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﴿ فَاسْأَلُوا أَهْلَ الذِّكْرِ إِن كُنتُمْ لَا تَعْلَمُونَ ﴾

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How do we interpret the hadith: "Indeed, Allah wrote a book above the Throne: 'My mercy precedes My wrath'?"

Machine translationRead the Arabic original
Question : Above. How? It cannot be that there is an extra "above" from Allah (Blessed and Exalted is He) that strikes above the signs.

Answer : And above what has the extra "above." Yes, but "above" it means in such a way that the sword comes from above. And this is more effective in being exalted over the enemy.
I mean, if you strike the enemy from above or strike him from below, which is more effective in enthusiasm and strength? In my view, the claim that the extra word is a mistake is wrong. As for his saying "above His Throne," there is no objection to it being above the Throne, but it is not higher than Him, nor is it more knowledgeable. That is, the prohibition that some scholars prohibited and strained themselves to derive this word from is not present. If the mercy were above Allah, for example, or the book were above Allah, there would be causes for that, but it is above the Throne, and there is no objection to this. The absolute elevation of Allah is not contradicted by there being a book above His Throne in which He wrote that His mercy and its striking and its beating.
Source قناة «فضيلة الشيخ محمد بن صالح العثيمين»، 4286 - 4600 كيف نفسر حديث إن الله كتب كتاباً فوق العرش إن رحمتي سبقت غضبي؟ ابن عثيمين — youtube.com

The Arabic text is a machine transcription of the audio recording.

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