—His Throne, as pleasing to Him as His own good-pleasure, and as abundant as the ink that records His words. Minds are bewildered, reason falters, and tongues are too feeble to describe even some created things—how far above and greater, then, is Allah! “We have believed in Allah; bear witness that we are Muslims.” Ruin upon those who plunge into reckless speculation, whose hearts are void, whose souls are ungrateful; they have not valued Allah as He deserves to be valued. The whole earth will be in His grasp on the Day of Resurrection, and the heavens will be folded up in His right hand. Glorified and exalted is He above what they associate with Him.
O Allah, by the right You have taken upon Yourself, by Your Greatest Name and Your perfect words, make faith firm in our hearts and make us rightly guided, guiding others. Indeed, the heavens and the earth compared with the Footstool are but like a ring tossed into an open desert, and the Footstool compared with the Great Throne is likewise only a ring in a desert. So listen, understand what is being said to you, ponder what is being conveyed to you, and take refuge in belief in the unseen, for a report is not like direct sight.
Allah the Exalted says: “Those who bear the Throne and all who are around it glorify the praise of their Lord, believe in Him, and seek forgiveness for those who believe” (Q 40:7). He also says: “You will see the angels surrounding the Throne, proclaiming the praise of their Lord” (Q 39:75). And He says: “On that Day eight will bear the Throne of your Lord above them. On that Day you will be presented—and none of your secrets will be hidden” (Q 69:17-18). And He says: “Exalted in ranks, Owner of the Throne” (Q 40:15).
The Quran—and likewise the transmitted reports—is saturated with mention of the Throne; with all of that, it is impossible to claim that what is meant is merely ‘sovereignty.’ So abandon obstinacy and argumentation, for disputing about the Quran is disbelief. These are not my words; the Chosen Prophet, peace and blessings be upon him, said so.
30- I say: It was recorded by Imām al-Lālikāʾī in al-Sunnah (1/92/2), and from him by Ibn Qudāmah al-Maqdisī in his tract, Affirming the Attribute of Highness for Allah Most High (folio 162/1). From that route the compiler transmitted it. A gap appears in the chain in the original manuscript, which may be corrected from Ibn Qudāmah. The author also declared it authentic from Thābit al-Bunānī in his al-Arbaʿīn (178/1).
31- I say: We believe in the Throne of the Most Merciful, and we describe it only with what is established in the Book and the sunnah. Would that the author—may Allah have mercy on him—had stopped there and not added descriptions based on conjecture and guesswork about the unseen, especially since he later cites in the original work a report from Wahb ibn Munabbih that “the Throne spans a journey of 50,000 years”—he said fifty, not five hundred! In any event, this is from the israʾīliyyāt and offers no benefit beyond a brief notice; for that reason I have omitted it from this abridgment.