1420 – Muʿammar b. Ziyād (d. 418 AH)

317 – The imām, gnostic, and shaykh of the Sufis, Abū Manṣūr Muʿammar b. Aḥmad b. Ziyād al-Isfahānī, said:

“I wished to bequeath my companions an admonition grounded in the Sunnah, gathering in it the creed held by the people of hadith and the people of Sufism and spiritual insight.” He then listed a number of points, among them:

“God established Himself over His Throne without how, likeness, or allegorical twisting; the establishment (istiwāʾ) is intelligible, but the manner is unknown. He is separate from His creation and they are separate from Him: no indwelling, no mingling, no contact. He is All-Hearing, All-Seeing, All-Knowing, All-Aware; He speaks, is pleased, becomes angry, marvels, laughs, and will reveal Himself to His servants on the Day of Resurrection laughing. Whoever denies the descent or explains it away is an innovator, misguided.”

Muʿammar transmitted hadith from Abū al-Qāsim al-Ṭabarānī and his peers. He died in Ramaḍān 418 AH.

143 – Abū al-Qāsim al-Lālakāʾī (d. 418 AH)

318 – The great ḥāfiẓ and Shāfiʿī scholar Abū al-Qāsim Hibat Allāh b. al-Ḥasan al-Ṭabarī, author of the voluminous work Sharḥ Iʿtiqād Ahl al-Sunnah, said:

“A compilation of what has been narrated concerning His words, ‘The Most Merciful established Himself over the Throne’ [Q 20:5], and that God is upon His Throne: God, Exalted is He, also said, ‘To Him ascend the goodly words’ [Q 35:10]; and He said, ‘Do you feel secure from the One who is in the heaven?’ [Q 67:16]; and He said, ‘He is the Subjugator above His servants’ [Q 6:18]. These verses indicate that He is in the heaven, while His knowledge is in every place. This has been reported from ʿUmar, Ibn Masʿūd, Ibn ʿAbbās, and Umm Salamah; and among the Successors from Rabīʿah, Sulaymān al-Taymī, and Muqātil b. Ḥayyān. Mālik, al-Thawrī, and Aḥmad held the same view.”

Al-Lālakāʾī was one of the great reservoirs of knowledge and a leading Shāfiʿī; he died in 418 AH.