Some of the matters or points covered:
- Principle/Rule 4) Those who claim that the meaning of the texts of the attributes is Tamtheel fall into four matters that have been cautioned against.
- The thought process of those who deny the Attributes of Allāh (سبحانه و تعالى), the nature of their mistake and the various sins/faults they fall into.
- Many of those who start presuming things about the attributes (majority or all them) which are clearly mentioned in the text, they wrongly believe that this attribute they find in the text resembles the attribute in the creatures.
- For example, when Qur’ān mentions Allāh’s mercy, face, hand, etc, they think of its reality in the creation i.e. the mercy, face, hand of a man.
- This is the starting point of their mistake. They find this repugnant and evil in their heart and will then take a number of steps; either distort the text or say the text has no meaning at all, no one knows it.
- The four cautioned against things:
- 1) The errant understanding of those who think the actual meaning of the text of the attributes means affirming attributes which resemble the attributes of the creation.
- 2) committing a crime against the actual text by distorting it, denying and rejecting what the text clearly and apparently indicates.
- 3) Doing negation of the text without ‘ilm (knowledge). ‘Ilm is what Allāh said, the Messenger said, the Salafus-Saalih said. Reason for doing this must therefore be based upon Jahl (ignorance) like philosophy e.g. from Greek or star-worshipping philosophers. Such people fall into another grave and heinous crime, speaking about Allāh without knowledge. [see 7:33 in the Qur’ān]
- 4) When denying and rejecting what text clearly indicates, you are basically affirming the opposite imperfection. If Allāh is not hearing then He must be deaf, If Allāh is not seeing then He must be blind, نعوذ بالله. This is attributing shortcoming and deficiency to Allāh and transgressing against the right of Allāh. By doing so, resembling Allāh to things which are deficient such as likening Allāh to those things which don’t hear or see like a table, wall, etc. So trying to flee from Tamtheel but likened Allāh to those things which are less imperfect than man.
- All of these things are making ilhād (deviation) in Allāh’s Names and Attributes.
- Why not just say: “This is an attribute of Allāh, not like the creation, we don’t know the kaifiyyah (reality) of it.”
- Finally, important clarifications regarding istiwā’ (as mentioned in the Qur’ān) and Fis-samā (as mentioned in the famous authentic hadeeth regarding the slave girl).
Listen to the lesson/download here:
Lesson 25.mp3
