What is the Praiseworthy Station (al-maqam al-mahmud)?

"The Praiseworthy Station" is what the Prophet ﷺ is promised in al-Isra' 79. In Kitab al-Sunna, al-Khallal gives it a long chapter, "on the Praiseworthy Station", gathering the versions of Mujahid ibn Jabr's explanation of the verse, "He will seat him with Him on the Throne", and the sayings of Ahmad's followers accepting it. ^{4 5} The question is disputed, and the book and its editor argue for one side.

• Al-Khallal gives the report through chains such as Ahmad ibn Asram, from al-'Ala' ibn 'Amr, from Ibn Fudayl, from Layth, from Mujahid: "He will seat him with Him on the Throne." ⁵
• He records that Abu Bakr al-Marrudhi read them his book "The Praiseworthy Station" once in the congregational mosque; the editor says the book is lost and that al-Marrudhi wrote it when a man he calls "al-Tirmidhi the Jahmi" publicly rejected Mujahid's report. ⁵
• Al-Khallal relates that he read Kitab al-Sunna in Tarsus for years, and when he read this chapter in the year ninety-two some followers of "al-Tirmidhi" rejected it; he shunned them and wrote to his teachers in Baghdad, who sent him a letter affirming it, which he read to his companions and which people copied. ²
• That letter says the seating is at one time and the intercession at another, and that they do not deny the Muslims' view that the Station is intercession. ³

The editor, 'Adil Al Hamdan, introduces the chapter as al-Khallal's record of the early authorities' agreement on this merit, and quotes among others: ¹

• Ahmad ibn Hanbal, asked about Mujahid's report: scholars accepted it; we accept the report as it came; and it is not from Mujahid alone but was also related from Ibn 'Abbas. ^{4 2}
• Abu Dawud, author of the Sunan: whoever denies this is suspect in our eyes; people have always related it. ⁶
• 'Abd Allah ibn Ahmad, al-Saghani, al-Najjad, al-Ajurri, al-Daraqutni in his ode, and Ibn Taymiyya. ⁷
• He quotes harsh judgements on those who rejected the report, calling them Jahmis and innovators, ascribed to Ishaq ibn Rahwayh, Harun ibn Ma'ruf and others. ⁸ He quotes al-Dhahabi in al-'Uluw that Mujahid would hardly have said this without having been taught it. ²

The views of exegetes who limited the Praiseworthy Station to intercession, criticism of the chain of Mujahid's report by those who weakened it, and the identity of the "al-Tirmidhi" mentioned are to be added from their sources.