an interpretation.’ Abū ʿAbd-Allāh said, “Look at him—exactly what the Jahmites say!”

231 – Ibn Abī Ḥātim narrated: Ṣāliḥ ibn Aḥmad ibn Ḥanbal told us, saying, “I heard my father argue that the Quran is uncreated. He would cite the words of the Exalted: ‘The Most Merciful—He taught the Quran’ (Q 55:1-2), declaring that Allah has informed us the Quran is part of His knowledge.”

232 – Yaʿqūb al-Dawraqī said: Aḥmad told me, “The ‘utterance-theorists’ circle around the speech of Jahm; they claim that Gabriel only brought something created.”

200 – I say: ʿAbd-Allāh ibn Aḥmad recorded a similar report from his father at the beginning of Kitāb al-Sunnah.

67 – Isḥāq ibn Rāhwayh, the scholar of Khurāsān (166–238 AH)

233 – Ḥarb ibn Ismāʿīl al-Karmānī said: I asked Isḥāq ibn Rāhwayh about the verse, “There is no private conversation among three but that He is their fourth” (Q 58:7). How should we understand it? He replied, “Wherever you are, He is nearer to you than the jugular vein, yet He is separate from His creation.” He then quoted Ibn al-Mubārak: “He is upon His Throne, separate from His creation.” Isḥāq added, “The highest and clearest proof on the matter is His statement, ‘The Most Merciful rose over the Throne’ (Q 20:5).” Al-Khallāl relates this in al-Sunnah from Ḥarb.

201 – I say: al-Harawī also brought it in Dhamm al-Kalām (6/120/1) from Ḥarb with similar wording. Ḥarb was a reliable ḥadith scholar and jurist, distinguished among Imām Aḥmad’s students; he died in 280 AH.

234 – Aḥmad ibn Salamah said: I heard Isḥāq ibn Rāhwayh say, “That innovator—I mean Ibrāhīm ibn Abī Ṣāliḥ—and I once attended a gathering with the governor ʿAbd-Allāh ibn Ṭāhir. The governor asked me about the reports on the divine descent, so I recited them. Ibn Abī Ṣāliḥ exclaimed, ‘I disbelieve in a Lord who descends from one heaven to another!’ I replied, ‘I believe in a Lord who does whatever He wills.’”