thus until dawn.” In another wording:
“When two thirds of the night remain, the Lord descends to the lowest heaven.”
In another wording: “Until dawn breaks; then He rises.” In another report, He says: “I ask no one else about My servants. Who will ask Me, so that I may give to him?”
In the report of ‘Amr ibn ‘Abasah:
“The Lord descends to the lowest heaven in the depths of the night.”
In another wording: “Until dawn breaks; then He rises.”
He also mentioned His descent on the afternoon of ‘Arafah through several chains of transmission, and likewise on the night of mid-Sha‘bān; His descent on the Day of Resurrection in canopies of cloud; the hadith concerning the Day of Increase—Friday in the Hereafter—with its mention of His descending and rising; and other similar hadiths. He objects to those who say that the Throne is not left without Him, treating this as equivalent to saying that He is everywhere or that He is nowhere.
His words resemble those of a group who suppose that only one of two views is possible: the view that He descends in such a way that the Throne is left without Him; or the view that there is no descent at all, like the statement of those who say that no act subsists in His essence by His own choice.
These two groups recognize no descent other than that attributed to the bodies of created servants, which entails vacating one place and occupying another. Some therefore deny His descent, declaring Him far above anything of that kind. Others affirm for Him a descent of this kind, entailing the vacating of one place and the occupation of another.
Those people say: “This view is false, so the first must be accepted,” just as their opponents say: “That view is false, so the second must be accepted.” He interprets the words of the early generations, “He does