263 – The nisbah refers to “Kādha,” a village on the outskirts of Baghdad. The narrator is Ishāq ibn Aḥmad ibn Muḥammad, Abū al-Ḥusayn. Al-Khaṭīb (6/440) recorded his biography and said, “He was reliable; Ibn Ruzqawayh described him to us as an ascetic. He died in 346 AH.” This very report is cited by al-Lālikāʾī (1/92/1).

264 – In the original copy the verb appears as naʿrif (first-person plural). In the manuscript it reads baʿrif, missing the imperfect prefix. I have adopted the wording found in al-Lālikāʾī.

114 – Abū Jaʿfar al-Tirmidhī, the jurist (201–295 AH).

281 – Manṣūr ibn Muḥammad ibn Manṣūr al-Qazzāz said: I heard Abū al-Ṭayyib Aḥmad, the father of Abū Ḥafṣ ibn Shāhīn, say:

I was present with Abū Jaʿfar al-Tirmidhī when someone asked him about the ḥadith describing the Lord’s descent. The man said, “As for the descent—how does it occur while His transcendence above remains?” Abū Jaʿfar replied, “The descent is intelligible; its modality is unknown. Belief in it is obligatory, and asking about it is an innovation.”

I say: The jurist of Baghdad and the scholar of his day spoke the truth. To ask, “What is descent?” is a stumbling, for one only inquires about a word that is linguistically obscure. Yet descent, speech, hearing, sight, knowledge, and istiwāʾ (rising over the Throne) are all clear terms to any listener. Once they are ascribed to the One “to whom nothing is comparable,” the attribute follows the One described, while its how-ness remains unknown to human beings.

This al-Tirmidhī was an ocean of knowledge and among the devout, scrupulous worshippers. He died in 295 AH.

265 – I say: Its chain of transmission is sound. The author has produced it with his isnād to Abū Bakr al-Khaṭīb, who himself narrated it in his Tārīkh (1/365): “Al-Ḥasan ibn Abī Ṭālib told us: Abū al-Ḥasan Manṣūr ibn Muḥammad ibn Manṣūr al-Qazzāz informed us …”