An-Nuzūl — Allah's Descent in the Last Third of the Night

The Text and Its Standing

The hadith of An-Nuzūl is among the most firmly established texts on the attributes of Allah. It is reported from Abū Hurayrah (raḍiy Allāhu ʿanhu) and recorded by both al-Bukhārī and Muslim — muttafaq ʿalayh — and it is transmitted through so many chains that the scholars of hadith regard it as mutawātir in meaning. There is no room to question its authenticity.

The Ruling — Affirming Nuzūl As It Came

Ahl as-Sunnah wa'l-Jamāʿah affirm the descent (nuzūl) as a real attribute of Allah, in a manner that befits His majesty, without four things: taḥrīf (distorting the meaning), taʿṭīl (stripping it of its reality), takyīf (asserting a "how"), and tamthīl (likening it to the descent of creation). This is the way of the Companions, the Tābiʿūn, and the Imāms who followed them.

The governing principle is the āyah that pairs affirmation with the negation of any resemblance. Allah affirms for Himself hearing and sight — and along with them all His attributes — while denying that anything is like Him. So we affirm the nuzūl and we do not imagine its modality, because "there is nothing like unto Him."

When Imām Mālik was asked about how Allah rose over the Throne (al-istiwāʾ), he answered that the istiwāʾ is known, the "how" is unknown, believing in it is obligatory, and asking about it is an innovation. The people of knowledge apply this same balanced rule to every attribute of action, including the nuzūl: its meaning is known to the Arabs from the language, its kayfiyyah is unknown to us, believing in it is obligatory, and probing its "how" is a blameworthy innovation.

Corroborating Evidence from the Qurʾān

While the hadith is the direct proof for the attribute, the Qurʾān magnifies the very hour named in it — the last portion of the night, as-saḥar — as the time of the servant's most sincere turning to his Lord. Allah praises those who tear themselves from sleep to seek forgiveness before dawn.

And Allah commands the Prophet ﷺ specifically with the night prayer, promising an honoured station in return — the scriptural anchor for tahajjud, the deed that meets the descent.

The Ikhtilāf — Taʾwīl and the Response of the Salaf

Some later theologians — among them groups of the Ashāʿirah — were uneasy with affirming a literal descent, fearing it implied movement or place, which they held Allah to be far above. So they reinterpreted (taʾwīl) the hadith: they said the meaning is "the descent of His command" (nuzūl amrihi) or "the descent of His mercy" (nuzūl raḥmatihi), or that it is an angel who descends and calls out. Their motive was taʿẓīm — to exalt Allah above resemblance to creation — and that concern is itself sound and shared by all of Ahl as-Sunnah.

The Salaf, however, did not accept this taʾwīl, and for a clear reason. The wording is explicit that Allah Himself descends and He says: "Who is calling upon Me… that I may answer him." Mercy does not speak; an angel does not say "upon Me" and "that I may forgive." To divert the text from its apparent sense requires a proof, and there is none — for the only thing driving the reinterpretation is the assumption that a real descent must resemble the descent of bodies. The Salaf answered that this is precisely the error: Allah's descent is a descent that befits Him, unlike the descent of any created thing, just as His hearing and sight are unlike ours. Affirm the meaning, negate the resemblance, and consign the "how" to Allah.

Ibn ʿAbd al-Barr and others noted that this hadith is among the ṣaḥīḥ narrations upon whose acceptance the people of knowledge are agreed, and that the way of the Salaf was to receive such texts with acceptance and to leave their kayfiyyah to Allah. So the ikhtilāf here is real and it is to be discussed with respect for its people — many of whom were great scholars — but the manhaj of this site is the manhaj of the first three generations: affirm the attribute as it came, without takyīf and without tamthīl.

The Fruit — The Last Third for Tahajjud and Duʿāʾ

This is not an abstract point of theology to be won in debate and then set aside. The Prophet ﷺ told us of the descent so that we would rise for it. The last third of the night is the hour of nearness: the Lord Himself calls out, offering answer, gift, and forgiveness to whoever will turn to Him. The one who grasps the attribute correctly is moved to act upon it — to leave the bed while others sleep, to pray, to ask, and to seek forgiveness in the very moments the hadith describes.

So let the believer set the last third of the night for tahajjud, then for duʿāʾ and istighfār. There is no greater incentive than this: that in that hour the door is opened and the invitation comes from above the seven heavens — "Who is calling upon Me, that I may answer him?" To believe the hadith and then to sleep through its promise is to miss the point of knowing it. Knowledge of the attribute is completed by the worship it calls for.

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