"If you want to verify that His aboveness is not a spatial aboveness, but rather a real aboveness with subjugation and Lordhood over the servants, then ponder over the fact that He, the Exalted, was and there was nothing with Him. A new aboveness for Him did
not come about by the creation of the heavens, nor descent [of His] by the creation of the earth, nor Istiwā and Sitting by the creation of the 'Arsh. [...] He, the Exalted, said: ‘Exalt the name of your Lord, the Most High - The one who created in fashion’.
So His affirmation of 'the Most High' preceded the affirmation of creation [in the verse], which proves that His aboveness was established before the creations [existence].
Why Imām Abū Hanīfah & some Hanafī Mutaqaddimūn prohibited the interpretation of the word 'Yad'
Abul Qasim as-Saffar al-Balkhi (d. 320) states:
[He was asked if we can say Yad is an expression of Qudrah in the Qur'ān:]
He answered: No because it is a negation of the virtue of Ādam عليه السلام, since Allah said to Iblis when he rejected to prostrate; "what holds you from prostrating that which I created with my Yadayy?" So Allah has specified [Ādam] with His Yad out of virtue for him.
If we say, Yad is an expression for Qudrah, then Iblis could have responded to Allah and say: You have created him with Qudrah just as you have created me with Qudrah, so what is the virtue which goes beyond me that he has?!
A story of Imām Abū Hanīfah neighbour and his argument with Ibn Abī Laylā
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Imām Abū Hanīfah had a neighbour who used to sing, make music by profession and also was an alcoholic, so the neighbour was imprisoned due to these reasons. Abū Hanīfah noticed one day that he was gone so he asked, "where is this neighbour of mine who always used to sing and
bring people to listen to him?"
People told him that he is in prison so he went there and visited, he said, "I have to do this because I have to give my neighbour his right."