Explanation of the author's statement: "… A chapter on reconciling the texts regarding the Exaltedness of Allah (the Exalted) with His Essence, and His descent to the lowest heaven: The Exaltedness of Allah (the Exalted)
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The Shaykh : He said: "A chapter on reconciling the texts regarding the Exaltedness of Allah (the Exalted) with His Essence, and His descent to the lowest heaven. First: The Exaltedness of Allah with His Essence is one of His essential attributes from which He cannot be separated, and this does not contradict what the texts state regarding His descent to the lowest heaven". So, Exaltedness is an essential attribute. What does "essential" mean? It means that Allah has always been and will always be described by it, and it is a matter of auditory, rational, and innate nature, as previously mentioned. If something comes whose apparent meaning contradicts this, we reconcile between them. So, regarding the issue of descent, we say: "First, the texts have reconciled between them, and the texts do not convey the impossible, as previously mentioned. Second, there is nothing like Allah in all of His attributes, so His descent is not like the descent of created beings, such that it is said to contradict His Exaltedness and be inconsistent with it". And with this, we are free from all these objections. If we say that there is nothing like Allah, and that Allah has informed us that He descends, and informed us that He is above everything, then we affirm that He is above everything and that He descends, and we say that this is a matter that Allah has affirmed for Himself, and Allah never affirms for Himself anything impossible. And we are free from all the objections that the people of doubt raise against us.
One of the objections raised against the hadith of descent is that the last third of the night revolves around the Earth, is that not so? It moves from this place to that place in an instant. Does this necessitate that Allah (the Exalted) is always descending? We say, as we said a moment ago, that for those who have the last third of the night, the divine descent is established for them, and for those whose dawn has broken, the divine descent has ended for them, even if it is still present for others. This is because Allah (Glorified and Exalted is He) is not measured by creation. So, it may be that with respect to this region of the Earth, He is descending to the lowest heaven because it is the last third of the night, and with respect to another region, He is not descending because it is not the last third of the night. And the whole matter is based on complete submission to what has come in the texts. So, if you submit completely and believe fully, these doubts will not come back to you. And Allah knows best. Yes.
One of the objections raised against the hadith of descent is that the last third of the night revolves around the Earth, is that not so? It moves from this place to that place in an instant. Does this necessitate that Allah (the Exalted) is always descending? We say, as we said a moment ago, that for those who have the last third of the night, the divine descent is established for them, and for those whose dawn has broken, the divine descent has ended for them, even if it is still present for others. This is because Allah (Glorified and Exalted is He) is not measured by creation. So, it may be that with respect to this region of the Earth, He is descending to the lowest heaven because it is the last third of the night, and with respect to another region, He is not descending because it is not the last third of the night. And the whole matter is based on complete submission to what has come in the texts. So, if you submit completely and believe fully, these doubts will not come back to you. And Allah knows best. Yes.