Ibnu Taymiyyah’s saying of the sitting of Allah

والصَّلَاةُ والسَّلاَمُ عَلَى سَيّدِنَا مُحَمَّدٍ أَشْرَفِ اْلمُرْسَلِيْنَ وَعَلَى آلِهِ وَصَحْبِهِ الطَّيّبِيْنَ الطَّاهِرِيْن

‘Ibnu Taymiyyah’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 “Minhaju s-Sunnati n-Nabawiyyah” by saying: The majority of ‘Ahlu s-Sunnah wa l-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‘Ibnu Rahawayh, Hammad ‘Ibnu Zayd, Imam ‘Ahmad, and others. He is a fabricator and a great liar about that.

In his tafsir named “An-nahr”, the Grammarian ‘Abu Hayyan al-‘Andalusiyy reported about ‘ Ibnu Taymiyyah having this belief. He said: In his handwriting, a book of ‘Ahmad ‘Ibnu Taymiyyah, who was contemporary with us, which he called “Kitabul-^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 ‘Ibnu ^Aliyy ‘Ibnu ^Abdi l-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 “Kashfu dh-dhunun” 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-sayfu s-saqil”, page 85, az-Zahid al-Kawthariyy said explaining the reason for omitting these statements of ‘Ibnu Taymiyyah: 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 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, ‘Ibnu Taymiyyah 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-kawakibu d-darari”, which is in the Library of Az-zahiriyyah in Damascus, ‘Ibnu Taymiyyah said: If Allah willed, he would sit on a mosqito, which would carry Him by His power; how about on a large ^Arsh !