and others, may Allah have mercy on them, went to the view that (al-ʿamāʾ) is elongated (with madd), and its meaning in the speech of the Arabs is: white clouds.

Al-Azharī, may Allah have mercy on him, said in Tahdhīb al-Lugha (3/2578): This view is strengthened by the statement of God Almighty:

{Do they await but that God should come to them in canopies of clouds} [Al-Baqara: 210].

2- Yazīd b. Hārūn went, and al-Tirmidhī, may Allah have mercy on him, followed him, to the view that the word (ʿamāʾ) is with madd; but its meaning in the hadith is: there is nothing with God.

[See: Bayān Talbīs al-Jahmiyya (1/464)]

I say: This is attested to by what al-Bukhārī (7418) narrated from ʿImrān, may God be pleased with him, from the Messenger of God, peace and blessings of God be upon him: "God existed and there was nothing before Him, and His Throne was upon the water," and in another wording: "and there was nothing with Him."

3- And al-Aṣmaʿī has another opinion; he said: It is possible that the meaning of the hadith "in ʿamā" is: meaning that it was obscured (ʿamiya) from the scholars how He was. Ibn Baṭṭa transmitted it from him in al-Ibāna al-Kubrā (2686).

• Al-Azharī, may Allah have mercy on him, said in Tahdhīb al-Lugha (3/2577): It has reached me from Abū al-Haytham, though a reliable narrator did not attribute it to him for me, that he said in the interpretation of this hadith and its wording: that He was in ʿamā (shortened, without madd). He said: Every matter that hearts cannot perceive with intellects is ʿamā (obscurity). He said:

And the meaning is: that He was where the intellects of the children of Adam cannot perceive Him, nor can any description reach His true nature. End quote.

And perhaps from this is the statement of God Almighty regarding the effect of the Qur'an on the disbelievers: {and it is for them a blindness} [Fuṣṣilat: 44].

Al-Dhahabī transmitted in al-ʿUluw (1/276): Al-Ḥasan b. ʿImrān al-Ḥanẓalī al-Harawī said:

I heard Abū al-Haytham Khālid b. Yazīd al-Rāzī say: Abū ʿUbayd erred; rather, al-ʿamā is shortened (without madd), and it is not known where the Lord was before creating the Throne. End quote.

I say: Al-Aṣmaʿī and others before Abū ʿUbayd had established it with madd by way of narration, and interpreted it by way of understanding.

Ibn al-Qayyim, may Allah have mercy on him, said in Ijtimāʿ al-Juyūsh (p. 235): Abū al-Qāsim [Khalaf b. ʿAbd Allāh al-Muqriʾ al-Andalusī] said: (al-ʿamāʾ) is elongated and it is clouds, and (al-ʿamā) is shortened: darkness. The hadith has been narrated with both elongation and shortening. Whoever narrated it with elongation, its meaning according to him is: He was in ʿamāʾ (clouds), a cloud with air below it and air above it, and the pronoun refers back to the ʿamāʾ. And whoever narrated it with shortening, its meaning according to him is: He was in ʿamā (obscurity) from His creation; because whoever is blind (ʿamiya) to something, it has become dark to him. End quote.