Istiwa (God's rising over the Throne)

Sha'rawi warns against reading the istiwa attributed to God in the human sense. God's attributes are not like the attributes of creatures: as God's life, knowledge and power are not measured by human life, knowledge and power, so istiwa is not measured by human sitting ¹.

He notes that kings sit on their thrones and a person sits on a chair, then holds that the word istiwa in God's case is not to be taken as that ¹. He argues that God's life is not like human life, and that his knowledge and power are not like human knowledge and power ¹.

He holds that the human mind cannot grasp an act related to God's essence, and so one says "glory be to God" at every act related to God's self ¹. He adds that this speech is God's own, and that the speaker is God ¹.

This is Sha'rawi's reading of the verse. The creedal scholars' positions on istiwa and the positions of other schools are not set out here and are not checked. The edition is unverified.

The Sheikh cites a well-known saying attributed to Imam Malik on God's istiwa (rising over the Throne): its manner is known, its modality unknown, belief in it is obligatory, and asking about its modality is an innovation (needs_source). ² He presents this saying as what the believer must hold, and says belief in istiwa is obligatory without delving into its modality (his view). ³