Some adherents of the Muʿtazilah, the Jahmiyyah, and the Haruriyyah have claimed that the meaning of istiwāʾ is istīlāʼ—“to seize, possess, and subdue”—and that the Exalted One is in every place. They therefore denied that He is upon His Throne, as the people of truth affirm, and interpreted istiwāʾ as sheer omnipotence. Yet had their claim been correct, there would be no distinction between the Throne and the seventh earth, for Allah is powerful over everything, and the earth is one of those things; thus, by their logic, He would be “over” it and over latrines alike. Likewise, if “established upon the Throne” merely meant “having taken control,” it would be permissible to say, “He is established over all things.” No Muslim, however, permits the statement that Allah is established over closets and privies. It is therefore invalid to interpret istiwāʾ “upon the Throne” as mere conquest.

He (al-Ashʿarī) produced further proofs from the Quran, the Sunnah, and sound reason in addition to what has been mentioned.

Al-Ibānah is among Abū al-Hasan’s most celebrated works. The ḥadith master Ibn ʿAsākir publicised it, relied upon it, and Imām Muḥyī al-Dīn al-Nawawī copied it in his own hand.

271 – al-Ibānah, pp. 34–37.

I say: al-Ashʿarī’s own words provide a clear refutation of al-Kawtharī’s claim—in his marginal notes to Tab’yīn Kadhib al-Muftari (p. 28)—that this book, al-Ibānah, adopts the approach of the mufawwiḍah, who refrain from specifying the intended meaning, and that this, he alleges, is the way of the Salaf!

For the passage from al-Ashʿarī cited by the author (may Allah have mercy on him) from al-Ibānah—and whose location we have indicated—states explicitly that istiwāʾ means elevation. Where, then, is the alleged tafwīḍ and suspension of definition that al-Kawtharī imagined? Nor is there any doubt that his further assertion, “and this is the doctrine of the Salaf,” is likewise false, as anyone who has studied their statements in the foundational-sunnah works compiled by the author, may Allah have mercy on him, in his book al-ʿUlūw—where he gathered them exhaustively—will know. I have brought those texts close to you in this abridgement, highlighting what is authentically transmitted among them, as you can see.

291 – Imām Abū Bakr ibn Fūrak likewise transmitted the foregoing statement about the People of Ḥadith from Abū al-Hasan al-Ashʿarī in his book al-Maqālāt wa’l-Khilāf bayna al-Ashʿarī wa Abī Muḥammad ʿAbd Allāh ibn Saʿīd ibn Kullāb al-Baṣrī, authored by Ibn Fūrak, where he says:

“Chapter One: Concerning what Abū al-Hasan, may Allah have mercy on him, reported in his Maqālāt of the principal doctrines of the People of Ḥadith, and how, at its close, he made clear that he himself affirms all of it.”