Abu Bakr ibn ʿAyyāsh said: “I said to al-Aʿmash: ‘What is the matter with the tafsīr of Mujāhid being different?’ — or something similar to this. He said: ‘He took it from the People of the Book.’” (al-Ṭabaqāt al-Kubrā, al-ʿIlmiyyah edition, 6/20; al-Dhahabi also mentioned it in al-Siyar)
Al-Dhahabi originally listed the names of a group of them, “pp. 124–126,” and added the names of others in his “Mukhtaṣar.” I find it as though he was overawed by their stature, for he vacillates between opposing them and agreeing with them! For after he transmitted the statement of Abū Bakr al-Najjād:
“If someone were to swear an oath of triple divorce that Allah would seat Muhammad ﷺ upon the Throne, I would say: ‘You have spoken the truth and fulfilled your oath.’”
Al-Dhahabi then followed this with his rebuttal, saying:
“So perceive — may Allah protect you from desire — how exaggeration led this hadith scholar to the point of making it necessary to accept a munkar report. Today, they reject the explicit hadiths concerning al-ʿulūw [Allah’s exaltedness/being above], and some tyrants even attempt to reject His saying: {The Most Merciful rose over the Throne} …”
Al-Dhahabi also said:
“Among the most objectionable things reported from Mujāhid in tafsīr is his statement concerning: ‘Perhaps your Lord will raise you to a praised station’ [Qur’an 17:79]. He said: ‘He will seat him with Him upon the Throne.’” (Mīzān al-Iʿtidāl 3/439)
Al-Dhahabi also said:
“Mujāhid has statements and oddities in knowledge and tafsīr that are rejected…”
(al-Siyar 4/455)
Al-Dhahabi said in al-Kabāʾir (p. 153):
“And if he were to say: ‘Indeed, Allah sat down for justice,’ or ‘stood up for justice,’ he would have disbelieved.”
So may Allah’s successive curse be upon the Muʿattilah, their spouses, and whoever takes them as authorities in their deen.