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What do you think of Ibn Taymiyyah's interpretation that Allah came and sat on His Throne, and the earth shone with His lights?

1 min readAlso available in العربية

The words attributed to Shaykh al-Islam Ibn Taymiyyah regarding istiwa' (ascending) and sitting are not his own, but rather his transmission from Abu Abdullah al-Hasan ibn Hamid al-Baghdadi. There are weak ahadith concerning the Lord sitting on His Throne, but what is established in the Quran is that Allah istawa (ascended) over the Throne. Some of the Tabi'een (successors) interpreted istiwa' as uluw (highness), irtifa' (elevation), qu'ud (sitting), and julus (sitting). The imams affirmed this without objection. Furthermore, Ibn Ahmad reported in "As-Sunnah" from Kharijah ibn Mus'ab that istiwa' cannot be without sitting.

Summarized from the full answer at Ftawy · reviewed Sep 2, 2026

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