I asked Sunaid ibn Dāwūd, “Is Allah upon His Throne, separate from His creation?” He answered, “Yes.”

I add: Sunaid wrote an extensive tafsīr that I have examined in full; it is entirely supported by chains of transmission, and his doctrine regarding the divine attributes follows the way of the early generations. He died in 226 AH.

57 – Nuʿaym ibn Ḥammād al-Khuzāʿī, the ḥāfiẓ (146–228 AH)

216 – Muḥammad ibn Mukhlad al-ʿAṭṭār said: Al-Ramādī narrated to us: I asked Nuʿaym ibn Ḥammād about Allah’s words, “He is with you” (57:4). He replied, “Its meaning is that nothing is concealed from Him, by His knowledge. Do you not hear His statement, ‘No private counsel of three takes place but that He is the fourth of them…’ (58:7)?”

187 – I say: Al-Ramādī is Aḥmad ibn Manṣūr ibn Sayyār al-Baghdādī, a reliable ḥāfiẓ, and Muḥammad ibn Mukhlad al-ʿAṭṭār is trustworthy and upright, as recorded in History of Baghdad 3/310–311; therefore the chain is sound.

217 – From Muḥammad ibn Ismāʿīl al-Tirmidhī: I heard Nuʿaym ibn Ḥammād say, “Whoever likens Allah to His creation has disbelieved, and whoever denies what Allah has described Himself with has disbelieved. What Allah or His Messenger has described Him with is not anthropomorphism.”

188 – I say: The compiler transmitted this with the chain: Abū al-Fidāʾ ibn al-Farrāʾ → Ibn Qudāmah → Muḥammad ibn ʿAbd al-Bāqī → Ibn Khayrūn and Abū al-Ḥasan ibn Ayyūb together → Abū ʿAlī Shādhān → Ibn Ziyād al-Qaṭṭān → Muḥammad ibn Ismāʿīl al-Tirmidhī… This isnād is sound; its narrators are reputable and well known. The author, in his Mukhtaṣar, remarks after the two statements of Nuʿaym: “Both reports from him are authentic.”

189 – I say: That is the view of Abū al-Qāsim al-Baghawī and Ibn ʿAdī, yet the correct year is eight, as I have indicated beside the biographical notice, following Tahdhīb.

190 – I say: He means in the Ṣaḥīḥ, but linked with another narration, as the author himself makes clear in