IV. The Fourth Article

Ibn Taymiyah’s Saying of the Sitting of Allah, Ta^ala

Ibn Taymiyah’s saying of Allah sitting is confirmed about him, although some of his followers negated this when they found it ugly.  He mentioned this in his book “Minhaj-us-Sunnat-in-Nabawiyyah” by sayings: The majority of Ahl-us-Sunnah wal-Jama^ah say that Allah, tabaraka wa ta^ala, [Tabaraka wa ta^ala attributes the giving and perfection to Allah.] descends and al-^Arsh does not get void of Him. He claimed that this was reported about Ishaq Ibn Rahawayh, Hammad Ibn Zayd, Imam Ahmad, and others. He is a fabricator and great lier about that.

In his Tafsir named “an-Nahr”, the Grammarian Abu Hayyan al-‘Andalusiyy reported about Ibn Taymiyah having this belief. He said: In his handwriting, a book of Ahmad Ibn Taymiyah, who was contemporary with us, which he called “Kitab-ul-^Arsh”, I read: Allah sits on al-Kursiyy and has left a space for the Messenger of Allah to sit with Him.  At-Taj Muhammad Ibn ^Aliyy Ibn ^Abd-il-Haqq al-Baranbariyy pretended that he is a promoter of his ideas and tricked him, until he took it from him; we read that in it. [The author of “Kashf-uz-Zunun” reported that about him also in Volume 2, page 1438.]

This reporting of Abu Hayyan was omitted from the old printed copy.  However, the manuscript confirms it. In his commentary on “as-Sayf-us-Saqil”, page 85, az-Zahid al-Kawthariyy said explaining the reason of omitting these statements of Ibn Taymiyah: The editor of as-Sa^adah Printing House told me that he found it very ugly and he omitted it upon printing so that the enemies of al-‘Islam would not use it.  Then he requested that I record that here to catch up what he missed and out of sincerity to the Muslims.

In “al-Muwafaqah”, page 29, Ibn Taymiyah said: Allah, ta^ala, has a hadd no one but Him knows it.  One should not imagine that hadd for a purpose in himself, but believe it and leave knowing about it to Allah. His place has a hadd, which is on His ^Arsh above His skies. These are two limits.

In the twenty-fifth volume of “al-Kawakib-ud-Darariyy”, which is in the Library of az-Zahiriyyah in Damascus, Ibn Taymiyah said: If Allah willed he would sit on a mosqito, which would carry Him by His power; how about on a large ^Arsh!

Such a saying attributes to Allah the sitting, the body and form. And that is kufur. The will of Allah is NOT contingent to the intellectual impossibilities.

قال الله تعالى: (ولا تضربوا لله الأمثال)ـ