the scholars of hadith and the Sunnah have held differing views on this matter.

Uthmān ibn Saīd al-Dārimī and others objected to the Jahmiyyah’s assertion that He does not move. The Jahmiyyah cited a report stating that He does not depart, interpreting “departure” as motion. Uthmān ibn Saīd explained that, even if authentic, this report would not support their position, because it concerns the explanation of His words, “the Ever-Living, the Sustainer of all.” They related from Thābit: “Everlasting and enduring, never departing from what is His due,” just as Ibn Ishāq said: “He does not depart from His station.”

I say:

Al-Kalbī himself, who transmitted this report, explains “He rose over the Throne” as “He settled,” and “Then He rose towards the heaven” as “He ascended to the heaven.”

As for “movement,” Ibn Hāmid and a group of scholars say: “He descends with motion and movement.” Others among the scholars of the Sunnah, such as al-Tamīmī, one of Ahmad’s followers, rejected this and said: “Rather, He descends without motion or movement.” A third group, including Ibn Battah and others, suspend judgment on this matter. Al-Qādī Abū Yalā mentioned these three positions in his book “Differences between the Two Transmissions and the Two Views, and the Negation of the Expression as a Whole.”

The better course in this matter is to adhere to the wording of the scriptural texts, affirming what