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What is the opinion on interpreting the Hadith of Descent with another Hadith, and is descent contrary to transcendence and contradictory to the fundamentals of religion, even with the negation of modality (kayfiyyah)?

1 min readAlso available in العربية

This answer emphasizes the obligation to affirm Allah's attributes as they have been revealed, without describing their how (takyif), drawing evidence from the sayings of the Salaf (pious predecessors) concerning the hadiths of descent (nuzul) and seeing (ru'yah). It clarifies that the hadith of descent is authentic and its wording is: "Our Lord, Blessed and Exalted, descends every night to the lowest heaven when the last third of the night remains, saying: 'Who supplicates Me, that I may answer him...'" This descent is real, befitting Allah's majesty and perfection. Interpreting it as the descent of an angel or mercy is false, as it is a distortion of the words and a statement about Allah without knowledge. It explains that whoever interprets the descent, thinking that it necessitates incarnation (hulool) or removal (zawal), has fallen into anthropomorphism (tashbeeh), because Allah descends as He wills without removal. The answer mentions that the narration stating that Allah commands a caller is not firmly established, but even if it were, it could be reconciled with other hadiths. It concludes by stating that the claim that descent contradicts transcendence (uluw) is a false assumption, because the how of Allah's descent is not to be questioned, for "the Creator does what He wills as He wills."

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

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