Iqraʾ, then the revelation paused for a period... until Gabriel appeared to him while the Messenger of God, peace and blessings of God be upon him, was in al-Abṭaḥ, in the form in which God created him, having six hundred wings, the immense size of his creation having blocked the horizon. He approached him and revealed to him from God Almighty what He commanded him with. At that moment, he recognized the greatness of the angel who brought him the message, the majesty of his stature, and the loftiness of his position with his Creator who sent him to him.

Then he mentioned the hadith of Sharīk from Anas, may God be pleased with him, regarding the hadith of the Night Journey: "Then the Compeller, the Lord of Might, drew near and descended," and he said: "If it is authentic, then it is interpreted as referring to another time and another story, not that it is an exegesis of this verse; for this occurred while the Messenger of God, peace and blessings of God be upon him, was on the earth, not on the night of the Night Journey. For this reason, He said after it: {And he certainly saw him in another descent (13) At the Lote Tree of the Utmost Boundary (14)}. This was the night of the Night Journey, and the first was on the earth." End quote.

I say: The hadith is authentic, as previously mentioned, and praise be to God.

Know that most of those who attacked this wording in this hadith are the deniers of the attributes (Muʿaṭṭila); because it contains an affirmation of God Almighty drawing near to His Prophet, peace and blessings of God be upon him, and this is anthropomorphism to them, which their hearts and minds reject. For this reason, they find it repugnant and reject it vehemently. Among that is what al-Khaṭṭābī said: "There is no hadith in this book—meaning: Ṣaḥīḥ al-Bukhārī—that is more repugnant in its apparent meaning, nor more repugnant in taste than this section, for it necessitates defining the distance between one of the two mentioned and the other, and distinguishing the place of each of them, in addition to what descending implies of likening and comparing Him to a thing that hangs from above to below." Then he chose the view that this hadith was a dream, or that Anas, may God be pleased with him, related it on his own accord without attributing it to the Prophet, peace and blessings of God be upon him. [Al-Fatḥ (13/443)].

I say: Rather, by God, the repugnance and ugliness lie in the statement of one who rejects authentic hadiths with his intellect and whose soul is not at ease with them, adopting regarding them the doctrine of the Jahmīs and those influenced by them among those who weigh the words of God and the words of His Messenger, peace and blessings of God be upon him, with their intellects that are saturated with denial and distortion of the words of God Almighty and the words of His Messenger, peace and blessings of God be upon him. Otherwise, where were the Imams of the Predecessors (Salaf) and the scholars of the Sunna regarding these hadiths which the deniers consider objectionable?!