Praise be to Allah, and peace and blessings be upon the Messenger of Allah. To proceed:
What is established is that the Throne of Allah was upon the water, as stated in the Quran. It has also been reported from Abdullah ibn Mas‘ud (may Allah be pleased with him) in a narration indicating that the Kursi is above the water. As for Allah, Glorified be He, He is above His Throne, distinct from His creation, and this does not mean that anything from His creation encompasses Him.
Among the fundamentals of Ahl al-Sunnah’s belief is affirming Allah’s highness above His creation and His rising over His Throne in a manner befitting His majesty, without likening Him to His creation or attempting to describe how.
Allah says:
﴿الرَّحْمَنُ عَلَى الْعَرْشِ اسْتَوَى﴾
“The Most Merciful rose over the Throne.”
[Taha: 5]
Allah is above His creation. He does not dwell within any of His created beings, nor does anything encompass Him. Allah says:
﴿لَيْسَ كَمِثْلِهِ شَيْءٌ وَهُوَ السَّمِيعُ الْبَصِيرُ﴾
“There is nothing like unto Him, and He is the All-Hearing, the All-Seeing.”
[Ash-Shura: 11]
Therefore, the texts concerning the Throne, the Kursi, and the water should not be understood as implying that Allah is within His creation or encompassed by it.
According to what was stated in the original fatwa, it has not been established that the water is above the Kursi. Rather, there is a report indicating that the Kursi is above the water, and the Throne is also above the water.
Allah says:
﴿وَهُوَ الَّذِي خَلَقَ السَّمَاوَاتِ وَالْأَرْضَ فِي سِتَّةِ أَيَّامٍ وَكَانَ عَرْشُهُ عَلَى الْمَاءِ﴾
“And He is the One Who created the heavens and the earth in six days, while His Throne was upon the water.”
[Hud: 7]
The verse establishes that the Throne of Allah was upon the water.
It is reported from Abdullah ibn Mas‘ud (may Allah be pleased with him) that, after mentioning the distances between the heavens, he said:
“Then between the seventh heaven and the Kursi is a distance of five hundred years, and between the Kursi and the water is five hundred years. The Kursi is above the water, and Allah Most High is above the Throne, and nothing of your deeds is hidden from Him.”
This report has been narrated through different chains and with different wordings, and a number of scholars regarded it as authentic, as mentioned in the original fatwa.
This wording explicitly states that the Kursi is above the water.
The report of Ibn Mas‘ud (may Allah be pleased with him) has been transmitted with more than one wording.
Some narrations state:
“Between the Kursi and the water is five hundred years, the Throne is above the water, and Allah is above the Throne.”
If this wording were considered on its own, it might allow for a different understanding regarding the order of the water and the Kursi. However, another narration contains the clearer wording:
“The Kursi is above the water.”
Therefore, the original fatwa interpreted the potentially ambiguous narrations in light of the explicit narration and concluded that the water is not above the Kursi; rather, the Kursi is above the water.
There is a narration known as Hadith al-Aw‘al, which mentions the heavens, the sea, the Throne, and the distances between them.
However, the original fatwa pointed out that this hadith is weak. A number of hadith scholars regarded it as weak, including Shaykh al-Albani.
Therefore, it should not be relied upon by itself to establish this matter.
The question concerning the place of the feet was primarily based on the assumption that the water is above the Kursi.
According to the conclusion favored in the fatwa, this assumption is incorrect, because the report from Ibn Mas‘ud states that the Kursi is above the water. Thus, the difficulty arising from the assumption that the water is above it no longer applies.
As for reports concerning the Kursi and its being the place of the feet, these belong to matters related to the divine attributes. Ahl al-Sunnah affirm whatever is authentically established concerning them in a manner befitting Allah, without likening His attributes to those of created beings and without attempting to imagine a modality that Allah has not informed us about.
Knowing the arrangement of some created things is one matter, while knowing the modality of Allah’s attributes is another. The attributes of the Creator must not be compared to the attributes of His creation.
No, there is no contradiction.
The Throne, the Kursi, the water, and the heavens are all created by Allah, and Allah is neither a part of them nor dwelling within them.
Affirming that Allah is above His Throne does not mean likening Him to His creation, nor does it mean that the Throne or anything else encompasses Him.
Allah says:
﴿وَهُوَ الْعَلِيُّ الْعَظِيمُ﴾
“And He is the Most High, the Most Great.”
[Al-Baqarah: 255]
The basic principle in such matters is to affirm what has been established in authentic texts and not go beyond them into imagined descriptions or modalities for which there is no evidence.
The Quran explicitly establishes that Allah’s Throne was upon the water, and an explicit report from Ibn Mas‘ud (may Allah be pleased with him) states that the Kursi is above the water.
Accordingly, the difficulty based on the assumption that the water is above the Kursi does not arise according to the conclusion favored in the original fatwa.
Allah is above His Throne, distinct from His creation. The Throne, the Kursi, the water, and all the heavens are among His creations, and none of them encompasses Him.
In matters concerning Allah’s attributes, one should adhere to what has been authentically established in the Quran and Sunnah, while declaring Allah free from resemblance to created beings and refraining from discussing the modality of His attributes without knowledge.
And Allah knows best.