he said: ‘He is upon the Throne, and His knowledge is with them.’”

He also related it through another chain from this same Muqātil ibn Hayyān, who is trustworthy in Quranic exegesis and whose reliability has not been impugned as that of Muqātil ibn Sulaymān has.

ʿAbd Allāh ibn Ahmad said: “My father narrated to us: Nūh ibn Maymūn al-Madrūb narrated to us, from Bukayr ibn Maʿrūf: Abū Muʿāwiyah narrated to us, from Muqātil ibn Hayyān, from al-Dahhāk, concerning His words, Most High:

‘There is no private conversation among three but He is their fourth, nor among five but He is their sixth, nor fewer than that nor more but He is with them wherever they may be.’

He said: ‘He is upon the Throne, and His knowledge is with them.’”

ʿAlī ibn al-Hasan ibn Shaqīq said: “ʿAbd Allāh ibn Mūsā, the companion of ʿUbādah, narrated to us: Maʿdān narrated to us—Ibn al-Mubārak said: ‘If anyone in Khurāsān is one of the abdāl, it is Maʿdān’—saying: ‘I asked Sufyān al-Thawrī about His words, “He is with you wherever you are.” He replied: “His knowledge.”’”

Hanbal ibn Ishāq said in his book al-Sunnah: “I asked Abū ʿAbd Allāh Ahmad ibn Hanbal: ‘What is the meaning of His words, Most High, “He is with you wherever you are,” and “There is no private conversation among three but He is their fourth,” through to His words, Most High, “but He is with them wherever they may be”?’

He replied: ‘His knowledge. He is the Knower of the unseen and the seen, encompassing everything and witnessing it. He is the All-Knower of all that is unseen; He knows the unseen. Our Lord is upon the Throne, without limit or description. His Kursī extends over the heavens and the earth.’”

Imam Ahmad discussed the meaning of Allah’s being with His creation at length in al-Radd ʿalā al-Jahmiyyah (Refutation of the Jahmiyyah).

The expression denoting Allah’s being with His creation occurs in the Book of Allah in a general sense, as in these two verses, and in a specific sense, as in His words: