He said: And the doctrine of the scholars of the Predecessors (Salaf) is:
That God is the First, the Pre-eternal (1), and He has Al-Ḥadd that none knows but Him, but it is not for anyone to imagine a limit for His Al-Ḥadd within himself; rather, they must believe in that, and entrust the knowledge of that to God Almighty (2).
6- The people of the Sunna said: Indeed, God in His entirety is above His Throne, He knows and hears from above the Throne, not a hidden thing among His creation is hidden from Him, and nothing veils them from Him; His knowledge of them from above the Throne is all-encompassing, and His sight penetrates them.
God Almighty said: {My Lord encompasses all things in knowledge} [al-Anʿām: 80], and He did not say: in Essence.
Ibn Taymiyya, may Allah have mercy on him, said in Bayān Talbīs al-Jahmiyya (5/171): "Since the term (the Pre-eternal) has aspects that, when used absolutely, only indicate what precedes something else, the name (the First) is better than it. Thus, it came in His beautiful names that are in the Book and the Sunna that He is (the First). There is a difference between the names by which He is supplicated and the terms used to inform about Him due to the need to clarify their meanings." End quote.
He also said in Darʾ al-Taʿāruḍ (2/391): "It has become famous in the terminology of the theologians to name Him: (the Pre-eternal); indeed, the majority of the Mu'tazilites and those who follow their path mostly name Him: (the Pre-eternal)." End quote.
[See: Majmūʿ al-Fatāwā (6/141-143)]
