Shams al-Din al-Dhahabi
al-Uluw lil-Ali al-Ghaffar
- Author died
- 748 AH
- Editions
- Maktabat Aḍwāʾ al-Salaf
Al-Uluw lil-Ali al-Ghaffar (العلو للعلي الغفار, The Aboveness of the Exalted, the Forgiving) is a theological and hadith treatise by the Syrian hadith scholar and historian Shams al-Din al-Dhahabi (673–748 AH / 1274–1348 CE) . The book collects scriptural proofs and historical reports from early Islamic scholarship to establish the divine attribute of transcendence (al-ʻuluw) and God's ascension above the Throne (al-istiwāʼ) .
Composition and Title
Al-Dhahabi states in his preface that he originally gathered a collection of hadiths and reports on the topic of divine transcendence in the year 691 AH . Having omitted critical evaluation on some narrations and not having fully encompassed the available material at that time, he subsequently wrote an appendix and later reorganized and clarified the entire material into a single, comprehensive treatise .
The work is also referenced under the title al-ʻUluw lil-ʻAlī al-ʻAẓīm wa-Īḍāḥ Ṣaḥīḥ al-Akhbār min Saqīmihā (العلو للعلي العظيم وإيضاح صحيح الأخبار من سقيمها) . Biographical sources such as Ibn al-Imad's Shadharāt al-Dhahab and al-Saffarini's Lawāmiʻ al-Anwār al-Bahiyyah have also referred to it as Kitāb al-ʻArsh (The Book of the Throne) .
Structure and Method
Al-Dhahabi structured the book chronologically according to generations (ṭabaqāt), drawing directly on primary textual evidence and transmitting isnads with critical hadith commentary :
- Quranic Verses: The opening section presents verses concerning God's istiwāʼ over the Throne and His transcendence, such as الرَّحْمَنُ عَلَى الْعَرْشِ اسْتَوَى ("The Most Merciful rose over the Throne") .
- Prophetic Hadiths: A compilation of prophetic traditions indicating divine transcendence, notably the narration of Mu'awiya ibn al-Hakam al-Sulami regarding the slave-girl whom the Prophet ﷺ asked أين الله ("Where is God?"), to which she responded في السماء ("In the heaven") . Al-Dhahabi includes critical appraisals of the chains of transmission, pointing out reliable narrations as well as defective or weak transmissions .
- Generational Consensus and Scholarly Statements: The bulk of the text documents the statements of the Companions, Successors (Tābiʻūn), leading exegetes, and jurists arranged across their respective eras . This includes the positions attributed to the founders of the legal schools—Abu Hanifa, Malik ibn Anas, al-Shafi'i, and Ahmad ibn Hanbal—and their successors down through subsequent centuries .
Methodologically, al-Dhahabi argues for adhering to the apparent meanings (al-ẓāhir) established by the Arabic language without resorting to figurative reinterpretation (taʼwīl) or textual distortion (taḥrīf), while maintaining absolute negation of anthropomorphism (tashbīh) or defining the manner (takyīf) . He explicitly affirms that God is above His Glorious Throne, distinct from His creation (bāʼin min khalqihi), and not indwelling in created places (ghayr ḥāll fī al-amkinah) .
Abridgments and Editions
The 20th-century hadith scholar Muhammad Nasir al-Din al-Albani abridged the book under the title Mukhtaṣar al-ʻUluw lil-ʻAlī al-ʻAẓīm at the initiative of publisher Zuhayr al-Shawish in 1391 AH . Al-Albani's condition in the abridgment was to omit unauthentic, weak, or repeated reports and retain only those with soundly established chains of transmission .
The complete text has been printed in several editions, including one edited by Ashraf ibn Abd al-Maqsud and published in Riyadh by Maktabat Adwa' al-Salaf, and another under the title al-ʻUluw lil-ʻAlī al-ʻAẓīm edited by Abd Allah ibn Salih al-Barrak, published by Dar al-Watan in Riyadh .
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