The commentator on al-Ṭaḥāwiyyah—may Allah have mercy on him—after citing the report of Abū Muṭīʿ al-Balkhī (p. 323, 4th Islamic Office edition) writes:
“Pay no attention to anyone who denies this while claiming affiliation with Abū Ḥanīfah, for various Muʿtazilite factions and others have ascribed themselves to him while differing from him in many of his beliefs. The same is true of those who attach themselves to Mālik, al-Shāfiʿī, or Aḥmad yet oppose them in some points of doctrine. The story of Abū Yūsuf ordering Bishr al-Marīsī to recant when he denied that Allah is above the Throne is famous; it was narrated by ʿAbd al-Raḥmān ibn Abī Ḥātim and others.”
I say: The episode just mentioned will soon appear in this book under the biography of Abū Yūsuf, God willing. It proves that Abū Ḥanīfah’s earliest companions stood with the Salaf in affirming the Most High’s elevation above His creation. This lends additional credibility to the reports ascribed to Imām Abū Ḥanīfah, among them the explicit statement of Imām Abū Jaʿfar al-Ṭaḥāwī that Allah is in no need of the Throne or anything beneath it, that He encompasses all things and is above them.
119 – I heard the jurist-judge, Imām Tāj al-Dīn ʿAbd al-Khāliq ibn ʿAlwān, say: I heard Imām Abū Muḥammad ʿAbdullāh ibn Aḥmad al-Maqdisī, author of al-Muqniʿ—may Allah have mercy on him and grant him Paradise—say: “It has reached me that Abū Ḥanīfah said: ‘Whoever denies that Allah is in heaven has disbelieved.’”
- Ibn Jurayj: the Shaykh of the Sanctuary and the mufti of the Ḥijāz (d. 150 AH)
120 – Abū Ḥātim al-Rāzī transmitted, through al-Anṣārī, from Ibn Jurayj that he said: “His Throne was upon the water before He created the creation.”
- Al-Awzāʿī, Abū ʿAmr ʿAbd al-Raḥmān ibn ʿAmr, the leading scholar of Syria in his time (d. 157 AH)
121 – Abū ʿAbdullāh al-Ḥākim narrated from al-Awzāʿī that he said: “We—while the Successors were still numerous—used to say: ‘Allah is above His Throne,’ and we affirm whatever attributes are established by the Sunnah.”