the Arabs sometimes use the preposition fī (in) where ʿalā (upon) is meant. Allah the Exalted says, “So travel freely in the land” (Q 9:2), and He says, “I shall surely crucify you upon the trunks of palm-trees” (Q 20:71). In both places the sense is “upon the land” and “upon the trunks.” The same applies to His words, “Who is in heaven” (Q 67:16); it means “who is upon the Throne,” as the authentic reports from the Messenger of Allah ﷺ state.
I say: this al-Ḍabʿī had no equal in jurisprudence, was keen-sighted in ḥadith, and of great standing. He died in 342 AH, and al-Ḥākim narrated from him in abundance.
125 – Abū al-Qāsim al-Ṭabarānī (260-360)
299 – The hadith master of the age, the great ḥāfiẓ Abū al-Qāsim Sulaymān ibn Aḥmad ibn Ayyūb al-Lakhmī al-Shāmī, who resided in Isfahān, composed in his book al-Sunnah a chapter entitled “What has come concerning Allah’s rising over His Throne, distinct from His creation.” In that chapter he cited:
• the ḥadith of Abū Razīn al-ʿUqaylī—“I said, Messenger of Allah, where was our Lord?”;
• the ḥadith of ʿAbd Allāh ibn Khalīfah from ʿUmar on Allah’s exaltedness above His Throne;
• the ḥadith of the mountain goats, that the Throne rests upon their backs and that Allah is above it;
• and the statement of Mujāhid regarding the Praiseworthy Station.
With al-Ṭabarānī the chains of transmission in the world reached their loftiest height. He lived one hundred years and a few days, compiled the three Muʿjams, and authored many books that testify to his prodigious memory, skill, and vast narration. He died in 360 AH—may Allah have mercy on him.⦗1⦘
283 – I say: These four aḥādīth, taken individually, are weak; their chains do not stand, as we have already indicated in earlier comments.
126 – Imām Abū Bakr al-Ājurrī (280-360)
The ascetic ḥāfiẓ Abū Bakr Muḥammad ibn al-Ḥusayn al-Ājurrī, resident near the Sacred Sanctuary, authored Kitāb al-Sharīʿah in accordance with the Sunnah. Among its chapters is: “A warning against the doctrine of ḥulūl (claiming that Allah indwells within creation).”