Al-Qādir billāh — Aḥmad ibn Isḥāq ibn al-Muqtadir — died in 422 AH at the age of eighty-seven. His caliphate had lasted forty-one years and three months.
146 – Abū ʿUmar al-Ṭalamankī (339–429 AH)
321 – The ḥadith master and imam Abū ʿUmar Aḥmad ibn Muḥammad ibn ʿAbd Allāh al-Andalusī al-Ṭalamankī al-Mālikī says in his two-volume work, Al-Wuṣūl ilā Maʿrifat al-Uṣūl:
“Ahl al-Sunnah among the Muslims unanimously agree that the meaning of His words, ‘And He is with you wherever you may be’ (Q 57:4) and similar verses is His knowledge; while Allāh, exalted is He, is above the heavens in His very essence, established upon His Throne however He wills.
Ahl al-Sunnah also say about His statement, ‘The Most Merciful rose over the Throne’ (Q 20:5), that His rising over the Throne is real, not figurative. Some of the Muʿtazilah and Jahmiyyah have claimed that it is impermissible for Allāh to be called by these names in a literal sense when the creature may be called by them as well. In doing so they denied for Allāh the realities signified by His names while affirming them for His creation.
When asked, ‘What led you to this deviation?’ they answer, ‘Sharing the same name entails resemblance.’ We reply: this runs contrary to the very language with which we have been addressed, for in Arabic resemblance is not produced by mere naming. Rather, things resemble only themselves or qualities found in them: whiteness to whiteness, blackness to blackness, the tall to the tall, the short to the short. If names alone entailed resemblance, then all things would resemble one another, since the word ‘thing’ encompasses them all. So we ask them, ‘Do you say that Allāh is existent (mawjūd)?’ If they answer, ‘Yes,’ we say, ‘By your reasoning this would oblige His resemblance to other existents.’ If they reply, ‘He is existent but that does not entail resemblance to other existents,’ we respond: In exactly the same way He is living, knowing, able, willing, hearing, seeing, and speaking—without this entailing any likeness between Him and those who possess these attributes.”
Al-Ṭalamankī was one of the greatest ḥadith masters and leading Qurʾān reciters in al-Andalus; he lived for several