31. On that Allah is in the Heavens : Kitāb al-Tawḥīd (The Book on Monotheism) by Abū Bakr b. Khuzaymah

 On that Allah is in the Heavens 

Allāh has mentioned in the holy Qurᵓān and has told us through the tongue of His Prophet that He is in the heavens. This fact is ingrained in the nature of the Muslim believers. It is acknowledged by the scholars as well commoners, the slaves as well as the freemen, males as well as females, adults as well as children among the Muslim believers. Every Muslim raises his head towards the heaven while calling Allah. They spread their hands, while invoking Allah, facing the heaven above and not the earth downwards.

Abū Bakr said: I have already discussed in the previous chapter that our Lord sat and established Himself on His throne. Therefore, hearken to me. For what I am reciting to you is written in the Book of our Lord, which is written between two covers and which is recited in the [mosque] arches and the schools. I recite to you of the part of the revelation that which clarifies that the Lord is in the heaven, not on earth as held by the Jahmīs Muᶜaṭṭilahs. He is in the heaven. May Allāh continuously curse these Muᶜaṭṭilah.

Allāh said:

Do you feel secure that He Who is in heaven will not cause you to be swallowed up by the earth (Q 67:16)?

Or do you feel secure that He Who is in heaven will not send against you a violent tornado (with showers of stones) (Q 67:17)?

So, did not the creator of heaven and the earths tell us in these two verses, O those men of reason, that He is in the heavens? He says:

To Him mount up (all) words of purity: It is He Who exalts each deed of righteousness (Q 35:10).

O wise men, is it not known and established conclusively that Allah is above all such people who speak a word of righteousness? These words ascend towards Allāh. It is not what the Jahmīs Muᶜaṭṭilah hold. They hold that these words descend downwards. No, they ascend towards Allah.

Have you not heard what the Almighty said to Jesus Christ, the son of Mary, O knowledgeable? He says:

O Jesus! I will take you and raise you to Myself (Q 03:55).

Does a thing ascend higher from a lower station, or it ascends from height to lower stations?

And Allāh said:

Nay, Allah raised him up unto Himself (Q 4:158).

It is indeed difficult for a human to get down into the earth from its surface and towards a place which is lower than it or under it. Therefore, it is said: “Allāh raised (rafaᶜahū) him up.” The word rafaᶜa, in the Arabic language, in which we have been addressed by Allah, connotes nothing other than ascension to a higher place.

Have not you heard the statement Allāh about Himself? He says:

He is the irresistible, (watching) from the above over His worshippers (Q 06:18).

Is it not conclusively and certainly established human knowledge that Allāh is above His worshippers, including the jinns, the humans, the angels and all those living on the earth? Have not you considered the saying of the Creator?

And to Allah does obeisance all that is in the heaven and on earth, whether moving (living) creatures or the angels: for none are arrogant (before their Lord). They all revere their Lord, high above them, and they do all that they are commanded (Q 16:49-50)?

The Exalted Lord has told us, in this verse too, that He is above the angels, everything in the earth and heaven and all the quadrupeds on the earth. He told us that the angels fear their Lord who is above them. Jahmīs Muᶜaṭṭilahs hold that their Lord is beneath the station of the angels. Have not you heard the following saying of our Creator:

He rules (all) affairs from the heaven to the earth: in the end will (all affairs) go up (yaᶜruju) to Him (Q 32:05).

Is not it known to those who know Arabic in which we have been addressed by Allah and in which the holy Qurᵓān speaks that, in the light of this verse, all affairs of the earth are governed from the heaven. All affairs are decided by the Great Ruler who is in the heaven not on earth. It is conclusively known that the Arabs take the word maᶜārij as upwards movement. Allāh has said:

The angels and the spirit ascend unto (taᶜruju) Him (Q 70:04).

Things rise from depth to height. They do not rise from height to the depth. Therefore, try to understand Arabic language and do not fall into error.

Allāh said:

Glorify the name of thy Guardian-Lord, the Most High (Q 87:01).

The word, “al-aᶜlā” in Arabic, means the highest. It applies to what is stationed over and above everything. Allāh has described Himself in more than one occasion in His Book and has told us that He is the Highest, the Greatest.

O wise men, does not the word ᶜaliyy signify something which is stationed above? Is not it a fact that a higher stationed entity cannot be held to be high and low at the same time? This is what the Jahmīs think. They hold that He is above as well as below, and in the middle and with everything placed on the earth and the heavens and in the bellies of all the animals.

Had they investigated the verse of the holy Book and had Allah granted them the ability and opportunity to understand it, they would have realized their ignorance and that they do not understand what they say. Then they would have been clear on that they are ignorant and that their view is erroneous.

When Moses asked Allah that he wanted to see Him, Allah Almighty responded to him:

By no means, you cannot see Me (direct); But look upon the mount; if it abide in its place, then shall you see Me. When his Lord manifested His glory on the Mount, He made it as dust (Q 07:143).

O people of understanding, it is certain that if Allāh were present at every place, with everybody and all the creatures, as the Muᶜaṭṭilah believe, then He would be visible to everything on the earth. Then, if He were visible to everything on the earth, its fertile as well as barren parts, its mountains as well as wadis, its cities and towns, its populated and unpopulated areas, and whatever is in it of plants and the structures, then all these would have been turned into dust. For we know that when Allāh revealed Himself to the mountain He made it as dust. Allāh says:

When his Lord manifested His glory on the Mount, He made it as dust (Q 07:143).

162. (1) Al-Ḥasan b. Muhammad al-Zaᶜfrānī and ᶜAlī b. al-Ḥusayn and Yaḥyā b. Ḥakīm → Maᶜādh b. Naᶜādh al-Anbarī → Ḥammād b. Salamah → Thābit → Anas b. Mālik:

The Prophet commented on the verse: “When his Lord manifested His glory on the Mount, He made it as dust” (Q 07:143).

He put his fingers to so as to reckon with his little finger from the nail and gripping it with his thumb.

Maᶜādh says that Ḥammād said to Thābit: “O Abū Muhammad! Leave it. What do you want of it?” He said that then Thābit nudged Ḥammād and said: “Who are you O Ḥammād? What are you? Anas b. Mālik narrated it to me from the Prophet and you tell me to leave it?”

This is the exact wording.

163. (2) Yaḥyā Ḥakīm and al-Zaᶜfarānī and ᶜAlī b. al-Ḥusayn → Ḥammād b. Salamah → ᶜAlī → Thābit al-Banānī → Anas b. Mālik:

Al-Zaᶜfarānī has also reported this narrative from Thābit al-Banānī from Anas from the Prophet:

The Prophet commented on the verse: “When his Lord manifested His glory on the Mount, He made it as dust” (Q 07:143). He demonstrated this by using his fingers. Maᶜādh described how the Prophet demonstrated it by pointing to the first joint of the tiny finger. Ḥamīd al-Ṭawīl said to Thābit: “O father of Muhammad, what do you want of it?” Thābit struck hard the chest of Ḥāmid and said: “Who are you O Ḥamīd? Anas b. Mālik tells me so from the Prophet and you ask what I want of it?”

Al-Zaᶜfarānī, however, put his left thumb on the tip of left tiny finger on the first joint and said, “this way”.

164. (3) ᶜAbd al-Wārith b. ᶜAbd al-Ṣamad → his father → Ḥammād b. Salamah → Thābit → Anas b. Mālik → the Prophet:

When his Lord manifested His glory on the Mount He raised His little finger and held one of the joints and the mount broke apart.

Ḥamīd said to Thābit: “Has this really been reported to you?” Thābit said: “Anas reported this from the Prophet, and you tell us not to report it.”

165. (4) Muhammad b. Yaḥyā → ᶜAffān b. Muslim → Ḥammād b. Salamah → Thābit → Anas:

The Prophet was commenting on the divine saying: “When his Lord manifested His glory on the Mount, He made it as dust” (Q 07:143). He said that He exposed Himself [to the mount]. This he demonstrated by the help of his hands. ᶜAffān described it with the tip of his little finger. He said that then the mountain crashed.

Ḥamīd said to Thābit: “Do you report like this?” Thābit raised his hand and struck his chest and said: “Anas b. Māik narrated it to me from the Prophet and you say: “Do you narrate the like of this”?”

….. (5) Muhammad → al-Haytham b. Jamīl → Ḥammād → Thābit → Anas → the Prophet:

The same report.

166. (6) Muhammad → Muslim b. Ibrāhīm → Ḥammād → Thābit → → Anas:

The Prophet recited the verse: When his glory of the Lord manifested on the Mount, He made it as dust and Moses fell in a swoon) (Q 7:143). He said: “The Prophet related it and said that when Allah put his little finger on his thumb, the mountain came down to the ground torn into pieces.

….. (7) Muhammad → Ḥajjāj (Ibn Minhāl) → Ḥammād b. Salamah → Anas → the Prophet:

The same narrative with the following addition: The Prophet recited the verse: “When his Lord manifested His glory on the Mount.”

….. (8) Muhammad → Sulaymān b. Ḥarab → Ḥammād b. Salamah → Thābit → Anas:

The Prophet recited the verse…. Same as the previous ḥadīth.

Now listen to another proof from the Book of Allāh! O wise men, for that Allāh is on the heaven. The proof is that Pharaoh, the conceited and the haughty one, as informed by Moses, came to learn that the Creator of mankind is in the heavens. Consider the following statement of Pharaoh as quoted by Allah in the holy Qurᵓān: “O Haman! Build me a lofty palace, that I may attain the ways and means- the ways and means of (reaching) the heaven, and that I may mount up to the Allah of Moses” (Q 40:36-7).

Thus Pharaoh, may Allāh curse him, ordered for a ladder to be built so that he might mount up to the Lord of Moses. In his statement, “but as far as I am concerned, I think Moses is a liar!” (Q 40:37), too indicates that Moses had told Pharaoh that his Lord is high and above.

I think that Pharaoh said: “But as far as I am concerned, I think Moses is a liar!” (Q 40:37) to deflect his people from Moses, as told by Almighty Allāh in His saying: “And they rejected those signs in iniquity and arrogance, though their souls were convinced thereof” (Q 27:14). So Allāh has told us that these people rejected the truth knowingly. They profess to have rejected the message while their hearts believed in the reality. Similarly, Pharaoh was pretending when he said to his people: “But as far as I am concerned, I think (Moses) is a liar!” (Q 40:37). In fact, Pharoah believed in his heart that Moses was truthful and was not lying. Allāh knows if Pharaoh was really telling the untruth when he belied Moses, as I have interpreted the verse, or he was really convinced that Moses was lying.

Ibraham, the friend of Allāh, observed the stars, the moon, and the sun, and immediately came to know that his Lord is high above his creatures. Have you not considered his saying quoted in the holy Qurᵓān? He says: “This is my Lord.” He did not search for his Creator from the creatures living down on earth. He searched for his creator in the higher abodes. For he fully believed, in his heart, that his creator was in the heaven and not on the earth.