The saying
"Allah existed eternally without a place, and He is now as
He ever was" is related - without chain - from 'Ali ibn Abi
Talib -- Allah be well-pleased with him. 1
Ibn 'Ata' Allah al-Sakandari (d. 709) cites it as one of his
Hikam (#34).
The Prophet -- Allah bless and greet him -- said: "Allah was when there was
nothing else than Him, and His Throne was upon the water, and He
wrote in the Reminder (al-dhikr) all things, and He created the
heavens and the earth." 2
Imam Abu Hanifa (d. 150) said: "Had
He been in a place and needing to sit and rest before creating
the Throne, then the question 'Where was Allah?' would have
applied to Him, which is impossible." 3
The Ash'ari Imam Ibn 'Abd al-Salam said
in his statement of doctrine: He was before He brought place and
time into existence, and He is now as He ever was. 4
The position of Imam Abu al-Hasan
al-Ash'ari is similarly summed up by Abu al-Qasim ibn 'Asakir:
The Najjariyya said: 'The Creator is in every place without
indwelling (hulû) nor direction (jiha).' The Hashwiyya and mushabbiha said: 'The
Creator took His place (hâ llun) on the Throne, the Throne is His
location (makâ n), and He is sitting on top of it.' Al-Ash'ari
took a middle ground and said: 'Allah existed when there was no
place; then He created the Throne and the Footstool (al-'arsh wa
al-kursî ) without ever being in need of place, and He is, after
creating place, exactly as He was before creating it.' 5 This is the position of al-Ash'ari also
as given by Ibn Jahbal al-Kilabi (d. 733): "The words of the
Shaykh [Abu al-Hasan al-Ash'ari] concerning direction are: 'Allah
was when there was no place, then He created the Throne and the
Footstool, without ever needing place, and He is, after creating
place, exactly as He was before creating it.'" 6
Ibn Jahbal also says in his Refutation of
Ibn Taymiyya: 22. We say: Our doctrine is that Allah is
pre-eternal and pre-existent (qadî azalî ). He does not
resemble anything nor does anything resemble Him. He has no
direction nor place. He is not subject to time nor duration.
Neither "where" (ayn) nor "at" (hayth)
applies to Him. He shall be seen, but not as part of an
encounter, nor in the sense of an encounter (yurâ lâ'an muqâ bala
wa lâ 'alâ muqâ 'ala). He was when there was no place, He created
place and time, and He is now as He ever was. This is the madhhab
of Ahl al-Sunna and the doctrine of the shaykhs of the [Sufi]
Path - may Allah be well-pleased with them. 7 30.
Muhammad ibn Mahbub, Abu 'Uthman al-Maghribi's servant, said: "Abu 'Uthman said to me one
day: 'O Muhammad! If someone asked you: Where is the One you
worship, what would you answer?' I said: 'I would answer: He is
where He never ceased to be.' He said: 'What if he asked: Where
was He in pre-eternity?' I said: 'I would answer: Where He is
now. That is: He was when there was no place, and He is now as He
ever was.' Abu 'Uthman was pleased with my answer. He took off
his shirt and gave it to me." 8
Al-Shaykh al-Akbar Muhyi al-Din ibn 'Arabi said in the chapter of Islamic doctrine in al-Futuhat
al-Makkiyya: [144] He has no conceivable likeness whatsoever
(laysa lahu mithlun ma'qul), nor can minds represent Him. Time
does not confine Him, nor place lift nor transport Him. Rather,
He was when there was no place, and He is now as He ever was.
[145] He created fixity (al-mutamakkin) and place (al-makâ n), 9 brought time into existence, and said:
"I am the One, the Ever-Living." 10Preserving His creations in no way tires
Him. Attributes which do not describe Him and are devised by
creatures do not apply to Him. 11 [146] Exalted is He far above being
indwelt by originated matters, or indwelling them, or that they
be after Him or that He be before them. Rather, we say: 'He was
and there was nothing with him.'12
For the words 'before' and 'after' are
among the locutions of Time, which He invented. 13
Sulayman ibn 'Abd Allah ibn Muhammad ibn
'Abd al-Wahhab (d. 1817CE), the Wahhabi founder's grandson, said:
Whoever believes or says: Allah is in person (bi dhâ tihi) in
every place, or in one place: he is a disbeliever. It is
obligatory to declare that Allah is separate (bâ 'in) from His
creation, established over His throne without modality or
likeness or examplarity. Allah was and there was no place, then
He created place and He is exalted as He was before He created
place. 14
The Imams strongly refuted those who suggested that the Throne existed together with Allah. Among
these refutations is al-Bayhaqi's section entitled "The Beginning of Creation" in al-Asma' wa al-Sifat, 15 and Ibn Hajar who wrote the following in
his commentary on the twenty-second chapter of the Book of Tawhid
in Sahih al-Bukhari: Al-Bukhari named the Chapter on the Throne:
"Chapter entitled: {And His Throne was upon the water}
(11:7) {And He is Lord of the tremendous Throne} (9:129)."
In this way he mentioned parts from two Qur'anic verses, and it
is good to state this second part after the first one, to respond
to those who misunderstood the hadith: "There was Allah, and
there was nothing before Him; and His throne was upon the
water," mistakenly thinking that it meant that the Throne
was always alongside Allah [i.e. existing without beginning].
This is an incorrect position, as is the belief of some thinkers
that the Throne is the Creator and the Maker! Perhaps those who
held this, such as Abu Ishaq al-Harawi, used for evidence the
hadith of ibn Abbas from Mujahid narrated through Sufyan
al-Thawri: "Allah was on His throne before He created
anything; the first thing He created was the pen," 16 and this "first" is interpreted
as the creation of Heavens and Earth and their contents. 'Abd
al-Razzaq mentioned in his commentary on Allah's saying: {And His
Throne was upon the water} (11:7) that this (the Throne) was the
beginning of His creation before He created the heaven, and that
His Throne was made from a red emerald. Thus al-Bukhari's mention
of "The Lord of the tremendous Throne" alludes to the
fact that the Throne is a servant and that it is lorded over. He
ends his chapter with the hadith: "There, I saw Musa holding
the leg of the Throne." 17
By confirming that the Throne has legs, the author proves that it
is an object that was put together, possessing constituent parts.
Any such object must have been created. End of Ibn Hajar's words.
18
Al-Munawi quotes the following conclusion on the verse of the Throne upon the water: Al-Tunisi
said that the verse {And His Throne was upon the water} (11:7)
contains a clear proof that direction is impossible for Allah --
may He be exalted -- because the Throne settled (istaqarra) upon
the water, therefore, since natural custom was broken by the
settlement of that huge mass (jirm) - the largest of all masses -
upon the water, contrary to the habitual fact that such a mass -
or, rather, much less than it! - does not usually settle upon the
water: it becomes known with certitude that istiwâ § over it is
not an istiwâ' of settledness nor fixity. 19
NOTES
1 As cited by 'Abd al-Qahir al-Baghdadi (d.
429) in his al-Farq Bayn al-Firaq (p. 256).
2 Narrated from 'Imran ibn Husayn by
al-Bukhari, Sahih, book of the Beginning of Creation. See above,
n. 432 for other wordings of this hadith.
3 Abu Hanifa, Wasiyya al-Imam al-A'zam Abu
Hanifa, ed. Fu'ad 'Ali Rida (Beirut : Maktabat al-Jamahir, 1970)
p. 10.
4 Ibn 'Abd al-Salam, al-Mulha fi I`tiqad
Ahl al-Haqq in his Rasa'il al-Tawhid (p. 11).
5 In Tabyin Kadhib al-Muftari (Saqqa ed. p.
150).
6 In Tabaqat al-Shafi`iyya al-Kubra (9:79).
7 In TSK (9:41).
8 In TSK (9:43).
9 Or: "He created place and all that
takes place."
10 I.e. I am in no need of either of you.
11 Lâ tarji'u ilayhi sifatun lam yakun
'alayhâ min sun'ati al-masnû'ât.
12 The Prophet ( said: "Allah was when
there was nothing else than Him, and His Throne was upon the
water, and He wrote in the Reminder (al-dhikr) all things, and He
created the heavens and the earth." Narrated from 'Imran ibn
Husayn by al-Bukhari, Sahih, book of the Beginning of Creation.
There are other wordings of this hadith such as the wordings: kâ na
allâ hu wa lâ shay'a ma'ahu / ghayruhu / qablahu - "Allah
was and there was nothing other than Him /together with Him
/before Him." Narrated from Burayda by al-Hakim in
al-Mustadrak (2:341), who declared it sound (sahîh) - al-Dhahabi
concurred - and from 'Imran ibn Husayn by Bukhari, Ibn Hibban
with two sound chains in his Sahih (14:7 #6140, 14:11 #6142), and
Ibn Abi Shayba in his Musannaf.
13 From 'Uthman Yahya's edition of
al-Futuhat al-Makkiyya (1:164), Part Three of "The Meccan
Conquest," chapter entitled "Attachment Comprising the
Essential Creed of All, Which is the Doctrine of the People of
Islam Agreed To Without Examining the Proof Nor the Presentation
of Evidence."
14 In his al-Tawdih 'an Tawhid al-Khallaq fi
Jawab Ahl al-'Iraq (1319/1901, p. 34, and new ed. al-Riyad: Dar
Tibah, 1984).
15 Cf. Al-Bayhaqi, al-Asma' wa al-Sifat,
chapter entitled "The Beginning of Creation": Allah (
said: (He it is Who produces creation then reproduces it(
(30:27). 'Abd Allah ibn 'Amr ibn al-'As narrated that the Prophet
( said: "Allah foreordained (qaddara) all the destinies
(al-maqâ dî r) before creating the heavens and the earth by fifty
thousand years." [Narrated from 'Abd Allah ibn 'Amr ibn
al-'As by al-Tirmidhi (hasan sahîh gharîb) and Ahmad; also by
Muslim with the following wording: "Allah inscribed (kataba)
the destinies of all created things before creating the heavens
and the earth by fifty thousand years, while His Throne stood
upon the water (wa 'arshuhu 'alâ al-mâ')."] 'Imran ibn
Husayn narrated ... that the Prophet said - Allah bless and greet
him: "Allah was when there was nothing other than Him. His
Throne stood upon the water...." His words "Allah was
when nothing was other than Him" indicate that there was
nothing else other than Him - neither water, nor the Throne, nor
anything else, since all of that is "other than Him."
His words: "His Throne stood upon the water" means that
He then created water, and He created the Throne upon the water,
after which He inscribed all things in the Remembrance, as we
narrated in the hadith of 'Abd Allah ibn 'Amr ibn al-'As.
16 Narrated from Mujahid from Ibn 'Abbas by
'Abd ibn Humayd as mentioned by al-Suyuti in al-Durr al-Manthur
for the verse {Lo! We have created every thing by measure}
(54:49).
17 Part of a longer hadith narrated from Abu
Hurayra by al-Bukhari, Tirmidhi (hasan sahî), and Ibn Majah;
and from Abu Sa'id al-Khudri by al-Bukhari, Muslim, and Ahmad.
18 Ibn Hajar, Fath al-Bari (1959 ed.
13:409f.). Ibn Hajar elsewhere (6:290 #3019) examines the
different versions of the hadith "Allah was and there was
nothing other than/ with/ before Him" to conclude that the
evidence pointed to the creation of water first, then the Throne,
then the Pen.
19 In al-Munawi, Fayd al-Qadir, under the
entry for the hadith: "Allah inscribed the destinies of all
created things before creating the heavens and the earth by fifty
thousand years, while His Throne stood upon the water."
Narrated from 'Abd Allah ibn 'Amr ibn al-'As by al-Tirmidhi
(hasan sahîh gharîb) and Ahmad; also by Muslim with the
following wording: "Allah inscribed (kataba) the destinies
of all created things before creating the heavens and the earth
by fifty thousand years, while His Throne stood upon the water
(wa 'arshuhu 'alâ al-mâ')."
Blessings and peace on the Prophet, his Family, and all his
Companions.
GF Haddad
:: Dr. Gabriel F. Haddad ::
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