In the name of Allah, the Most Gracious, the Most Merciful.
The Sheikh, the Imam, the Scholar, the Hadith Master (Hafiz), the Jurist (Mufti), the Clarifier of Complexities, the Peerless of his Age, the Master of the Hadith Masters, the One Supported by the Religion of Allah, the Caller to Allah, the Sword of the Sunnah and the Muslims, the Suppressor of the Innovators, and the Supporter of the Religion: Abu Muhammad Mahmud ibn Abi al-Qasim ibn Badran ibn Ayyan al-Animi al-Dashti related to us, saying:
Praise be to Allah, who endeared to me Islam, the Sunnah, and guidance, and made hateful to me misguidance, innovation, and ruin; and made detestable to me disbelief, wickedness, disobedience, and caprice.
Glory be to Him who created and proportioned, who ordained and guided, who raised the lofty heavens and adorned them with the lamps of the darkness, and spread out the lowly earths and leveled them with vast lands; then, by His Essence (1), He ascended (istawa) over the Throne with a limit (bi-al-hadd), and He took a handful from the surface
(1) A group of the People of the Sunnah explicitly utilized the term “by His Essence” (bi-dhatihi) regarding the affirmation of the Ascension (al-Istiwa). Among them are: Uthman al-Darimi (d. 280 AH), Muhammad ibn Uthman ibn Abi Shaybah (d. 297 AH), Ibn Jarir al-Tabari (d. 310 AH), Ibn Abi Zayd al-Qayrawani (d. 386 AH), Abu Umar al-Talamanki (d. 399 AH), Yahya ibn Ammar (d. 422 AH), Sa'd al-Zanjani (d. 471 AH), al-Sijzi (d. 444 AH), al-Ansari al-Harawi (d. 481 AH), and many others from the People of the Sunnah, may Allah have mercy on them.
Indeed, more than one of the People of the Sunnah narrated the consensus (ijma‘) of the Pious Predecessors (Salaf) on affirming this phrasing. Among these instances is the statement of Abu Nasr al-Sijzi, may Allah have mercy on him, in the book al-Ibanah, where he said: “Our Imams—such as al-Thawri, Malik, the two Hammads, Ibn ‘Uyaynah, Ibn al-Mubarak, al-Fudayl, Ahmad, and Ishaq—are in agreement that Allah is over the Throne by His Essence (bi-dhatihi), and that His knowledge is in every place.”
[Al-’Uluw by al-Dhahabi (2/1290)].
And the statement of Abu Isma‘il al-Harawi: “The Imams of the Salaf never ceased to declare that...”
