The Asha'irah interpret the descent of Allah to the lowest heaven, and their argument for this is purifying Allah from being encompassed by a place, unlike the people of Najd

The questioner: Indeed, Allah descends to the lowest heaven in the last third of the night. There, the scholars, of course, the Asha'irah, interpret it. They say: Allah descends with His power to respond to supplication. Meanwhile, we know that the people of Najd in the Hijaz say: Allah descends with His Essence. Now, we know that place does not encompass Allah, so how do we reconcile this matter?

The Shaykh: First, I do not want you to attribute this creed to the Najdis; because first, you are contradicting history, and second, you are diminishing the value of this correct creed when you restrict it to the Najdis.

The questioner: I mean the Saudis now, I mean ...?

The Shaykh: I mean the ones you are referring to now.
...
The root of misguidance in the Islamic sects in this matter is their likening the Creator to the created. If I wanted ... I would say: Allah is in absolute elevation where there is no place, with no limitation; do you understand this? Good. So the error begins from the very start—they call it in Syria a "slip"—what do we call it in Arabic? The first deviation, the foot slips, the first stumble. The error is from the first stumble, and everything after that is a series of stumbles. So the first stumble in this matter is their assumption, by the scholars of theology we referred to, that it necessitates from saying that Allah is above the Throne, that He established Himself upon it, that we have placed Him in a place, and thereby confined Him. But logic and the Shari'ah, at the same time, when a person thinks with intellect and logic, prove that above the Throne there is no place, because the Throne is the last place.

Another questioner: The manner is unknown.

The Shaykh: The manner is unknown. So when they understand or deduce from our belief that Allah is above the Throne, that He established Himself upon it, that we have placed Him in a place; yes, Allah is purified, and I say with them: Allah is purified. But the matter is the opposite; those who believe that Allah is above the Throne, that He established Himself upon it, are attributed to having placed Him in a place, while those who denied the elevation of Allah and placed Him in every place—what a calamity of the age!! Based on this first error, which is deducing things that are the very error, and its cause is likening the Creator to the created.
If we remember this fact and remember that Allah - Mighty and Majestic - established for us a principle in believing in Him and His attributes, He said: , purification, affirmation of two attributes of perfection, He is the All-Hearing and He is the All-Seeing. So if we say: Allah is All-Hearing, we say: the first part of the verse ; meaning: His hearing?

Another questioner : ... .

The Shaykh: Yes, His sight? His establishing Himself? Now we come to: to the end of the hadith; what is in this? You are quoting from the scholars of theology who say that Allah does not descend. This is equivalent to their saying: Allah is not above the Throne, that He established Himself upon it. Why did they deny that Allah is above the Throne, that He established Himself upon it? Because they understood that if we say: above the Throne, He established Himself upon it, we have placed Him where? In a place; now, likewise here, when they stand before the hadith—and this is a mass-transmitted hadith as I have traced it myself—they assume that the descent of the Lord of the Worlds to the lowest heaven is like the descent of an angel from his throne to his earth, or from the high of his throne to the ground floor, and so on, . So if we affirm what Allah has affirmed and purify Allah as He purified Himself, as in the previous verse, we affirmed for Him hearing and sight and said: , we affirmed for Him the descent and said: ; what is the problem with this?

The questioner: The problem is ... we say He is not limited by time or place, in the lowest heaven as if we have affirmed that it is a place, here the confusion arises for us.

The Shaykh: My brother.

The questioner: It is ... the confusion ... .

The Shaykh: Do you know the athar that our brother Abu Hamid referred to here? And this athar is well-known and they repeat it every Friday; a man came to Malik and said: O Malik, ; how did He establish Himself? He said: "The establishing is known—meaning: linguistically—the manner is unknown, and asking about it is an innovation; take the man out, for he is an innovator." So the man is asking about the manner, and this is misguidance, and Malik is from the people of guidance and the Sunnah, so he says: "The establishing is known"; meaning the elevation linguistically; so Allah has the attribute of elevation, as we say: Glory be to my Lord, the Most High. But how? This question is not permissible, and as they all say: "Whatever comes to your mind, Allah is other than that"; because He is the Creator and we are created, . So when we hear this hadith: to the end of the hadith, we do not need to imagine in our minds how His descent is, because we are asking about a descent we know for our created, weak, sick, and feeble selves, while the descent of the Creator - Glorified and Exalted is He - how can we know it?
Then some scholars.

Another questioner : ... .

The Shaykh: Then some scholars gave an approximate example, which is that the sun is in the heights of its sky; so it descends to the earth. But how is its descent? This we observe; the body that follows it, which we know, does not descend, but something of its things ... So if someone asks from what we observe? Look, the earth descended, the sun descended, or the sun entered the room, and this is what usage? A well-known Arabic usage. This is speaking of something he observes and touches approximately, and this is a sign of the signs of Allah - Mighty and Majestic -; so what about the Creator of the heavens and the earths and the sun and the moon? We have no ability to question, let alone to understand and to ask how the manner of the descent of Allah - Mighty and Majestic - is. The motive for their interpretation that you referred to—and it is false as I will mention—is their conception that His descent is like the descent of humans, far be it from Him!! And that this interpretation is false, He said: what does He descend? His mercy, in the last third of the night. Glory be to Allah!! The saying of His - Exalted - about others applies to them: , they took the first part of the hadith and left its completion, the hadith says: . Did the hadith end? It did not end, now; He descends, He said: , is there not, is there not, until the sun rises, is it the mercy of Allah that says?

The questioner: No.

The Shaykh: Allah is the one who says, Allah is the one who descends, O people, fear Allah, believe in the word of Allah and the word of His Messenger and submit in submission; . The Messenger of Allah said: certainly Allah descends, how? We do not know, does anyone know the Essence of Allah that we believe in? No one knows.