Note:
al-Albānī undertook in the introduction of Mukhtaṣar al-ʿUluww by al-Dhahabī to reject this report, and to criticize its chain of transmission and its matn, and [claimed] that it is not permissible to believe in it even assuming its authenticity from Mujāhid! Because it necessitates attributing sitting on the Throne to God, the Exalted, and that this necessitates attributing settling upon it, and this, as he claimed, is among what is not permissible to believe and attribute to God, the Exalted; thus he said!!
Then he condemned al-Dhahabī for his hesitation in failing to decisively reject this rejected report!!
And that it would have been more appropriate for him to decisively reject it and not use it as evidence, for that is what befits him due to his scrupulousness (wara') in not attributing what is not authentic to Him, Glorified is He!!
Then he made an excuse for him regarding his hesitation between affirming this report and rejecting it, saying that perhaps he was taken by the awe of those scholars who affirmed this report! And he expressed great astonishment at the traditionists, the Imams of the Sunna and reports, for their excessive enthusiasm in affirming this rejected report, their exaggeration against those who rejected it, and their harboring bad thoughts about their creed (aqidah)!!
And many of those who affiliate themselves with verification and hadith extraction have followed him in this rejection!!
And this statement has become the prevalent one in the margins of many books of the Sunna, and God's help is sought.
So whoever desires safety and salvation, let him follow the righteous predecessors (Salaf), for they were more knowledgeable of God and the Sunna of His Prophet, peace and blessings of God be upon him, than those who came after them, and more scrupulous and fearful of God than to attribute to Him what is not established.
Ibn Taymiyya, may Allah have mercy on him, said in Majmūʿ al-Fatāwā (4/374): ... If this is clear, then the approved scholars and His accepted allies have narrated: that Muḥammad, the Messenger of God, peace and blessings of God be upon him, his Lord will seat him on the Throne... And this does not contradict intercession, due to what the hadiths have profusely conveyed that the Praised Station is intercession by the agreement of the Imams among all those who affiliate with Islam and claim it; he does not say: that seating him on the Throne is rejected, but rather some of the Jahmiyya rejected it, nor is mentioning it in the exegesis (tafsir) of the verse rejected. End quote.
The people of the Sunna in every era have received the report of Mujāhid with acceptance, and they went to great lengths in condemning anyone who rejected it or discredited it. Their statements in this chapter are very numerous, so see the book al-Sunna by al-Khallāl, may Allah have mercy on him, (1/209-260) so that you may come across some of their statements. Among them are:
