198 – I say: This al-Qaṭṭān is a dependable authority, one of al-Bukhārī’s teachers. He died in 253 AH. Al-Khallāl heard this report from him, so the chain of transmission is sound.

227 – Abū Ṭālib Aḥmad ibn Ṭālib Aḥmad ibn Ḥumayd said: I asked Aḥmad ibn Ḥanbal about a man who said, “Allah is with us,” and who then recited, “There is no private conversation among three but that He is their fourth” (Q 58:7). Aḥmad replied, “This man has taken the Jahmite view: they seize on the end of the verse and abandon its beginning. Did I not recite to him, ‘Have you not considered that Allah knows…’? So it is His knowledge that is with them.” He also cited the verse in Sūrah Qāf: “We know what his soul whispers to him, and We are closer to him than the jugular vein” (Q 50:16). Thus, it is His knowledge that is with them.⦗199⦘

199 – I say: Aḥmad ibn Ḥumayd is al-Mashkānī, a disciple of Imām Aḥmad. Al-Khaṭīb (4/122) said: “He reported unique legal questions from Aḥmad, and Aḥmad used to honor and revere him. He died in 244 AH.” I also say: he is not to be confused with Aḥmad ibn Ḥumayd al-Ṭarythīthī, a teacher of al-Bukhārī who died in 226 AH.

228 – Al-Marwazī said: I said to Abū ʿAbd-Allāh, “A man declares, ‘I say only what Allah says: “There is no private conversation of three except that He is their fourth”’—I confine myself to this and add nothing more.” He answered, “This is Jahmite speech; rather, what is with them is His knowledge. The beginning of the verse shows that what is meant is His knowledge.” Ibn Baṭṭah narrated it in al-Ibānah from ʿUmar ibn Muḥammad Rajāʾ, from Muḥammad ibn Dāwūd, from al-Marwazī.

229 – Hanbal ibn Isḥāq said: It was asked of Abū ʿAbd-Allāh, “What is the meaning of ‘and He is with you’?” He replied, “His knowledge—His knowledge encompasses everything, while our Lord is upon the Throne, without limits and without modality.” Reported by al-Lālikāʾī.

230 – Al-Athram said: I said to Abū ʿAbd-Allāh: “A narrator, while I was in his presence, related the hadith, ‘The All-Merciful will place His Foot in it,’ and a young servant was beside him. The boy turned toward me and said, ‘This has…’