation however He wills.

For him and for those who deny that voluntary acts subsist in Allah’s Essence, this means that He creates accidents in some created beings, which are termed “descent.” Likewise, he said that He creates in the Throne a quality termed “rising over.” According to al-Ash‘arī, this consists of bringing the Throne nearer to His Essence without any act subsisting in Him. Rather, he treats His intransitive acts, such as descending and rising over the Throne, like His transitive acts, such as creating and bestowing kindness. In his view, all of these are the effects produced, separate from Him.

Al-Ash‘arī and the leading scholars among his followers, such as al-Qādī Abū Bakr and others, say that Allah is above the Throne in His Essence. Yet they take this position concerning descent and similar acts on the basis of their principle denying that temporal events subsist in Him.

The early scholars who said, “He does whatever He wills” and “He descends however He wills and in whatever manner He wills,” as well as al-Fudayl ibn ‘Iyād, who said, “If a Jahmī says to you, ‘I disbelieve in a Lord who leaves His place,’ say, ‘I believe in a Lord who does whatever He wills,’” intended the opposite of this position. Abū ‘Abd Allāh ibn Mandah’s rebuttal applies to these people as well. On this basis, there remains no