The Hadith of the Creaking Throne: A Complete Chain-by-Chain Refutation
The Rafidis cite certain narrations claiming that Allah sits on the Throne and a creaking sound emanates from it like the creaking of a saddle — using these to mock Islamic belief. All such narrations are weak, and none of them are authentic — neither with a chain traceable to the Prophet ﷺ nor to the Companions.
First: Chain-by-Chain Analysis of the Six Narrations
Narration 1 — Suspended, Attributed to Umar ibn al-Khattab
Abd al-Rahman narrated to us, on the authority of Sufyan, on the authority of Abu Ishaq, on the authority of Abdullah ibn Khalifa, on the authority of Umar, that he said: “When the Blessed and Exalted sits on the Throne, a creaking sound is heard from Him like the creaking of a new saddle.”
Ruling: Weak and mursal.
Two fatal defects: (1) The narrator Abdullah ibn Khalifa is a Kufi follower who never met Umar ibn al-Khattab and never heard from him — making the chain broken. (2) He is an unknown narrator of no established reliability.
[!scholar] Ibn Kathir — Al-Bidayah wa al-Nihayah (1/18)
“Abdullah ibn Khalifa is not that famous, and there is doubt about his hearing from Umar.”
The second narrator, Abu Ishaq al-Sab’ini, is known for tadlis — concealing narrations from unknown people. His hadith is not accepted unless he explicitly states he heard it directly, as he belongs to the third class of mudallisun. This narration is not from the Prophet ﷺ at all — it is falsely attributed to the Companion Umar ibn al-Khattab himself.
Narration 2 — Attributed Directly to the Prophet ﷺ
Abdullah ibn Raja’ narrated to us, Isra’il informed us, on the authority of Abu Ishaq, on the authority of Abdullah ibn Khalifa, who said: A woman came to the Prophet ﷺ and said: “Pray to God to admit me into Paradise.” The Prophet ﷺ glorified the Lord and said: “His Throne extends over the heavens and the earth, and He sits on it, and nothing of it remains except the width of four fingers” — and he stretched out his four fingers — “and it has a creaking sound like the creaking of a new saddle when someone rides it, making it too heavy.”
Ruling: Weak. Confused. Contradicts Narration 1.
Abdullah ibn Khalifa here narrates directly from the Prophet ﷺ — despite never having met him, heard from him, or lived in his time. This is a broken chain. It also directly contradicts Narration 1 in its attribution — once to Umar, once to the Prophet ﷺ directly. This confusion is itself evidence of unreliability.
Narration 3 — Suspended, Attributed to Abu Musa al-Ash’ari
On the authority of Ibn Juhadah, on the authority of Salamah ibn Kuhayl, on the authority of Amara ibn Umair, on the authority of Abu Musa, who said: “The Throne is the place where the feet rest, and it makes a creaking sound like the creaking of a saddle.”
Ruling: Weak. Chain has a gap.
[!scholar] Sheikh Ahmad Shakir — Commentary on Tafsir al-Tabari (5/398)
“The hadith is interrupted because Ammarah ibn Umair did not meet Abu Musa al-Ash’ari.”
Narration 4 — From al-Sha’bi Himself, Not the Prophet ﷺ
Ibrahim narrated to us, Ubayd ibn Adam al-Asqalani narrated to us, my father narrated to us, on the authority of Hammad ibn Salamah, on the authority of Ata’ ibn al-Sa’ib, on the authority of al-Sha’bi, who said: “God, Blessed and Exalted be He, is on the Throne, to the point that it creaks like the creaking of a saddle.”
Ruling: Weak rumour, not attributed to the Prophet ﷺ or any Companion.
This is from al-Sha’bi himself — a weak narration that was widespread in his time like a rumour, and he repeated it.
[!scholar] Ibn Uthaymeen — Explanation of the Safarini Creed (p.297)
“This hadith is questionable.”
Narration 5 — Fabricated, Attributed to the Prophet ﷺ
Ubayd ibn Ya’ish narrated to us, Abu Yazid al-Mu’anna narrated to us, Isra’il narrated to us, on the authority of Ja’far ibn al-Zubayr, on the authority of al-Qasim, on the authority of Abu Umamah, who said: The Messenger of Allah ﷺ said: “Ask Allah for the Paradise of Firdaws, for it is the secret of Paradise, and the people of Firdaws hear the creaking of the Throne.”
Ruling: Fabricated (Mawdu’).
The narration passes through Ja’far ibn al-Zubayr — a known liar and fabricator of hadith. Imam al-Haythami himself omitted this hadith in Majma’ al-Zawa’id, thereby indicating that Ja’far ibn al-Zubayr is a rejected narrator. Al-Albani also weakened it.
Narration 6 — Interpolated: The Creaking Is from the Narrators, Not the Prophet ﷺ
Muhammad ibn Ishaq, narrating on the authority of Ya’qub ibn Utbah, on the authority of Jubayr ibn Muhammad ibn Jubayr ibn Mut’im, on the authority of his father, on the authority of his grandfather Jubayr ibn Mut’im: The Messenger of Allah ﷺ said to the Bedouin in the hadith of istisqa’: “Woe to you! Do you know who Allah is? His status is too great to be interceded for on behalf of anyone. He is above His Throne, above His heavens, in the form of a dome, and He creaks like the creaking of a saddle when it is travelling.”
Ruling: Weak. And the phrase “creaking” is not from the Prophet ﷺ at all — it is an interpolation from the narrators themselves.
Muhammad ibn Ishaq is a mudallis narrator who did not explicitly state he heard this directly. Al-Albani weakened it; Shu’ayb al-Arna’ut weakened it in Takhrij Sharh al-Tahawiyyah; al-Wadi’i weakened it in Al-Shafa’ah (p.191).
[!scholar] Al-Bayhaqi — Al-Asma’ wa al-Sifat (2/159)
“It is unique to Muhammad ibn Ishaq, and if he is not to be relied upon in matters of what is lawful and unlawful, the attributes of Allah are even more so. They only criticised him for narrating from the People of the Book and from weak narrators and for concealing their names. In this hadith he did not make clear that he heard it from Ya’qub and Jubayr, and there is disagreement about its wording.”
[!scholar] Al-Albani — Takhrij Mishkat al-Masabih (5660)
“Its chain of transmission is weak, and there is no authentic hadith about the creaking of the Throne.”
The phrase “the creaking” is from the words of the narrators Wahb, Ibn al-Azhar, and Yahya ibn Ma’in themselves — not from the Prophet ﷺ. The sources record this explicitly:
— Al-Arsh wa ma Ruwiya fihi: “Wahb described this and tilted his right hand and fingers, and said: ‘And it creaks with it like a saddle creaks with a rider.’”
— Sharh al-Sunnah: “Wahb pointed with his hand like a dome at it, and Abu al-Azhar also pointed and said: ‘It creaks with it like a saddle creaks with a rider.’”
— Ibn Abd al-Barr, Al-Tamhid: “Yahya ibn Ma’in pointed with his fingers in the form of a dome, and it creaked like a saddle creaks with a rider.”
— Al-Dhahabi, Al-Uluw: “Ibn al-Azhar also indicated: ‘And it creaks with him like a saddle creaks with a rider.’”
— Ibn Khaythama, Al-Tarikh al-Thani: “Yahya ibn Ma’in pointed with his five fingers in the shape of a dome, and it creaked like a saddle creaks with a rider.”
Al-Dhahabi himself commented: “This is a very strange and unique hadith. Ibn Ishaq is an authority on military campaigns when he provides a chain of transmission. He has strange narrations, but Allah knows best whether the Prophet ﷺ said this or not. By Allah, there is nothing like Him.”
This is an interpolated hadith — in which the personal words of the narrator are mixed with the words of the Prophet ﷺ. This error can be detected by comparing the chains of transmission with each other. The narrations that explicitly attribute “the creaking” phrase to the Prophet ﷺ himself were narrated by the weak narrator Abu Hamid Ahmad ibn Ali ibn Hasanuwayh — and al-Khatib al-Baghdadi himself did not authenticate them.
The saying “The Throne creaks like a saddle creaks” is from Wahb, Ibn al-Azhar, and Yahya ibn Ma’in themselves. It is not from the Prophet ﷺ. Imams Abu Dawud and al-Mizzi made an error when they attributed it to him.
The Contradictions Between the Narrations
[!scholar] Imam Ibn al-Jawzi — Al-Ilal al-Mutanahiya
“This is a hadith that is not authentic from the Messenger of Allah ﷺ, and its chain of transmission is very confused. Sometimes Ibn Khalifa narrates it on the authority of Umar, on the authority of the Messenger of Allah ﷺ. Sometimes he stops it at Umar, and sometimes he stops it at Ibn Khalifa himself. Sometimes it says ‘nothing remains of it except the amount of four fingers,’ and sometimes ‘nothing remains of it the amount of four fingers.’ All of this is a mix-up by the narrators, so it cannot be relied upon.”
The contradictions across the six narrations are glaring: sometimes the creaking is of the chair, sometimes of the throne; sometimes Abdullah ibn Khalifa attributes it to the Prophet ﷺ, sometimes to Umar, sometimes to himself; the phrasing about “four fingers” shifts between variants. None of this is consistent with an authentic transmitted text.
Second: Responding to Those Who Claim Authentication
On citing al-Dhahabi: Al-Dhahabi himself weakened Abdullah ibn Khalifa as unknown, saying in Al-Mizan (2/414): he “is hardly known,” and in Al-Arsh (2/153): “We do not know of his status as a narrator of criticism or approval.” Most decisively, al-Dhahabi himself stated in Al-Uluw (p.39):
[!scholar] Al-Dhahabi — Al-Uluw (p.39)
“Creaking has no place among the attributes at all. Rather, it is like the shaking of the Throne upon the death of Sa’d, or the splitting of the sky on the Day of Resurrection, and so on. God forbid that we consider it an attribute of God. Moreover, the word creaking does not come from an authentic text.”
On citing Ibn Hibban: Ibn Hibban was well-known for extreme leniency in authenticating narrators — so much so that scholars of hadith criticism do not accept his authentication of a narrator if he is the only one to do so.
On citing Abu Muhammad al-Dashti’s claim that “its narrators meet the conditions of al-Bukhari and Muslim”: Al-Albani responded: “This is a clear, double error. The hadith is not authentic, and its narrators do not meet their conditions. It is a rejected hadith in my opinion.”
On citing Ibn al-Qayyim’s attempt to strengthen the narrations: Ibn al-Qayyim tried to strengthen it through Abdullah ibn al-Hakam al-Qatwani and Uthman ibn Abi Shaybah — but did not realise the narrations were weak for entirely different reasons.
On citing al-Haythami’s claim that the narrators are from the men of Sahih: This is a mistake on his part. None of the authors of the Four Sunans or the Two Sahihs narrated from Abdullah ibn Khalifa.
On citing the silence of al-A’mash and Sufyan: Both mistakenly believed the content of this hadith, as its chain is not authentic. Sufyan transmitted it through Abu Ishaq — but this does not establish its authenticity, only that its weakness was missed by some.
Third: The Narrations Contradict Islamic Belief and Sound Reason
First contradiction: The weak hadith says Allah “sits on the chair” — but the Quran and authentic Sunnah establish that Allah is above the Throne (العرش), not on the chair (الكرسي). These are two different things. Some were forced to distort the word “chair” and interpret it as “Throne” in order to evade this contradiction.
Second contradiction: The hadith claims that after Allah sits, only four fingers’ width of the chair remains uncovered. No sound mind accepts this — it implies the Throne is larger than Allah by four fingers, a statement that is both irrational and theologically impermissible.
Third contradiction: The hadith claims the people of Paradise hear the creaking of the Throne. An immense creaking from the Throne would be a loud, disturbing noise — directly contradicting the tranquility and peace of Paradise that the Quran explicitly describes.
All six narrations about the creaking of the Throne are weak, interpolated, or fabricated — established by al-Albani, Ibn al-Jawzi, al-Bayhaqi, al-Dhahabi, and Ibn Uthaymeen. The phrase “the Throne creaks like a saddle” is from the narrators themselves — Wahb, Ibn al-Azhar, and Yahya ibn Ma’in — not from the Prophet ﷺ. The narrations contradict each other internally, contradict authentic Islamic theology, and contradict sound reason. There is nothing here that can be used against Islamic belief.