Section Three:

The Reason Why the People of the Sunnah Mentioned the "Limit" (al-Hadd) for Allah the Exalted

Since the Jahmiyyah were negating the highness (al-‘uluww) of Allah the Exalted over His creation and His rising (al-istiwa’) over His Throne, and were saying: "Allah the Exalted is not distinct from His creation; there is no boundary (hadd) between Him and them, nor is He distinguished from them."

The People of the Sunnah from among the righteous predecessors (al-Salaf al-Salih) denounced them, and their denunciation of them was severe—to the point that they declared them disbelievers (kaffaruhum), warned against them, and clarified their affairs and their deception to the people.

Ibn Taymiyyah (d. 728 AH)—may Allah have mercy on him—said in Bayan Talbis al-Jahmiyyah (3/43):

“...Since the Jahmiyyah were saying that which implies that the Creator is not distinct from the creation, they negated His attributes by which He is distinguished and they negated His status (qadr). This reached the point where the Mu‘tazilah would say: ‘Once we know that He is Living, All-Knowing, and All-Powerful, we have already known His reality and His essence (mahiyyah).’

And they say: ‘He is not distinct from anything else.’ Rather, they either describe Him with the attribute of nonexistence, saying: ‘He is neither inside the world nor outside of it, nor is He this, nor is He that,’ or they make Him indwelling (hallan) within created things, or [identical to] the existence of created things.

Thus, Ibn al-Mubarak clarified that the Lord—Glorified and Exalted is He—is over His Throne, distinct (mubayin) from His creation, and separate (munfasil) from it. He mentioned the ‘limit’ (al-hadd) because the Jahmiyyah used to say: ‘He has no limit,’ and whatever has no limit is not distinct from created things and is not above the world, because that necessitates”