Ithbāt al-Ḥadd by al-Dashtī — Edited by ‘Ādil Āl Ḥamdān

I said to Aḥmad b. Ḥanbal: It is related from Ibn al-Mubārak that he was asked: How do we know our Lord, Exalted is He?

He said: In the seventh heaven, over His Throne, with a limit.

Aḥmad said: This is how it is with us (1).

16- And with it, Abū ʿAbd Allāh said: Abū Ḥafṣ b. Rajāʾ narrated to us: Abū Jaʿfar Muḥammad b. Dāwūd al-Baṣrawī narrated to us: Abū Bakr al-Marrūdhī narrated to us, he said: I heard Abū ʿAbd Allāh — meaning: Aḥmad b. Ḥanbal — when he was asked: It is narrated from ʿAlī b. al-Ḥasan b. Shaqīq, from Ibn al-Mubārak that he was asked: How do we know God [Mighty and Majestic]?

He said: Over the Throne, with a limit.

He said: That reached me from him, and he liked it. Then Abū ʿAbd Allāh said: {Do they await but that God should come to them in canopies of clouds} [al-Baqara: 210].

Then he said: {And your Lord comes, and the angels, rank upon rank} [al-Fajr: 22] (2).

(1) Narrated by Ibn Baṭṭa in Al-Ibāna al-Kubrā (2672) with my verification. It also comes through the route of al-Khallāl, and Ibn Abī Yaʿlā said in Al-Ṭabaqāt (2/233): "(Narrated by al-Athram)." Meaning: in his Masāʾil or his Al-Sunna.
(2) Ibn Baṭṭa in Al-Ibāna al-Kubrā (2673), and it comes through the route of al-Khallāl with his Chain of transmission from the Masāʾil of al-Marrūdhī. Al-Karajī al-Qaṣṣāb, may Allah have mercy on him, said in Nukat al-Qurʾān (1/160) when interpreting the verse of al-Baqara: "It is a clear evidence against the Jahmiyya regarding what they deny of movement and descending to the lowest heaven." End quote. I say: The application of movement to God Almighty will be discussed under paragraph (20).