Another tier after the year 300 AH

106 – Zakariyya al-Sāji (?-307 AH)

272 – The Imām Abū ʿAbd Allah Ibn Battah al-ʿUkbarī, author of al-Ibāna al-Kubrā fī al-Sunna (in four volumes), said: “Abū al-Ḥasan Aḥmad¹ ibn Zakariyya ibn Yaḥyā al-Sāji narrated to us, saying: ‘My father said:

“The creed upon which I found our companions—the ḥadith scholars whom we met—is that Allah, exalted, is over His Throne in His heaven and that He draws near to His creation however He wills.”’ He then detailed the remainder of the belief.

Al-Sāji was the senior scholar and ḥadith master of Basra, and from him Abū al-Ḥasan al-Ashʿarī learned ḥadith and the doctrines of Ahl al-Sunna. He travelled to al-Muzanī and al-Rabīʿ and studied jurisprudence with them. He authored ʿIlal al-Ḥadith² and Ikhtilāf al-Fuqahāʾ. He met Abū al-Rabīʿ al-Zahrānī and the scholars of that generation. He lived for a little over eighty years and died in 307 AH.

107 – Muḥammad ibn Jarīr (224-310 AH)

273 – Abū Saʿīd al-Dīnawarī, the transcriber for Muḥammad ibn Jarīr, said: “Muḥammad ibn Jarīr al-Ṭabarī’s creed was read aloud to him while I listened, and he said:

‘It suffices a man to know that his Lord is the One who rose over the Throne; whoever goes beyond that has failed and come to ruin.’”

¹ Aḥmad is the correct name in some transmissions.
² ʿIlal al-Ḥadith: “Hidden Flaws in Ḥadiths.”