Mukhtasar al-Uluww lil-Ali al-Azim - A-Dhahabi - (142)

Mukhtasar al-Uluww lil-Ali al-AzimA-Dhahabi

He has conveyed in His Book: in a manner befitting His majesty. We neither over-analyse nor affect clever cleverness; we do not wade into the logical consequences of that, whether in negation or affirmation. Rather, we remain silent and stop where the early Muslims stopped. We know that had there been any alternate interpretation, the Companions and the Followers would have hastened to clarify it; it would not have been permissible for them merely to transmit it, approve it, and keep silent. At the same time, we are absolutely certain that Allah—glorified and exalted—is without peer in His attributes, in His rising, or in His descending. Highly exalted is He above what the wrongdoers allege.

112– Al-Dārimī recorded this in “Refutation of the Jahmiyyah” (p. 33), and al-Lālakāʾī (1/92/1) with the wording just cited. As for the wording attributed to him by the author of “The Criterion between the Creator’s Attributes and the Attributes of Created Things” (p. 16): “The rising is mentioned,” I have not found it in his book, nor have I seen anyone else quote it apart from the person indicated. He is trustworthy, and for that reason he relied on that wording, because it supports his aim of denying the meaning of rising and claiming that it was already well known to Mālik!

133– Indeed, the jurist Abū Thawr al-Kalbī said: I heard al-Shāfiʿī say: Whenever someone from the people of whims came to Mālik, he would say, “I am upon clear proof regarding my religion, whereas you are in doubt; so go debate a doubter like yourself.”

134– Al-Walīd ibn Muslim said: I asked al-Awzāʿī, Mālik ibn Anas, Sufyān al-Thawrī, and al-Layth ibn Saʿd about the ḥadiths that mention the divine attributes. All of them answered, “Let them pass exactly as they have come, without interpretation.”¹

This was transmitted by a group from al-Haytham ibn Khārija on his authority.

113– I say: Its chain is sound; every transmitter in it is reliable. The compiler has declared it authentic in “The Forty Ḥadiths,” in the following entry, through his own chain to al-Dāraqutnī, which goes back to al-Haytham. Ibn Mandah also related it in “Kitāb al-Tawḥīd” (96/2) and al-Ṣābūnī in “ʿAqīdat al-Salaf” (1/120, al-Munīriyyah edition).

135– Ibn Abī Uways said: I heard Mālik say:

(1) That is, without ascribing any specific modality, as the next biographical notice will make clear. In his work al-Arbaʿin (MS 80k, fols. 1–2) the author writes immediately after this report: “I say: In his time Malik was the leading scholar of Madinah, al-Thawri the leading scholar of Kufah, al-Awzaʿi the leading scholar of Damascus, and al-Layth the leading scholar of Egypt; all of them were senior members of the generation of the Followers of the Followers (tabiʿ al-tabiʿin). After them the consensus on this matter was reported by Muhammad ibn al-Hasan, the jurist of Iraq.” The author then transmits from him what will be cited in his biography.

أخبر في كتابه، وأنه كما يليق به، لا نتعمق ولا نتحذلق، ولا نخوض في لوازم ذلك نفياً ولا إثباتاً، بل نسكت ونقف كما وقف السلف، ونعلم أنه لو كان له تأويل لبادر إلى بيانه الصحابة، والتابعون، ولما وسعهم إقراره وإمراره والسكوت عنه، ونعلم يقيناً مع ذلك أن الله ﷻ لا مثل له في صفاته، ولا في استوائه، ولا في نزوله، سبحانه وتعالى عما يقول الظالمون علوا كبيرا. ١١٢- أخرجه الدارمي في "الرد على الجهمية" "ص٣٣" واللالكائي "١/ ٩٢/ ١" باللفظ المذكور، وأما ما عزاه إليه صاحب "فرقان القرآن بين صفات الخالق وصفات الأكوان" "ص١٦": بلفظ: "الاستواء مذكور"! فلم أره فيه، ولا رأيت من ذكره غير المشار إليه، وهو من الثقات، ولذلك ركن إلى هذا اللفظ لأن فيه ما يريده من نفي معنى الاستواء وأنه معروف عند مالك! ١٣٣- نعم، وقال الفقيه أبو ثور الكلبي: سمعت الشافعي يقول: كان مالك إذا جاءه بعض أهل الأهواء قال: أم إني على بينة من ديني وأما أنت فشاك، فاذهب إلى شاك مثلك فخاصمه. ١٣٤- وقال الوليد بن مسلم: سألت الأوزاعي ومالك بن أنس وسفيان الثوري والليث بن سعد عن الأحاديث التي فيها الصفات؟ فكلهم قالوا لي: أمروها كما جاءت بلا تفسير١. رواه جماعة عن الهيثم بن خارجة عنه. ١١٣- قلت: وإسناده صحيح، رجاله كلهم ثقات، وقد صححه المؤلف في "الأربعين" في الترجمة الآتية بسنده منه إلى الدارقطني بسنده عن الهيثم. وأخرجه عنه ابن مندة في "التوحيد" "ق٩٦/ ٢" والصابوني في "عقيدة السلف" "١/ ١٢٠ -المنيرية". ١٣٥- قال ابن أبي أويس: سمعت مالكاً يقول:

١ أي بلا تكييف كما في الترجمة الآتية: قال المؤلف في "الأربعين" "٨٠ك ١-٢" عقب هذا الأثر. "قلت: مالك في وقته إمام أهل المدينة، والثوري إمام الكوفة، والأوزاعي إمام أهل دمشق، والليث إمام أهل مصر، وهم من كبار أتباع التابعين، وحكى الإجماع على ذلك بعدهم محمد بن الحسن فقيه العراق" ثم روى عنه ما سيأتي في ترجمته.