11- And I found in the book "Al-Uṣūl" (1) by the Judge Abū Yaʿlā Muḥammad b. al-Ḥusayn b. al-Farrāʾ, may God be pleased with him — in his own handwriting — that he said:
Aḥmad used the statement unrestrictedly: that God Almighty has a limit.
Aḥmad explicitly stated it in the narration of al-Marrūdhī, and he mentioned the statement of Ibn al-Mubārak:
We know God Almighty over the Throne with a limit.
So he said: That reached me from him, and it pleased him (2).
And al-Athram said: I said to Aḥmad: It is related from Ibn al-Mubārak: We know our Lord in the seventh heaven over His Throne with a limit.
So Aḥmad said: That is how it is with us.
12- And I saw in the handwriting of the Judge Abū Yaʿlā (3):
Abū Bakr Aḥmad b. Naṣr al-Raffāʾ informed us, he said: I heard Abū Bakr b. Abī Dāwūd say: I heard my father say: Ibn Ḥanbal came (4) and he said to him: Does God, Blessed
Notes
- (1) Perhaps he means the book: Al-Muʿtamad fī Uṣūl al-Dīn. The subject of the book is scholastic theology (ʿilm al-kalām), and the discourse on the attributes and faith. This book has been printed.
- (2) The referencing of the report of Imam ʿAbd Allāh b. al-Mubārak and Imam Aḥmad, may Allah have mercy on him, will come under number (14).
- (3) An omission occurred in the original manuscript, and its correct form as in Ibṭāl al-Taʾwīlāt (551) is: "And I saw in the handwriting of Abū Isḥāq: Abū Bakr Aḥmad b. Naṣr al-Raffā informed us, saying: ... I copied from the handwriting of Abū Isḥāq once his annotations on the book Al-ʿIlal by Abū Bakr al-Khallāl with his chain of transmission: from Abū Bakr b. Abī Dāwūd: I heard my father say: A man came... and he mentioned it." End quote.
- (4) Thus it is in the original manuscript, and its correction by the author will come shortly.
