A record of the statements made by the leading scholars when Jahm ibn Ṣafwān and his doctrine emerged

1 – The statement of Abū Ḥanīfah, the scholar of Iraq—may Allah have mercy on him (80–150 AH)

117 – Nuʿaym ibn Ḥammād said: I heard Nūḥ al-Jāmiʿ say:

“I was with Abū Ḥanīfah at the very beginning of the affair when a woman from Tirmidh, who used to sit with Jahm, arrived in Kūfah. I reckon I saw with her no fewer than ten thousand people, all calling others to her view. She was told, ‘Here in town is a man versed in rational inquiry; he is called Abū Ḥanīfah. Go to him.’ So she came to him and said, ‘Are you the one who teaches people legal questions while you have abandoned your own religion? Where is the God you worship?’

He left her unanswered and remained silent for seven days. Then he came out to us holding a booklet in which he had written: ‘Indeed, Allah is in the heaven and not on the earth.’ Someone then asked him, ‘What about Allah’s words, “And He is with you” (Qur’an 57:4)?’ He replied, ‘It is like a man writing to someone, “I am with you,” even though he is physically absent from him.’ Al-Bayhaqī related this in his book al-Ṣifāt.

Abū Ḥanīfah was correct in denying that Allah is on the earth, and correct in the interpretation he gave to the verse, following the unqualified textual evidence that Allah is in the heaven.

102 – I say: From the wording the compiler—may Allah pardon us and him—quotes from al-Bayhaqī, one might think that al-Bayhaqī kept silent about the chain of transmission for this story. That is not the case, for he indicated its weakness at the end of the very passage, saying, ‘If the report about him is authentic.’

I further say: How could it possibly be authentic when its narrator is Nūḥ al-Jāmiʿ, who is accused of fabrication? Some even said of him, ‘He gathered everything except truthfulness.’