Note:

Muḥammad b. Saʿīd al-Qaḥṭānī, the editor of the book al-Sunna (2/455) by ʿAbd Allāh b. Aḥmad, commented on this report by saying:

"(What I see is that this is speech regarding the modality of the attribute, which is not supported by authentic evidence, and what is authentic in the Book of God and the Sunna of His Messenger suffices us from this)!!"

I say: If his intent is to deny what this report indicates regarding the attribution of heaviness to God Almighty, then it is rejected speech, contradicting what the righteous Predecessors were upon. Praise be to God, he has relieved us and attributed this statement to his mere opinion, and did not attribute it to any of the Imams of the Predecessors.

As for what this report indicates regarding the attribution of (heaviness) to God Almighty, the texts have testified to it, and the expressions of the Predecessors and the people of knowledge have successively affirmed it without any objection. Among that is:

1- The report of ʿAbd Allāh b. Masʿūd, may God be pleased with him, in which he says: "...and the first to know of His anger are the bearers of the Throne; they find Him becoming heavy upon them."

[Narrated by ʿUthmān al-Dārimī in al-Naqḍ (114)]

2- The report of ʿAbd Allāh b. ʿAbbās, may God be pleased with them both, in the Tafsir of His Almighty's statement: {The heavens almost rupture therefrom} [Maryam: 90]. He said: "From the heaviness."

[Narrated by al-Dārimī in al-Radd ʿalā al-Jahmiyya (88), Abū al-Shaykh in al-ʿAẓama (235), and al-Ḥākim in al-Mustadrak (2/442), who said: "It has an authentic chain of transmission," and al-Dhahabī agreed with him.

Ibn Jarīr narrated something similar in his Tafsir (7/25)]

3- The long report of Kaʿb al-Aḥbār, may Allah have mercy on him, at the end of which is: ("...There is no heaven among the heavens except that it has a creaking like the creaking of the ʿIlāfī saddle when it is first mounted, from the heaviness of the Compeller...").

Abū Ṣāliḥ said: "(al-ʿIlāfī): He means the new one."

[Narrated by Abū al-Shaykh in al-ʿAẓama (234), and authenticated by Ibn al-Qayyim in Ijtimāʿ al-Juyūsh (p. 102), and al-Dhahabī in al-ʿUluww]

4- Khālid b. Maʿdān, may Allah have mercy on him, said: "Indeed, the Most Merciful, Glorified and Exalted be He, becomes heavy upon the bearers of the Throne." And this is what we have with us in the text of the book.

5- Al-Ḥasan al-Baṣrī, may Allah have mercy on him, said in the Tafsir of His Almighty's statement: {The heaven will break apart therefrom}