—God willing—when it concerns reports that are not traced back to the Prophet. Allah knows best.

110 – The report of Mujāhid on the verse, “We brought him near for private conversation” (19:52):
“Between the seventh heaven and the Throne there are seventy thousand veils. Moses kept being drawn closer until only one veil remained between him and it. When he saw where he was and heard the scratching of the Pen he said, ‘My Lord, let me look at You.’”
This wording is firmly established from Mujāhid, the leading authority on Qur’anic exegesis. Al-Bayhaqī cited it in al-Asmāʾ wa-l-Ṣifāt, and Abu Shaykh reproduced it in al-ʿAẓamah (49/2 and 55/1).

96 – “p. 402.” Abu Shaykh also recorded it in al-ʿAẓamah (folios 49/2 and 55/1, Islamic Office facsimile). Its chain is authentic; all of its transmitters are trustworthy. The Jahmite al-Kawtharī tried to cast doubt on it in his marginalia to al-Asmāʾ by insinuating something about the hearing of Rūḥ ibn ʿUbādah—yet he is reliable and accepted by both Ṣaḥīḥ compilations—and about Shibl ibn ʿAbbād, who is likewise trustworthy and included by al-Bukhārī. Even then, his only remark was: “He is Qadarī!”—but is that really a valid criticism?

111 – Sufyān reported: I was with Rabīʿah ibn Abī ʿAbd al-Raḥmān when a man asked him about the verse, “The All-Merciful rose over the Throne” (20:5). “How did He rise?” he said. Rabīʿah replied, “The rising (al-istiwāʾ) is known, but its ‘how’ is inconceivable; affirming it is obligatory and asking about it is an innovation.” In another authentic wording from Ibn ʿUyaynah: he was asked, “How did He rise?” and said, “The rising is known, and its ‘how’ is beyond comprehension. The message is from Allah, the Messenger conveys it, and our duty is to believe.”

97 – The compiler cited this on p. 98 with an uninterrupted chain back to Sufyān al-Thawrī, and it is sound. Al-Lālakāʾī also transmitted it in al-Sunnah (1/92) with another chain from Ibn ʿUyaynah: “He was asked about the rising…,” and so forth. Shaykh al-Islām Ibn Taymiyyah said in al-Ḥamawiyyah (p. 80): “Al-Khallāl narrated it with a chain whose every transmitter is an authoritative imam.”

112 – Ḥammād ibn Zayd said: I heard Ayyūb al-Sakhtiyānī—when the Muʿtazilah were mentioned—say, “Everything those people revolve around is the claim that there is nothing in heaven.”
This comes with a chain as clear as the sun and as firmly rooted as a pillar, from the leading scholar of Basra.