THE INTERPRETATION [TA’WĪL] OF IMĀM IBN ḤIBBĀN (d. 354 AH) OF “FOOT” AS PLACE
Abū Ḥātim Muḥammad ibn Ḥibbān al-Bustī (Arabic: محمد ابن حبان البستی) (c. 270–354 AH/884–965 CE) was a prominent Shāfiʿī scholar, ḥadīth specialist, and polymath. He distinguished himself as a master of ḥadīth evaluation of transmitter reliability (ʿilm al-rijāl). One of his most famous Ḥadīth compilations was his work known commonly as Ṣaḥīḥ Ibn Ḥibbān. In this work there are some points connected to the Attributes (Ṣifāt) of Allāh. He said:
تأويل ابن حبان القدم بالموضع :
في صحيح ابن حبان (٥٠٢/١) في حديث: (حتى يضع الرب قدمه فيها – أي: جهنم)
قال: (هذا الخبر من الأخبار التي أطلقت بتمثيل المجاورة.
Meaning:
In Ṣaḥīḥ Ibn Ḥibbān (1/502) regarding the hadith: “Until the Lord places His foot in it – meaning Hell,” he said: “This report is from the reports that were expressed through the representation of proximity.
وذلك أن يوم القيامة يلقى في النار من الأمم والأمكنة التي يعصى الله عليها ، فلا تزال تستزيد حتى يضع الرب جل وعلا موضعاً من الكفار والأمكنة في النار فتمتلئ ، فتقول : قط قط ، تريد : حسبي حسبي ، لأن العرب تطلق في لغتها اسم القدم على الموضع.
Meaning:
And that is because on the Day of Resurrection, there will be cast into the Fire from the nations and places where Allah was disobeyed, and it will continue asking for more until the Lord, Majestic and Exalted, places a place of the disbelievers and places in the Fire, then it fills up and says: ‘Enough, enough,’ meaning: ‘Sufficient, sufficient,’ because the Arabs use in their language the name ‘foot’ for place.
قال الله جل وعلا : لَهُمْ قَدَمَ صِدْقٍ عِنْدَ رَبِّهِمْ يريد : موضع صدق ، لا أن الله جل
وعلا يضع قدمه في النار ، جل ربنا وتعالى عن مثل هذا وأشباهه )اهـ.
Meaning:
Allah, Majestic and Exalted, said: ‘They have a true foot with their Lord,’ meaning: a true place, not that Allah, Majestic and Exalted, places His foot in the Fire, exalted is our Lord and elevated above such things and their like.”