125 – Al-Bayhaqi transmitted with his chain from Muqatil ibn Hayyan, who said: “It has reached us—Allah knows best—regarding His words, ‘He is the First and the Last’ (57:3): He is the First before everything, the Last after everything, the Manifest who is above all things, the Hidden who is nearer than anything. His nearness is by His knowledge, while He is above His Throne.”
This Muqatil is a trustworthy imam, a contemporary of al-Awzaʿi; he is not Muqatil ibn Sulayman, for that man was an innovator and unreliable.
106 – I say: In al-Bayhaqi’s isnad “430–431” there appears Ismaʿil ibn Qaybah. Ibn Abi Hatim only cites him through Abu Saʿid al-Ashajj and records neither criticism nor praise for him. He is also narrated from by Abu Muhammad ʿAbd Allah ibn Muhammad ibn Musa al-Kaʿbi—the transmitter of this report from him—who was one of al-Hakim’s teachers.
5 – Sufyan al-Thawri, the scholar of his age (97–161 AH)
126 – Several narrators report from Maʿdan—of whom Ibn al-Mubarak said, “He is one of the abdāl”—that he said: I asked Sufyan al-Thawri about the Almighty’s words, “and He is with you wherever you are” (57:4). He replied, “By His knowledge.”
Al-Walid also related from him that with regard to the hadiths on the divine attributes he said: “Let them pass as they have come.”
107 – It was recorded by ʿAbd Allah ibn Ahmad ⦗72⦘, al-Ājurri ⦗289⦘, and al-Lālakāʾi ⦗1/92/2⦘. I do not know this Maʿdan; in al-Bayhaqi’s version he is described as “the devotee,” and Allah knows best. Al-Ājurri’s text reads “Khalid ibn Maʿdan,” which is a typographical error, for Khalid ibn Maʿdan was a Successor. The author states in his abridgement, “This report is firmly established from Maʿdan.”
127 – Al-Layth ibn Yahya al-Bukhari reported: “I was told by Ibrahim ibn al-Ashʿath”¹ from Muʾammal ibn Ismaʿil, from Sufyan al-Thawri, who said: “Whoever says that the Quran is created is a disbeliever.”
This incomparable imam disseminated a great number of hadiths on the divine attributes. His approach toward them was affirmation, acceptance, and refraining from interpretation. May Allah have mercy on him.
¹ A marginal note in the manuscript.