بسم الله الرحمن الرحيم
The prophet (ﷺ) said:
“Whoever does not show mercy to those on earth, will not receive mercy from the One who is above the heavens.”
(al-Dhahabī said: Its narrators are thiqah (trustworthy and reliable) – Mukhtasar al-‘Ulū of al-Dhahabī pg. 9, Declared Sahīh by Al-Albānī in his checking)
Anas (رضي الله عنه) narrated: Zaynab bint Jahsh (رضي الله عنها)used to boast to the wives of the Prophet (ﷺ) saying: “Your families married you off (to the Prophet), but Allāh married me (to him) from above the seven heavens.”
And in one wording: She used to say: “Indeed Allāh married me off above the heavens.”
And in one wording: She said to the Prophet (ﷺ): “The Most Merciful (al-Rahmān) married me to you from above His throne.”
(Mukhtasar al-‘Ulū of al-Dhahabī pg. 9, who declared it Sahīh and said it was narrated by Al-Bukhārī. Al-Albānī also declared it Hasan Sahīh in his checking)
‘Abdullāh ibn Mas’ūd (رضي الله عنه) said:
“Between the heaven and the Kursī (the Footstool) is a distance of five hundred years, and between the Kursī and the water is five hundred years, and the Throne (al-ʿArsh) is above the water, and Allāh is above the Throne. Nothing from the actions of the children of Ādam is hidden from Him.” (Al-Lalakā’ī in I’tiqād Ahlul-Sunnah #573, Hasan)
Ibn ‘Abbās (رضي الله عنه) said:
“… Indeed, Allāh, The Mighty and Majestic, was over His Throne before He created anything. Then He created the creation and wrote down what would happen until the Day of Judgment.” (al-Lalakā’ī in I’tiqād Ahlul-Sunnah #574, Sahīh – see Mukhtasar al-‘Ulū of al-Dhahabī, checking by Al-Albānī pg. 22)
Imām Al-Awzā’ī, d.157H said:
“We were – while the Tābi’īn (successors) were numerous – saying: Indeed Allāh is above His throne, and we believe in what has come in the Sunnah regarding His attributes.” (Mukhtasar al-‘Ulū of al-Dhahabī pg. 73, declared Sahīh by Ibn Taymiyyah)
Imām Muqātil ibn Hayyān, d.150H said:
Regarding Allāh’s saying:
مَا يَكُونُ مِن نَجْوَى ثَلَثَةٍ إِلَّا هُوَ رَابِعُهُمْ
“There is not a private conversation of three except that He is the fourth of them” [Al-Mujadilah: 7].
He said: “He is above His throne, and His knowledge is with them.” (Mukhtasar al-‘Ulū of al-Dhahabī pg. 74, declared Hasan by Al-Albānī)
Hāfidh Ibn ‘Abdul-Barr said:
The scholars from among the Companions and the Tābi’īn, from whom interpretation has been transmitted, said regarding the interpretation of the saying of Allāh, The Mighty and Majestic:
مَا يَكُونُ مِنْ نَجْوَى ثَلاثَةٍ إِلَّا هُوَ رَابِعُهُمْ
(“There is not a private conversation of three except that He is the fourth of them“) — “that He is above the Throne, and His knowledge is in every place.”
No one whose statement is relied upon has opposed them in this. (al-Tamhīd 5/149-150)
Mālik ibn Anas, d.179H said:
“Allāh is above the heavens, and His knowledge is in every place, nothing is devoid of it.” (Mukhtasar al-‘Ulū of al-Dhahabī pg. 76, declared Sahīh by Al-Albānī)
Imām Abdullāh ibn al-Mubārak, d.181H said:
‘We know that our Lord is above the seven heavens and is Istawā over His Throne and His creation is separate from Him. We do not say as the Jahmiyyah say, that He is right here’, and he pointed to the ground.” (al-Sunnah of Abdullāh ibn Ahmad 22/216/598, Hasan)
Imām al-Sābūnī said:
Ahl ul-Hadīth (the people of hadīth) believe and testify that Allāh, The One free from all deficiencies and The Most High, is above the seven heavens and over His Throne…
Allāh, The One free from all deficiencies, says about the cursed Pharaoh, that he said to Hāmān:
ابْنِ لِي صَرْحًا لَعَلَى أَبْلُغُ الْأَسْبَابَ أَسْبَابَ السَّمَوَاتِ فَأَطَّلِعَ إِلَى إِلَهِ مُوسَى وَإِنِّي لَأَظُنُّهُ كَذِبًا
Build me a tower so that I may reach the ways, the ways of the heavens, so I may look at the Ilāh (i.e. God) of Mūsā. Indeed I think him to be a liar. (al-Ghāfir:36-37)
He only said this because he heard Mūsā, (عليه سلام) , say that his Lord is above the heavens, as you can see from Pharaohs statement: “Indeed I think him to be a liar”, in reference to Mūsās statement: That there is a ilāh above the heavens.
The scholars of the Ummah and in particular the Imāms from the Salaf, did not disagree that Allāh, The Most High, is over His Throne and the Throne is above the seven heavens. They affirm what Allāh, The Most High, has affirmed, and believe in what He, The Lord, The Most Majestic, has informed us with. (Abridged, Aqīdah al-Salaf wa Ashāb al-Hadīth pg. 16-20)
Shaykh al-‘Uthaymīn said: The belief of the salaf is that Allāh, The Most-High, is above his creation with His Essence.When one investigates the matter of Allāh’s ‘Ulū (Highness) after referring it to the Book of Allāh and the Sunnah of His Messenger, it becomes clear that the Book and the Sunnah prove clearly in all aspects, the meaning that Allāh is above the creation with His essence… (Fatāwā Arkān al-Islām 1/116)
Imām Ibn Khuzaymah said:
“Whoever does not say that Allāh, the Mighty and Majestic, is above His throne, above the seven heavens is a disbeliever in his Lord, his blood is permissible (to shed), he is asked to repent – if he repents (then good), and if not, his neck is struck.” (Ithbāt Sifat al-‘Ulū of Ibn Qudāmah pg. 44)
Imām Al-Tahāwī said:
“Allāh encompasses everything and is above (everything).”
Imām Ibn Abī al-Izz said (in explanation of Al-Tahāwī’s statement):
Allāh is above the Throne while sustaining the Throne and its bearers by His power. He is independent of the Throne, while the Throne is in need of Him. He encompasses the Throne, while the Throne cannot encompass Him.
As for Allāh encompassing everything, Allāh has said the following:
أَلَا إِنَّهُ بِكُلِّ شَيْءٍ مُحِيطٌ
“Unquestionably, He is encompassing of all things.” [Fussilat: 54]
وَلِلَّهِ مَا فِي السَّمَاوَاتِ وَمَا فِي الْأَرْضِ وَكَانَ اللَّهُ بِكُلِّ شَيْءٍ مُحِيطًا
“And to Allāh belongs whatever is in the heavens and whatever is on the earth, and Allāh is encompassing of all things.” [An-Nisā: 126]
It is not intended by His encompassing His creation that He is like the celestial sphere, and that the created beings are within His pure/sacred essence— greatly exalted is Allāh above such a notion. Rather, the intended meaning is the encompassing of His greatness/majesty, the vastness of His knowledge and power. In comparison to His greatness/majesty, the creation is like a mustard seed.
As narrated from Ibn Abbās (رضي الله عنه), he said: “The seven heavens, the seven earths, and everything within and between them, in the Hand of The-Most Merciful, are like a mustard seed in the hand of one of you.”
As for Him being above the creation, The-Most High said:
وَهُوَ الْقَاهِرُ فَوْقَ عِبَادِهِ
“And He is al-Qāhir above His servants” [Al-An’ām: 18 and 61].
يَخَافُونَ رَبَّهُمْ مِنْ فَوْقِهِمْ
“They fear their Lord from above them” [Al-Nahl: 50].
(Abridged, Sharh ‘Aqīdah Al-Tahāwī pg. 281-282)
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