Is it said that istawa means to take possession of the Throne?
Machine translationRead the Arabic original
The questioner : This is Abu Ja'far 'Abdullah ibn Fadhil. He says: Can we say, as is established, or is it between? "Allah rose above the mountain and above the water. Allah has taken control of them." So is it correct to say "Allah has taken control of the Throne" because He has taken control of it, just as with the mountain and the water?
The Shaykh : I did not understand the question. What is the meaning?
Another questioner : O our Shaykh, I mentioned that we can say, regarding Allah (Glorified and Exalted is He), that He is "mustawi" (settled/established) above the mountain and "mustawi" above the water.
The Shaykh : No. It is not permissible. Yes, this means that if we interpret "istawa 'ala al-'Arsh" (rose above the Throne) as "istawala 'ala al-'Arsh" (took control of the Throne), we would have to say that if He took control of the mountain and took control of the water, and so on, and this is not correct. Is that clear? Praise be to Allah.
The Shaykh : I did not understand the question. What is the meaning?
Another questioner : O our Shaykh, I mentioned that we can say, regarding Allah (Glorified and Exalted is He), that He is "mustawi" (settled/established) above the mountain and "mustawi" above the water.
The Shaykh : No. It is not permissible. Yes, this means that if we interpret "istawa 'ala al-'Arsh" (rose above the Throne) as "istawala 'ala al-'Arsh" (took control of the Throne), we would have to say that if He took control of the mountain and took control of the water, and so on, and this is not correct. Is that clear? Praise be to Allah.
Source
الفتاوى الثلاثية (3) - 1 — binothaimeen.net (26:01)
The Arabic text is a machine transcription of the audio recording.