al-Kalimat al-Hisan fi Bayan Uluw al-Rahman
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- al-Kalimat al-Hisan fi Bayan Uluw al-Rahman
al-Kalimat al-Hisan fi Bayan Uluw al-Rahman (The Beautiful Words in Explaining the Highness of the Merciful) is a treatise on Islamic creed by Abd al-Hadi ibn Hasan Wahbi, dedicated to affirming the divine attributes of highness (uluw) and aboveness (fawqiyyah) of God above His Throne and creation .
Purpose and Scope
The work aims to expound the consensus of the early righteous predecessors (al-salaf al-salih) and Sunni scholars regarding the affirmation of God's attributes as conveyed in the Quran and the Prophetic Sunnah, without resemblance (tamthil), nullification (ta'til), inquiring into modality (takyif), or anthropomorphism (tashbih) . It directly addresses the claims of groups such as the Jahmiyyah and the Mu'attilah, who denied divine highness and aboveness on the grounds of negating spatial direction (jihah) and location (makan) .
Content and Method
The author establishes the doctrine of divine highness by cataloging and classifying textual proofs from the Quran and the Sunnah into distinct evidentiary categories, including:
- Explicit textual mentions of aboveness, both accompanied by the preposition min (such as يَخَافُونَ رَبَّهُمْ مِنْ فَوْقِهِمْ [al-Nahl: 50]) and without it .
- Scriptural references to ascent (uruj) and rising (su'ud) toward God, such as the ascension of angels and the ascent of good speech and righteous deeds .
- Explicit declarations of God raising specific creatures to Himself .
- Affirmations of absolute highness covering all aspects of divine transcendence: highness of essence (dhat), highness of status (qadr), and highness of vanquishing power (qahr) .
- Descriptions of the divine scripture as being sent down (tanzil) from Him, which inherently signifies descent from higher to lower .
- Scriptural statements specifying that certain created beings are "with" Him (indahu) or closer to Him than others .
Throughout these sections, the author supports his arguments with interpretations and citations from classic authorities, including Ibn Khuzaymah, al-Tabari, Ibn Taymiyyah, and extensive poetic and theological citations from Ibn al-Qayyim .
Reception
The treatise is cited by contemporary scholars, such as Faysal al-Jasim, among notable monographs dedicated to affirming the divine attribute of uluw, alongside classical works such as al-Uluw li-l-Aliy al-Ghaffar by al-Dhahabi, Ithbat Sifat al-Uluw by Ibn Qudamah, and Ijtima al-Juyush al-Islamiyyah by Ibn al-Qayyim .
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