Attributes of God

The Attributes of God

Sami Zaatari

When one reads the Quran and the hadith literature one will find that Allah is described with several names and attributes:

Allah has a face:

But will abide (for ever) the Face of thy Lord,- full of Majesty, Bounty and Honour. (55:27)

Allah has hands:

(Allah) said: "O Iblis! What prevents thee from prostrating thyself to one whom I have created with my hands? Art thou haughty? Or art thou one of the high (and mighty) ones?" (38:75)

Allah has a foot:

Hell will keep saying, Are there more? Until the Lord of Glory will put his Foot on it (Bukhari and Muslim)

Allah has a shin:

The Day that the shin shall be laid bare, and they shall be summoned to bow in adoration, but they shall not be able,- (68:42)

Allah rose over the throne:

The Beneficent One, Who rose over the Throne. (20:5)

Allah descends:

Narrated Abu Huraira:

Allah's Apostle (p.b.u.h) said, "Our Lord, the Blessed, the Superior, comes every night down on the nearest Heaven to us when the last third of the night remains, saying: "Is there anyone to invoke Me, so that I may respond to invocation? Is there anyone to ask Me, so that I may grant him his request? Is there anyone seeking My forgiveness, so that I may forgive him?" (Bukhari)

Allah has an eye:

"'Throw (the child) into the chest, and throw (the chest) into the river: the river will cast him up on the bank, and he will be taken up by one who is an enemy to Me and an enemy to him': But I cast (the garment of) love over thee from Me: and (this) in order that thou mayest be reared under Mine eye. (20:39)

So God is described with several of these attributes. Now throughout the history of Islam and even up to this day there have been two main interpretations of the attributes of God, one group interpret such attributes to be metaphorical, for instance the hands of God refer to his power, the eyes refer to his knowledge and so forth, so everything is interpreted in a metaphorical way.

The second interpretation is that you leave the attributes as they are, without adding more to them, or trying to explain how they are, you basically leave it as it is, and this is the view I myself go with as it is the safer approach.

So for instance when the verse says Allah has hands, I simply say yes he has hands, however so I do not imagine that his hands are anything like a human hand, I do not even delve into what his hands actually are, I simply leave it as it is and affirm that he has hands. The Quran makes it very clear that there is nothing like God:

And there is none like unto Him. (112:4)

So the Quran makes it quite clear that there is nothing like God, hence when you affirm that Allah has a hand, an eye, a foot, a shin, and so forth you do not in no way believe or interpret any of these attributes to be anything human like, you simply leave it as it is.

Now there are some who say that this interpretation is no different than what the Christians say about their God, Jesus, who became a man in the flesh and so forth. This is nothing but a distortion and lie, because we are not saying that Allah has flesh, we are not saying anything about his attributes, rather we are leaving them as they are! Hence in reality it is the accusers who are making this false interpretation of God, it is them who are using their limited mindset to try and understand this issue, which is precisely what we keep away from, we leave the attributes as they are without trying to figure out how they are, we just leave at it is.

Now if we said yes Allah's hand means it has flesh, bones, a shape, and so forth, then you could accuse us of being like the Christians etc, yet we say no such thing, rather it is the accusers who are saying such things!

So all in all if you take the second interpretation and someone comes up to you and asks you does Allah have hands? You reply by saying yes he has hands, but in no way do his hands resemble any human hand or anything our mind can even imagine, we simply leave it as it is without saying how or what, anyone who goes beyond this has made a mistake and has nothing to do with our position.

Now if the person cannot comprehend this simplicity and starts going into wild interpretations thinking Allah's hands are some physical fleshy thing, then that is their problem and not ours, in no way do we believe that Allah is anything like the false Christian God who was literally a man with human physical attributes!

So with all of that said let us see what some of the major Islamic scholars have had to say concerning this very issue:

Imam Malik:

"Allah's rising over the throne is known, and how is unknown, to have faith in it is obligatory and to question it is an innovation ". Then he said to the questioner: "I do not think except that you are an evil man". So he ordered him to be expelled

Abu Hanifa:

God knows, but not as we know; He has power, but not as we have power; He sees, but not as we see; He hears, but not as we hear; and He speaks, but not as we speak. We speak by means of the speech organs and sounds, whereas God Most High speaks with neither organs nor sounds. Sounds are created, and the word of God Most High is uncreated. He is a thing, but unlike other things; by saying "thing," we intend merely to affirm His reality. He has neither body nor substance, neither accidental property nor limit, neither opposite nor like nor similitude. He has a hand, a face, and a self (nafs); the mention that God most High has made of these in the Qur'an has the sense that these are among His attributes, and no question can be raised concerning their modality (bila kayf). It cannot be said that His hand represents His power or His bestowal of bounty, because such an interpretation would require a negation of an attribute. This is the path taken by the Qadarites and the Mu'tazilites Rather, His hand is an attribute, of unknowable modality, in the same way that His anger and pleasure are two attributes of unknowable modality God Most High created things out of nothing, and He had knowledge of them in pre-eternity, before their creation.

Salih al-Fawzaan:

The meaning of (...Takyeef...) is to specify the exact nature and reality of the established meaning of the attribute. It is said: He gave something a shape or form (kayyafa) when he made for it a known quality. Committing takyeef with Allaah's attributes is to specify their precise nature, state or condition and their form or shape. This is impossible for mankind since the knowledge of this is amongst that knowledge which Allaah has kept to Himself. Therefore, there is no way of knowing the precise nature of His attributes because the attribute follows the Self (dhaat). Just as it is not possible for a person to know the exact nature of the Self of Allaah, it is likewise impossible to know the exact nature of His attributes. Their exact nature is not known. This is why when Imaam Maalik was asked about the verse:

Ar-Rahmaan has ascended (istawaa) the Throne [Taahaa 20:5]

How is the ascending (istawaa)? He replied: "The ascending is known, its reality is unknown, having eemaan in it is obligatory and asking about it is an innovation."

And this is said with respect to all of Allaah's attributes.

The meaning of (...Tamtheel...) is resemblance (tashbeeh) and it is committed when it is said that Allaah's attributes are like the attributes of the creation. For example, it might be said: The hand of Allaah is like our hands and His hearing is like our hearing. High is Allaah above such things. Allaah said:

There is nothing like Him and He is the All-Hearing, the All-Seeing [Shooraa 42:11]

Therefore, it cannot be said that His attributes are like our attributes or that they resemble our attributes just like it cannot be said that the Self of Allaah is like our selves or that it resembles our selves.

Imaam at-Tirmidhee

"It has been stated by more than one person from the People of Knowledge about such ahaadeeth, that there is no tashbeeh (resemblance) to the Attributes of Allaah, and our Lord - the Blessed and Most High - descends to the lowest heaven every night. So they say: "Affirm these narrations, have eemaan (faith) in them, do not deny them, nor ask how." The likes of this has been related from Maalik ibn Anas, Sufyaan ath-Thawree, Ibn Uyainah and Abdullaah ibn al-Mubaarak, who all said about such ahaadeeth: "Leave them as they are, without asking how." Such is the saying of the People of Knowledge from the Ahl us-Sunnah wal-Jamaa'ah. However, the Jahmiyyah oppose these narrations and say: This is tashbeeh! However, Allaah the Most High, has mentioned in various places in His Book, the Attribute of al-Yad (Hand), as-Sama' (Hearing), and al-Basr (Seeing) - but the Jahmiyyah make ta'weel of these aayaat, explaining them in a way, other than how they are explained by the People of Knowledge. They say: Indeed, Allaah did not create Aadam with His own Hand - they say that Hand means the Power of Allaah."

Many more scholars could be quoted, but they essentially say the same thing, and as you can see none of them actually believe that Allah's attributes in any shape or form resemble anything like a human or any created being, they even speak against it warning not to delve into Tasbeeh (resemblance, comparison) and takyeef (how)!

In conclusion I would tell the Muslims to simply leave the attributes as they are and move on, the only reason I write this article is incase any Muslim becomes confused by this matter as missionary propagandists may try to use this subject against the Muslims saying HA! You see you are like us Christians, you believe that God has human physical attributes, so why do you attack our concept of God!

And Allah the God of Mercy and Perfect Attributes certainly Knows Best!