Isḥāq, Abū Bakr Aḥmad b. Naṣr al-Raffā narrated to us, I heard Abū Bakr b. Abī Dāwūd, I heard my father say: A man came to Aḥmad b. Ḥanbal and said: Does God Almighty have Al-Ḥadd?
He said: Yes, no one knows it except Him. God, Blessed and Exalted, said: {And you will see the angels surrounding the Throne} [Al-Zumar: 75], he says: encircling.]
- And Al-Khallāl also narrated in "Kitāb al-Sunna":
Yūsuf b. Mūsā informed me that Abū ʿAbdullāh was asked: And our Lord, Blessed and Exalted, does not resemble anything of His creation, and nothing of His creation resembles Him?
He said: Yes, {There is nothing like unto Him} [Al-Shūrā: 11].
- He said: ʿUbaydullāh b. Ḥanbal informed me, my father Ḥanbal b. Isḥāq narrated to me, he said: My uncle said: We believe in God Almighty upon the Throne however He willed, and as He willed, without Al-Ḥadd or attribute that a describer can reach, or that anyone can delimit. For the attributes of God belong to Him and are from Him, and He is as He described Himself, {Vision perceives Him not} with Al-Ḥadd or limit, {but He perceives [all] vision} [Al-Anʿām: 103],
and {He is the Knower of the unseen and the witnessed} [Al-Ḥashr: 22],
{Knower of the unseen} [Al-Māʾida: 109], and the description of a describer does not perceive Him, and He is as He described Himself. And there is nothing delimited from God Almighty, and no one reaches His knowledge and His power. He overcame all things by His knowledge, His power, and His authority, {There is nothing like unto Him, and He is the Hearing, the Seeing} [Al-Shūrā: 11].
And God Almighty was before there was anything, and God Almighty is the First, and He is the Last, and no one reaches the limit of His attributes, and submission is to the command of God, and contentment is with His decree.
