On Allah's Descent to the Lowest Heaven Every Night

Among the most extensively documented of the divine action attributes (sifat fi'liyyah) is the nuzul — Allah's descent to the lowest heaven in the final third of every night. Ibn Khuzaymah collects the hadiths on this subject with care, affirming the descent as a real attribute while following the Salafi principle of bila kayf: we affirm it without inquiring into its modality.

The foundational hadith is narrated in both Sahih al-Bukhari and Sahih Muslim from Abu Hurayrah, may Allah be pleased with him, that the Messenger of Allah, peace be upon him, said: 'Our Lord descends every night to the lowest heaven when the last third of the night remains, and He says: Who will call upon Me so that I may respond? Who will ask of Me so that I may give? Who will seek My forgiveness so that I may forgive?' Some narrations add that this continues until the break of dawn. This hadith has been narrated by more than twenty Companions and is considered by many hadith scholars to have reached the level of mutawatir — mass transmission so extensive that forgery is inconceivable.

The Salaf received this hadith and affirmed it without hesitation. Imam al-Awza'i, Imam al-Thauri, Imam Malik, and Imam Ahmad ibn Hanbal — among the foremost scholars of their generations — all affirmed the nuzul as a real attribute of Allah, without ta'wil and without kufr al-kayf (denial of the reality under the guise of questioning the modality). The narration from Imam Malik is particularly famous. When asked about the nuzul, he affirmed it and said: 'The how is not to be asked about.'

Those who denied or reinterpreted the nuzul fell into one of two errors. Some denied the hadith entirely, but this is untenable given its authentic chains and numerous transmitters. Others accepted the hadith but reinterpreted the descent as referring to Allah's mercy or command descending — not Allah Himself. The Athari scholars rejected this reinterpretation on the grounds that the Prophet, peace be upon him, attributed the descent directly to Allah, using the language of the Divine Majesty speaking in the first person. Nothing in the text authorizes a shift from a real attribute to a figurative one.

A common philosophical objection raised against this hadith is that descent implies movement, and movement implies a body. The Athari response is that this objection imports Greek philosophical categories into the interpretation of revelation without any authorization from the Quran or Sunnah. The rules that govern the movement of created bodies do not constrain the attributes of the uncreated Creator. We affirm what Allah and His Messenger affirmed, and we leave the modality to Allah.

A related objection — sometimes raised in classical theological debates — asks what happens when the final third of the night covers different parts of the earth simultaneously. The Athari scholars typically declined to engage with this question, noting that it is precisely the type of speculation that the instruction bila kayf is meant to forestall. The Prophet described the nuzul as a reality; how it occurs, and how it relates to the created experience of time and space, is knowledge that belongs to Allah alone.

The theological significance of the hadith of nuzul is immense. It is not merely a doctrinal point about divine attributes — it carries a devotional imperative. The hadith reveals that in the last third of the night, Allah Himself draws near and calls out to His servants, inviting their prayers and their repentance. This is among the most powerful motivations for night prayer (tahajjud) in the entire Sunnah.