The first of these is an act of defiance against the language. The Arabs say, 'So-and-so istawa upon the horse,' meaning he settled firmly upon it. Allah the Almighty said: {And it was said, 'O earth, swallow your water, and O sky, withhold [your rain].' And the water subsided, and the matter was accomplished, and it [the ship] settled (istawat) on [Mount] Judi. And it was said, 'Away with the wrongdoing people'} [Hud: 44], meaning it settled upon it. Is it then permissible to say, 'The ship seized (istawlat) the mountain'?!
Furthermore, when a man is engaged in something, then leaves it and turns his intention toward another, it is said: 'istawa toward such-and-such.' Allah, Blessed and Exalted is He, said: {It is He who created for you all of that which is on the earth. Then He directed Himself (istawa) toward the heaven} [al-Baqarah: 29].
It is also said that the scale and the account istawa when they are balanced, and the one bowing or otherwise istawa when he stands upright after bending. These and similar instances are the contexts of al-Istiwa’. We do not know, in any of the rare or well-known dialects of the language, of anyone who considered al-Istiwa’ to mean al-Istiyla’ (seizing/conquering); for al-Istiyla’ signifies overcoming, subjugation, and taking possession. Was the Throne withheld from Him or outside of His possession such that He had to 'seize' it?
The second reason is that if al-Istiyla’ is a term denoting overcoming and subjugation, it cannot be something newly occurring (hadith) in Allah; for He, Exalted and High, is the Subduer (al-Qahir) and the Victor (al-Ghalib) from pre-eternity. However, al-Istiwa’ may be something He brings about after the creation of the Throne. His statement, {then He rose over the Throne}, clarifies that the Istiwa’ occurred after the creation of the heavens and the earth.
The third reason is that it constitutes a defiance of reason and a contradiction of the entire Ummah—both its scholars and its commoners—regarding a matter that contains no ambiguity or difficulty."
