and eighty years, and he passed away in 429 AH.

147 – Abū ʿUthmān al-Ṣābūnī (372–449 AH)

322 – Shaykh al-Islām Abū ʿUthmān Ismāʿīl ibn ʿAbd al-Raḥmān al-Naysābūrī al-Ṣābūnī said in his Treatise on the Sunnah:

“Ahl al-Ḥadith believe and testify that Allah is above His seven heavens, established upon His Throne as His Book has declared. The scholars of the ummah and the leading imams of the early generations never differed over the fact that Allah is upon His Throne and that His Throne is above His heavens. Our imam al-Shāfiʿī cited, in al-Mabsūṭ, the report of Muʿāwiyah ibn al-Ḥakam when discussing the expiation that requires freeing a believing slave. Muʿāwiyah asked the Messenger of Allah ﷺ about emancipating a black, non-Arab bond-woman. The Prophet tested her to determine whether she was a believer, saying, ‘Where is your Lord?’ Because she was not Arabic-speaking she pointed toward the sky, whereupon he said, ‘Set her free, for she is a believer.’ He judged her to have faith because she affirmed that her Lord is in the heaven and recognized Him with the attribute of exaltedness and loftiness.”

Shaykh al-Islām al-Ṣābūnī was a jurist, ḥadith scholar, Sufi, and preacher. He was the leading scholar of Naysābūr in his time and produced several fine works. He heard ḥadith from the students of Ibn Khuzaymah and al-Sarāj. He died in 449 AH. Ismāʿīl ibn ʿAbd al-Ghāfir relates that he heard Imām al-Ḥaramayn say: “I was in Mecca, wavering between the various schools, when I saw the Prophet ﷺ in a dream. He said to me, ‘Hold fast to the creed of Ibn al-Ṣābūnī.’”

300 – I say: The basis of the ḥadith is sound, apart from the wording “non-Arab.” The preserved wording is “She said: ‘In the heaven,’” not “She pointed to the sky.” This is what is reliably transmitted through the chains found in Ṣaḥīḥ Muslim and elsewhere, whereas the phrase “black, non-Arab woman” occurs in a chain that is weak and confused, as was explained earlier in note 2.

301 – I say: Imām al-Ṣābūnī has a beneficial treatise, printed in Majmūʿat al-Rasāʾil al-Manīriyyah (1/105–135) under the title The Creed of the Salaf and the People of Ḥadith. At first I assumed that this was the work the author meant by the words “his treatise on the Sunnah.” However, when I consulted it, I found in it nothing of the passage the author cites from the “Treatise” except his statement on pages 109–110:

“Ahl al-Ḥadith believe and testify that Allah is above His seven heavens upon…"