He (Ibn al-Qayyim) said: “I say: this is also the view of Ibn Jarīr al-Ṭabarī; indeed the leader of them all is Mujāhid, the chief exegete; and it is likewise the view of Abū l-Ḥasan al-Dāraqutnī, who even composed poetry about it.”
He then cited that poem exactly as the compiler later reproduces it under entry 134 – al-Dāraqutnī, but he added a fourth couplet which the compiler seems to have deliberately omitted:
“Do not deny that He is seated …
and do not deny that He will seat him.”
I (the present writer) say: you have already seen that nothing of this is authentically established from Mujāhid; on the contrary, what is reliably reported from him contradicts it, as noted earlier. As for the attribution to al-Dāraqutnī, its chain of transmission is unsound, as we demonstrated in Al-Ahādīth al-Ḍaʿīfah, 870, and as I pointed out again in the forthcoming biography of al-Dāraqutnī. Declaring it to be the opinion of Ibn Jarīr is likewise questionable, for his words in the Tafsīr revolve only around the possibility of such an occurrence, not its factual realization. Hence Imām al-Qurṭubī said in his Tafsīr, 10/311:
“Al-Ṭabarī supported the possibility of that with an excessive statement. It can be maintained only with great subtlety of meaning, and even then it remains far-fetched. Still, it cannot be denied that it may be reported, while scholars interpret it.”
He then set out an interpretation, which there is no need for us to quote or examine, since the report is not traced back to the Prophet. And even if it were assumed to carry the force of a marfūʿ report, it would still rank as mursal, which provides no proof even in ancillary rulings, let alone in fundamentals of creed. I made this point, or something akin to it, in my commentary to come on someone’s remark, “We never critique a ḥadīth that confers a virtue upon the Prophet ﷺ,” comment 265.
Perhaps the author—may Allah have mercy on him—was alluding to the same point when he said, in biography 165 – the distinguished judge Abū Bakr ibn al-ʿArabī, after transmitting from him the claim that the Prophet will sit with Allah upon the Throne:
“I know of no basis the judge had for this assertion other than the statement of Mujāhid.”
In sum, the statement ascribed to Mujāhid—even if it were authentic—must not be taken