He also said: “The Throne and the Footstool are real, exactly as He has clarified in His Book. He has no need of the Throne or of anything beneath it; He encompasses all things and is above them.”

Abū Isḥāq, in his work Ṭabaqāt al-Fuqahāʾ, mentioned Abū Jaʿfar al-Ṭaḥāwī, saying: “In Egypt the leadership of the followers of Abū Ḥanīfah ultimately rested with him. He acquired knowledge from Abū Jaʿfar ibn Abī ʿImrān, from the judge Abū Ḥāzim, and from others.”

I add: He also narrated from the pupils of Sufyān ibn ʿUyaynah and Ibn Wahb. His writings are numerous and well known. He died in 321 AH at the age of eighty-three.

119 – Nafṭawayh, master of Arabic (243–323 AH)

286 – The Imām Abū ʿAbd Allāh Ibrāhīm ibn Muḥammad ibn ʿArafa, the grammarian known as Nafṭawayh, composed a book refuting the Jahmiyyah. In it he quoted, among other items, the statement of Ibn al-Aʿrābī mentioned earlier, and then said:

“I heard Dāwūd ibn ʿAlī say: al-Marīsī—may Allah show him no mercy—used to say, ‘Glory be to my Lord who is below.’ This is sheer ignorance on the part of the speaker and a rejection of the explicit text of Allah’s Book, for He says: ‘Do you feel secure against Him who is in the heaven?’ (al-Mulk 67:16).”

Nafṭawayh died in 323 AH.

120 – Abū al-Ḥasan al-Ashʿarī, the prolific author (260–324 AH)

287 – Imām Abū al-Ḥasan ʿAlī ibn Ismāʿīl ibn Abī Bishr al-Ashʿarī al-Baṣrī, the theologian, said in his book entitled Ikhtilāf al-Muṣallīn1 and Maqālāt al-Islāmiyyīn. He listed the sects—the Khārijites, the Rāfiḍites, the Jahmiyyah, and others—until he said:

“A presentation of the doctrine of Ahl al-Sunnah and the hadith scholars.

“The sum of their statement is: affirming belief in Allah, His angels, His scriptures, His messengers, and in whatever has come from Allah, and in what—”