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God in Islam

January 26, 2023

God in Islam (Arabic: ٱللَّٰه, romanized: Allāh, contraction of ٱلْإِلَٰه al-’Ilāh, lit. "the God")[1] is seen as the eternal creator and sustainer of the universe,[2][1][3][4][5] who will eventually resurrect all humans.[6] In Islam, God is conceived as a perfect, singular, immortal, omnipotent, and omniscient god, completely infinite in all of his attributes.[1][3][5][7] Islam further emphasizes that God is most-merciful.[8][9][10]

According to Islamic theology, God has no physical body or gender, although he is always referred to with masculine grammatical articles,[11] and there is nothing else like him in any way whatsoever. Therefore, Islam rejects the doctrine of the incarnation and the notion of a personal god as anthropomorphic, because it is seen as demeaning to the transcendence of God. The Quran prescribes the fundamental transcendental criterion in the following verse: "[He is] the Creator of the heavens and the earth. He has made for you from yourselves, mates, and among the cattle, mates; He multiplies you thereby. There is nothing whatever like unto Him, and He is the One that hears and sees [all things]" (42:11). Therefore, Islam strictly and categorically rejects all forms of anthropomorphism and anthropopathism of the concept of God.[12][13][14][15]

The Islamic concept of God emphasizes that he is absolutely pure and free from association with other beings, which means attributing the powers and qualities of God to his creation, and vice versa. In Islam, God is never portrayed in any image. The Quran specifically forbade ascribing partners to share his singular sovereignty, as he is considered to be the absolute one without a second, indivisible, and incomparable being, who is similar to nothing, and nothing is comparable to him. Thus, God is absolutely transcendent, unique and utterly other than anything in or of the world as to be beyond all forms of human thought and expression.[16][17] The briefest and the most comprehensive description of God in Islam is found in Surat al-Ikhlas.[18]

According to mainstream Muslim theologians, God is described as Qadim [ar] [16][19] (Eternal, timeless, and infinite, which literally means: "ancient"), having no first, without beginning or end; absolute, not limited by time or place or circumstance, nor is subject to any decree so as to be determined by any precise limits or set times, but is the First and the Last. He is not a formed body, nor a substance circumscribed with limits or determined by measure; neither does he resemble bodies as they are capable of being measured or divided. Neither do substances exist in him; neither is he an accident, nor do accidents exist in him. Neither is he like to anything that exists, nor is anything like to him; nor is he determinate in quantity, nor comprehended by bounds, nor circumscribed by differences of situation, nor contained in the heavens, and transcends spatial and temporal bounds, and remains beyond the bounds of human comprehension and perceptions.[20][21][18]

Etymology

Main article: Allah

Allāh is the Arabic word referring to God in Abrahamic religions.[22][23][24] In the English language, the word generally refers to God in Islam. The Arabic word Allāh is thought to be derived by contraction from al-ʾilāh, which means "the God",[1] (i.e., the only God) and is related to El and Elah, the Hebrew and Aramaic words for God.[25][26] It is distinguished from ʾilāh (Arabic: إِلَٰه), the Arabic word meaning deity, which could refer to any of the gods worshipped in pre-Islamic Arabia or to any other deity.[27] Allah is God’s most unique Name, grandly referred to as Lafẓ al-Jalālah (The Word of Majesty). It occurs in the Qur’an 2,697 times in 85 of its 114 suras.[28]

Other names

Main article: Names of God in Islam

God is described and referred to in the Quran and hadith by 99 names that reflect his attributes.[29] The Quran refers to the attributes of God as "most beautiful names".[30][31] According to Gerhard Böwering,

They are traditionally enumerated as 99 in number to which is added as the highest Name (al-ism al-ʾaʿẓam), the Supreme Name of Allāh. The locus classicus for listing the Divine Names in the literature of Qurʾānic commentary is 17:110[32] “Call upon Allah, or call upon The Merciful; whichsoever you call upon, to Allah belong the most beautiful Names,” and also 59:22-24,[33] which includes a cluster of more than a dozen Divine epithets."

— Gerhard Böwering, God and God's Attributes[34]

Some Muslims may use different names as much as Allah, for instance "God" in English. Whether or not Allah can be considered as the personal name of God became disputed in contemporary scholarship.[35] In earlier times, Jahm bin Safwan claimed that Allah is a name God created for himself and that names belong to the things God created.[36]

Attributes

Oneness

Main articles: Tawhid and Tanzih

Islam's most fundamental concept is a strict monotheism called tawhid, affirming that God is one and Tanzih (wāḥid). The basic creed of Islam, the Shahada[37] (recited under oath to enter the religion), involves لَا إِلَٰهَ إِلَّا ٱللَّٰهُ (lā ʾilāha ʾilla llāh), or "I testify there is no deity other than God."

Muslims reject the Christian doctrine of the Trinity and divinity of Jesus, comparing it to polytheism.[38] Jesus is instead believed to be a prophet.

Tawhid constitutes the foremost article of the Muslim profession.[39] The deification or worship of anyone or anything other than God (shirk) is the greatest sin in Islam. The entirety of the Islamic teaching rests on the principle of Tawhid.[40]

According to Vincent J. Cornell,[41] the Quran also provides a monist image of God by describing the reality as a unified whole, with God being a single concept that would describe or ascribe all existing things: "He is the First and the Last, the Evident and the Immanent: and He has full knowledge of all things."[42]

Uniqueness

Islam emphasises the absolute uniqueness and singularity of God in his essence, attributes, qualities, and acts.[43] As stated in Surat al-Ikhlas: God is Ahad[44] (the unique one of absolute oneness, who is indivisible in nature, and there can be no other like him); God is Ash-Shamad[45] (the ultimate source of all existence, the uncaused cause who created all things out of nothing, who is eternal, absolute, immutable, perfect, complete, essential, independent, and self-sufficient; who needs nothing while all of creation is in absolute need of him; the one eternally and constantly required and sought, depended upon by all existence and to whom all matters will ultimately return); he begets not, nor is he begotten (He is Unborn and Uncreated, has no parents, wife or offspring); and comparable/equal to him, there is none.[15]

God's absolute transcendence over his creation, as well as his unlimited individuality were asserted and emphasized with support from appropriate quotations from the Qur'an as follows:

(He is) the Lord of the heavens and the earth and all that is between them; so worship Him alone, and be constant and patient in His worship. Do you know of any whose name is worthy to be mentioned along with His (as Deity and Lord to worship)?

— Quran 19:65 (Translated by Ali Ünal)

The Qur'anic verse (19:65), "Do you know of any that can be named with His Name?" emphasizes that as Allah is Unique, His name is shared by none other.[46]

To those who do not believe in the Hereafter applies the most evil of attributes, and to God applies the most sublime attribute, and He is the All-Glorious with irresistible might, the All-Wise.

— Quran 16:60 (Translated by Ali Ünal)

Such as that described in the previous three verses ( 16:57-59). For the disbelievers in the Hereafter, there is an evil description, or in other words, the most evil attribute (i.e., the most vile), which is their ignorance and ingratitude, and their burying alive of newborn girls, despite the fact that they are needed for the purposes of marriage and not allowing women to even inherit property, and their ascribing female gender to angels and claiming that the angels are the daughters of God while so preferring sons for themselves (this is also mentioned in the verses 37:149-155); whereas to God belong the highest attribute, namely, that there is no deity except him, immensely exalted beyond and above all comparison and likeness.[47][48]

So, do not invent similitudes for God (do not liken Him to others to associate partners with Him, for there is nothing similar to Him). Surely God knows and you do not know (the exact truth about Him and the exact nature of things).

— Quran 16:74 (Translated by Ali Ünal)

The Originator of the heavens and the earth (each with particular features and on ordered principles): He has made for you, from your selves, mates, and from the cattle mates (of their own kind): by this means He multiplies you (and the cattle). There is nothing whatever like Him. He is the All-Hearing, the All-Seeing.

— Quran 42:11 (Translated by Ali Ünal)

The Qur'anic verse (42:11) emphasizes that there is no similarity whatsoever between the creator and his creation in essence, in attributes or in actions, and therefore, God is beyond all human concepts of him. So he has no mates and nothing is like him, nor does he beget, nor is he begotten. Nothing – neither matter, nor space, nor time – can restrict or contain him. And this is why his Attributes – his hearing, seeing, knowledge, will, power, creating, and so on – are also beyond anything we can conceive.[49]

The same sentiment is expressed in the Qur'anic verse (6:103) which states:[15] "Vision perceives/comprehends Him not, and He perceives/comprehends (evaluates) all vision." In some interpretations, this verse also asserts that the senses and intellects cannot fully comprehend God.[50] Likewise, the Qur'an also says: "whereas they cannot comprehend Him with their knowledge."[Quran 20:110 (Translated by Ali Ünal)]

The Hanafi jurist and theologian, al-Tahawi (d. 321/933), wrote in his treatise on theology, commonly known as al-'Aqida al-Tahawiyya:[51][16]

"Whoever describes Allah even with a single human quality/attribute, has disbelieved/blasphemed. So whoever understands this, will take heed and refrain from such statements as those of disbelievers, and knows that Allah in His attributes is utterly unlike human beings."

Al-Tahawi also stated that:[51][16]

"He is exalted/transcendent beyond having limits, ends, organs, limbs and parts (literally: tools). The six directions do not encompass/contain Him like the rest of created things."

The six directions are: above, below, right, left, front and back. The above statement of al-Tahawi refutes the anthropomorphist's dogmas that imagine Allah has a physical body and human form, and being occupied in a place, direction or trajectory.[51]

Creator

According to the teachings of Islam, God is the creator of the worlds and all the creatures therein. He has created everything in the worlds in accordance with a definite plan and for a particular purpose. There is no shortcoming or defect of any sort in any of his creations.[52] The Qur'an confirms this in the following verses:

God is the Creator of all things, and He is the Guardian (with power of disposition) over all things.

— Quran 39:62 (Translated by Ali Ünal)

Surely, We have created each and every thing by (precise) measure.

— Quran 54:49 (Translated by Ali Ünal)

Do those who disbelieve ever consider that the heavens and the earth were at first one piece, and then We parted them as separate entities; and that We have made every living thing from water? Will they still not come to believe?

— Quran 21:30 (Translated by Ali Ünal)

The Qur'an also says in verse (25:2): "and He has created everything and designed it in a perfect measure (and ordained its destiny in a precise manner)." And in another verse (25:59) it is emphasized: "It is He who created the heavens and the earth, and all that is between them."

The Qur'an states that God is the Rabb al-'Alamin. When referring to God, the Arabic term "Rabb" is usually translated as "Lord" and can include all of the following meanings:[53][54] "owner, master, ruler, controller, creator, upbringer, trainer, sustainer, nourisher, cherisher, provider, protector, guardian and caretaker." The same term, Rabb, is used in a limited sense for humans as in the "head" of the family, "master" of the house, or "owner" of the land or cattle. The Arabic word "al-'Alamin" can be translated as the "Worlds" or "Universes".[55] There are many worlds, astronomical and physical worlds, worlds of thought, spiritual worlds, everything in existence including angels, jinn, devils, humans, animals, plants, and so on.[56] The "Worlds" may also be taken to refer to different domains or kingdoms within this earthly world, or other worlds beyond this earth. Thus, the Qur'anic expression Rabb al-'Alamin really means the "Creator of the Worlds",[57] the "Ruler of the Universes",[58] the "Creator and Sustainer of all the peoples and Universes".[59]

Mercy

The most commonly used names in the primary sources are Al-Rahman, meaning "Most Compassionate" and Al-Rahim, meaning "Most Merciful".[60] The former compasses the whole creation, therefore applying to God's mercy in that it gives every necessary condition to make life possible. The latter applies to God's mercy in that it gives favor for good deeds. Thus Al-Rahman includes both the believers and the unbelievers, but Al-Rahim only the believers.[61][62] God is said to love forgiving, with a hadith stating God would replace a sinless people with one who sinned but still asked repentance.[63]

Omniscience

God's omniscience is the knowledge of all things,[64] whether they are actual or possible or whether they are past, present, or future. It also includes his knowledge of people, places, events, circumstances, etc. God has full knowledge of everything, everywhere, always and from eternity past, and he is fully aware of whatever one thinks, intends, and does, and the reins of all things and events are in his power. He knows whatever happens in the universe, down to the fall of a leaf, and he knows all the deeds, thought, and intentions of humankind. His appointed angels record these, and people will be called to account for these acts in the other world.[65] His knowledge is eternal in the sense of being timeless, i.e., atemporal. So, since God's knowledge is eternal and unchanging, it is likewise self‐existent and infinite. It is self‐existent in that it is not dependent on anything, not even time. According to the Qur'an, God (Allah) is omniscient; he eternally knows whatever comes into being, be it universal or particular in character. He has known all things from before the creation of the world. His knowledge of things before their coming into existence and afterwards is exactly the same. Hence, there is no discovery or surprise with God. Muslim theologians therefore considered that “omniscience” is a necessary and “ignorance” is an impossible property for God. Various Qur'anic verses designate this basic intuition, such as: 3:5, 6:59, 65:12, and 24:35.[66]

Relationship with creation

See also: Islamic holy books, Quran, and Quranic createdness
Further information: Salat, Taqwa, and Predestination

Muslims believe that God is the only true reality and sole source of all creation, everything including its creatures are just a derivative reality created out of love and mercy by God's command,[67] "..."Be," and it is."[9][68] and that the purpose of existence is to worship or to know God.[69][70][71] It is believed that God created everything for a divine purpose; the universe governed by fixed laws that ensure the harmonious working of all things. Everything within the universe, including inanimate objects, praises God, and is in this sense understood as a Muslim.[72] An exception are humans, who are endowed with free-will and must live voluntarily in accordance with these laws to live to find peace and reproduce God's benevolence in their own society to live in accordance with the nature of all things, known as surrender to God in the Islamic sense.[72][73]

As in the other Abrahamic religions, God is believed to communicate with his creation via revelations given to prophets to remind people of God. The Qur'an in particular is believed by Muslims to be the verbatim word of God as revealed to Muhammad. Hadith are the records of Muhammad's sayings and example, and Hadith Qudsi is a sub-category of hadith, which Muslims regard as the words of God repeated by Muhammad. According to al-Sharif al-Jurjani (d. 816/1413), the Hadith Qudsi differ from the Qur'an in that the former are "expressed in Muhammad's words", whereas the latter are the "direct words of God".[74]

In Islam, there are no intermediaries between God and people, so Muslims address/contact God directly in their prayers, supplications and dhikr, and also seek forgiveness and repentance from sins directly from God, as the Qur'an states: "And when (O Messenger) My servants ask you about Me, then surely I am near: I answer the prayer of the suppliant when he prays to Me."[Quran 2:186 (Translated by Ali Ünal)] Therefore, according to this verse, God answers all the prayers done sincerely. However, he answers sometimes by giving whatever is asked for, sometimes by giving what is better, sometimes by postponing giving to the afterlife, and sometimes by not giving at all, since it will not turn out in favor of the one who prays. The way that God answers a prayer depends on his wisdom.[75]

Al-Bukhari, in his Ṣaḥīḥ Bukhārī, narrates a hadith qudsi that God says, "I am as My servant thinks (expects) I am."[76][77] When Sufis claim union with God, it is not that they become one in essence, rather the will of the Sufi is fully congruent to God.[78] The Sufis are in fact careful to say, no matter what degree of union is realized, "the slave remains the slave, and the Lord remains the Lord".[79]

The Qur'an affirms that God does not stand in need of anything outside him, and nothing external to him can affect or influence him in any way. All his creatures are responsible to him and dependent on him. There is no other being to whom he can be responsible or on whom he can be dependent.[80] He has the right to do whatever he wants with his possessions/creatures – it is under God's own total sovereignty. Accordingly, he is not answerable for his actions, due to his wisdom and justice, greatness and uniqueness of Divinity, while all others (jinn, humans, or false deities)[81] are accountable for what they do (and don't do), as God says in the Qur'an:[82] "He shall not be questioned about what He does, but they shall be questioned."[Quran 21:23 (Translated by Royal Aal al-Bayt Institute)]

While the existence of the creation is dependent, contingent, temporal, and received from beyond itself, the existence or reality of God is eternal, independent, self-sufficient, and self-existent being who needs no other being for his existence, and consequently exists by and through himself alone. The divine name al-Samad (the supremely independent, self-sufficient being endowed with all the attributes of perfection to which all else turns in need for existence, life, guidance, help, forgiveness, etc.) implies that there is a blessed linkage between the creator and his creation where the one creator will sustain the creation by looking after it. This relationship also signifies that since God is the sustainer, he is in need of nothing, and even as he gives, nothing is diminished from his treasury.[83][84]

Concepts in Islamic theology

Sunnis

See also: Sunnis

Atharis

See also: Traditionalist theology (Islam) and Ahl al-Hadith

For Atharis the names and attributes of God are to be understood with the formula of bila kayfa (lit. “without how”, i.e., “without modality”,[85][86] “without further enquiry”[87] or “without further specifying their manner or modality”),[88][89] which is to unquestioningly accept the Divine attributes of God without ta'wil (allegorical interpretation), or ta'til (lit. “suspension”, i.e., “divesting God of His attributes”), or tashbih (anthropomorphism, immanence or comparison, which is to believe that God resembles his creations, or attributing the attributes of human beings to God).[90] Any anthropomorphic expressions of these names and attributes is negated using the admission that their meanings can never be known. The meaning is left to the knowledge of God himself, and they simply say that the meaning is as befits his majesty and perfection. This method of tafwid is that of Ahmad ibn Hanbal (eponymous founder of Atharism), al-Ash'ari, Ibn Qudama, and Ibn Kathir.[91]

Usually Atharis are vehemently opposed to engaging in ta'wil (allegorical interpretations) and reject batin (inner meaning) or hidden/esoteric (Sufi) interpretations of the Qur'an and God's divine attributes.[92] In maintaining that one is not permitted to interpret the meaning of the Qur'anic verses or the Prophetic traditions that mention various attributes of God, Ibn Qudama (d. 620/1223) in his work Lum'at al-I'tiqad [ar] (“The Luminance of Creed”) is endorsing the principle of bila kayfa ('without [asking or knowing] how') in Islamic theology.[93] According to this principle, one has to accept the sacred text as it is, indissolubly linked with tanzih (God's incomparability and transcendence), without trying to interpret its meaning. In other words, one must accept the sacred texts that refer to God without positively ascribing corporeal features to him.[94][95]

Ibn al-Jawzi (d. 597/1201) took the question of people associating anthropomorphism with Hanbalism so seriously that he wrote a book, Daf' Shubah al-Tashbih bi-Akaff al-Tanzih (“Rebuttal of the Insinuations of Anthropomorphism at the Hands of Divine Transcendence”), refuting this heresy and exonerating Ahmad ibn Hanbal of any association with it.[Note 1] According to him, such words whose meanings could give the impression that God resembles his creations shouldn't be understood literally, such as God's face, hands, eyes, and the like.[96][97][98]

Another book was written by the Shafi'i scholar, Taqi al-Din al-Hisni [ar] (d. 829/1426), titled Daf' Shubah man Shabbaha wa Tamarrad wa Nasaba dhalik ila al-Sayyid al-Jalil al-Imam Ahmad [ar] (“Rebuttal of the Insinuations of him who makes Anthropomorphisms and Rebels, and Ascribes that to the Noble Master Imam Ahmad”), defending Ahmad ibn Hanbal against the innovated beliefs later ascribed to him by Ibn Taymiyya and those who claimed to follow his school.[99][100]

Ibn Kathir (d. 774/1373) appears to offer a definition similar to that of al-Ash'ari (d. 324/936) when he discusses tafwid in his exegesis of the Qur'anic verse (7:54) pertaining to God's istiwa'. He states:[91][101]

People have said a great deal on this topic, and this is not the place to expound on what they have said. On this matter, we follow the good ancestors (i.e., the way of the earliest Muslims, dubbed the pious ancestors, in Arabic, al-salaf al-salih[Note 2]): Malik, al-Awza'i, al-Thawri, al-Layth ibn Sa'd, al-Shafi'i, Ahmad, Ishaq ibn Rahwayh, and others among the imams of the Muslims, both ancient and modern—that is: to let it (the verse in question) pass as it has come, without saying how it is meant (min ghayr takyif), without likening it to created things (wa la tashbih), and without nullifying it (wa la ta'til). The external, literal meaning (zahir)[Note 3] that occurs to the minds of anthropomorphists (al-mushabbihīn) is negated of Allah, for nothing from his creation resembles him: "There is nothing whatsoever like unto Him, and He is the All-Hearing, the All-Seeing" [Qur'an 42:11].

Here Ibn Kathir is diverting the meaning of the text from its apparent meaning, and implicitly affirming that one valid definition of the term zahir is its literal linguistic meaning, which is anthropomorphic. However, some modern followers of Ibn Taymiyya claim that bi lā takyīf would only mean tafwid of modality not of meaning (ma'na), but according to the Ash'ari/Maturidi position, modality (kayfiyya) is a part of meaning and without detailing which aspect of meaning remains after de-anthropomorphizing a term, one ends up with tafwid. In addition to that the imams of the salaf (the righteous early generations of Muslims) used to say bila kayf (without how or modality at all). On the other hand, both Ibn Taymiyya (d. 728/1328) and his student Ibn al-Qayyim (d. 751/1350) argued that the anthropomorphic references to God, such as God's hands or face, are to be understood literally and affirmatively according to their apparent meanings.[91][102][103] In their footsteps and following them come the Salafi groups of modern times such as the followers of Muhammad ibn 'Abd al-Wahhab (d. 1201/1787) who closely follow Ibn Taymiyya's approach regarding the Divine names and attributes.[104]

The doctrine of the Salaf[Note 4] that Ibn Taymiyya derives from his traditionalist sources consists in describing God as he describes himself and as his messenger describes him, neither stripping the attributes away (ta'til) in the fashion of kalam (rational or speculative theology), nor likening (tamthil) them to the attributes of creatures because there is nothing like God [Q. 42:11]. For Ibn Taymiyya, this means that the Salaf knew the meanings of the Divine attributes, and they do not merely delegate them to God. However, certain formulaic statements attributed to them do not appear to support his position unequivocally. Ibn Taymiyya notes that al-Awza'i (d. 157/774), Sufyan al-Thawri (d. 161/778), and others said concerning the attributes, "Let them pass by as they came", and "Let them pass by as they came, without how". He explains that letting the attributes pass by (imrār) means leaving them intact and not stripping away their meanings, while affirming the attributes "without how" or "without modality" (bi-lā kayf) means not assimilating them to the attributes of creatures. With this, Ibn Taymiyya holds affirmation of the meanings of God's attributes together with denial of their likeness to creatures in a double perspective by drawing a distinction between the known meanings of the attributes and their inscrutable modalities.[107][103]

Ibn Taymiyya does not clarify how modality (kayfiyya) and meaning (ma'na) relate to each other semantically. Rather, he deploys the two terms in tandem to maintain the seemingly paradoxical conviction that God is completely different and beyond human experience on the one hand while God's attributes do signify something real and meaningful in human language on the other. In denying knowledge of the modality and affirming knowledge of the meaning, Ibn Taymiyya does not resolve the paradox, nor even acknowledge it, but simply holds its two sides together in the conviction that this is the most faithful and rational set of beliefs.[107]

It is often assumed that the question of God's nature has occupied the minds of early Muslims, and as such Muhammad forbade them from thinking about it, as he said: "Think about God's bounties, but do not think about God's essence (dhat). Otherwise, you will vanish/perish." Accordingly, Muslims should not think about what God is, but about his attributes and his blessings granted to humanity, because God's essence (dhat) cannot be understood by the limited human capacity.[108] In this regard it has been mentioned in some narrations that are ascribed to Ahmad ibn Hanbal (d. 241/855),[109][110] it has been reported that he said:[Note 5] "Whatever comes to your mind (i.e., regarding God and His nature), God is different than that."[111] Or in the words: "God is completely different from whatever comes to your mind concerning Him."

According to al-Shahrastani (d. 548/1154) in his al-Milal wa al-Nihal (“Religious Sects and Divisions”), Ahmad ibn Hanbal and Dawud al-Zahiri (d. 270/884) and a group of imams of the Salaf, they followed the way of the early traditionalists (ashab al-hadith), such as Malik ibn Anas (d. 179/795). They took a safe path, saying "We believe in whatever is reported from the Book and the Sunna, and we do not try to interpret it, knowing for certain that God does not resemble any created things, and that all the images we form of Him are created by Him and formed by Him". They avoided anthropomorphism (tashbih) to such an extent that they said that if a man moved his hand while reading the Qur'anic verse that speaks of God's creating Adam using his own “hands” [Q. 38:75]; or if he pointed with his two fingers while reporting the hadith: "The heart of the believer is between the two fingers of al-Rahman (the Most Compassionate)", his hand must be cut off and the two fingers torn out.[112][113]

These early scholars were often called the People of Tradition (Ahl al-Hadith), or Salaf such as Abu Hanifa, Malik, al-Shafi'i and Ahmad ibn Hanbal. They left the verses of the Qur'an in question as well as the related hadiths simply as they were, accepting the poetical statements just as they occurred, without applying much reason either to criticize or expand upon them. Their position was that these ambiguous verses must be understood in light of the Qur'anic dictum that, “There is nothing whatever like Him” [Q. 42:11] hence negating all possibilities of anthropomorphism. At the same time, they used and maintained the same phrases or terminology implied by the Qur'an with regards to God such as God's face without looking further into their meaning or exegesis. And this is what is being referred to by use of their phrase bila kayfa wa la tashbih, meaning without inquiring how and without anthropomorphism or comparison.[90]

However, according to some scholars, Ahmad ibn Hanbal, like the other early Muslims, also gave some figurative interpretations (ta'wil) to scriptural expressions that might otherwise have been misinterpreted anthropomorphically, which is what neo-Salafis condemn the Ash'ari and Maturidi schools for doing. For example, Ibn Kathir reports that al-Bayhaqi (d. 458/1066) related from al-Hakim (d. 405/1014), from Abu 'Amr ibn al-Sammak (d. 344/955), from Hanbal [ibn Ishaq al-Shaybani] (d. 273/886), the son of the brother of Ahmad ibn Hanbal's father, that "Ahmad ibn Hanbal (d. 241/855) figuratively interpreted the word of Allah Most High, ‘And your Lord comes...’ [Q. 89:22], as meaning ‘His recompense (thawab) shall come’." Al-Bayhaqi then said, "This chain of narrators has absolutely nothing wrong in it".[114] Ibn Hazm (d. 456/1064) in his book al-Fasl fi al-Milal wa al-Ahwa' wa al-Nihal [ar] (“The Distinction Concerning Religions, Heresies, and Sects”) said also that Ahmad ibn Hanbal figuratively interpreted ‘And your Lord comes...’ [Q. 89:22], but as meaning "And your Lord's command/decree has come."[115]

Among the most significant Athari theological works are:

  • Lawami' al-Anwar al-Bahiyya wa Sawati' al-Asrar al-Athariyya by Al-Saffarini (d. 1188/1774).
  • Bahjat al-Nazirin wa Ayat al-Mustadillin (The Delight of Onlookers and the Signs for Investigators) by Mar'i al-Karmi (d. 1033/1624), on cosmology and the affairs of the Last Judgment and the Afterlife.[116]

Ash'aris and Maturidis

See also: Ahl al-Ra'y and Kalam
 
A rock carved with the text of "al-'Aqida al-Murshida" (the Guiding Creed) by Ibn Tumart (d. 524/1130) — the student of al-Ghazali (d. 505/ 1111) and the founder of the Almohad dynasty — praised and approved by Fakhr al-Din Ibn 'Asakir (d. 620/1223), located at al-Salah Islamic secondary school in Baalbek, Lebanon.

Ash'aris and Maturidis are in agreement that God's attributes are eternal and are to be held to be metaphorically.[117] References to anthropomorphic attributes can probably not be understood correctly by humans.[118] Although God's existence is considered to be possibly known by reason, human mind can not fully understand God's attributes. Ash'ari and Maturidi scholars have two positions regarding the Mutashabihat texts (ambiguous passages in the Qur'an and Hadith) related to God's attributes:[119] Tafwid (affirming the attributes of God, but consigning/entrusting both their meaning and modality to God, or in other words, leaving the interpretation of anthropomorphic expressions to God) and Ta'wil (metaphorical interpretation). The two positions disregard the literal meaning of the texts due to the definitive evidences denoting the transcendence of God above the attributes of his created beings as per his words: "There is nothing whatever like Him."[Quran 42:11 (Translated by Ali Ünal)] and "And comparable to Him there is none."[Quran 112:4 (Translated by Ali Ünal)] For example, when believers in paradise see God, they do not see God in the way humans are able to see on Earth.[118] Ash'aris and Maturidis asserts, since God is the creator of everything that exists and creation neither affects nor alters God, the Throne of God is not a dwelling place for God.[120]

Abu Mansur al-Baghdadi (d. 429/1037) in his al-Farq bayn al-Firaq (The Difference between the Sects) reports that 'Ali ibn Abi Talib, the fourth Caliph, said: "Allah created the Throne as an indication of His power, not for taking it as a place for Himself."[121] Accordingly, expressions such as God's istiwa' on the Throne means by ta'wil or figurative interpretation, exercise of his power upon the universe, this denotes his assumption of authority of his created world, the throne being a symbol of authority and dominion, while in tafwid, they just say: Allahu A'lam (God knows best), together with their understanding of Tanzih (God's incomparability and transcendence), which means that his istiwa' upon the throne, in the manner which he himself has described, and in that same sense which he himself means, which is far removed from any notion of contact, or resting upon, or local situation. It is impermissible to say that he established himself with a contact or a meeting with it. Because God is not subject to change, substitution, nor limits, whether before or after the creation of the throne.[122]

Ash'aris and Maturidis are in general agreement that God is free from all imperfections and flaws. He has Divine attributes. Divine attributes are characteristics or qualities that God alone possesses. The Divine attributes are classified into: negative and positive. By the “Negative Attribute” they mean the negation of the negative, i.e. negation of imperfection. Among the most important are the following:[123]

  • The negative divine attributes are of two kinds; firstly those which are meant to deny all imperfections in God's Being, e.g., that he has no equal and no rival, no parents and no children; secondly those which indicate his beyondness, e.g., that he is not body or physical, is neither substance nor attribute, is not space or spatial, is not limited or finite, has neither dimensions nor relations, i.e., he is above the application of our categories of thought.
  • The positive divine attributes are such as life, knowledge, power, will, hearing, seeing, and speaking.[124]

The Ash'ari and Maturidi scholars emphasise that the Qur'an expresses that God does not need any of his creation as he is perfect.[125] He is immutable (does not change), self-subsisting and self-sufficient, without figure, form, colour or parts. His existence has neither beginning nor end. He is not a body composed of substances or elements. He is not an accident inherent in a body or dwelling in a place.[126] He is unique, unlike anything in his creation. He is ineffable, beyond human understanding, comprehension and therefore human description,[127] as per his words: "There is nothing whatever like Him."[Quran 42:11 (Translated by Ali Ünal)]

He is omnitemporal in the way that he is omnipresent, as per his words: "And He is with you, wherever you may be."[Quran 57:4 (Translated by Ali Ünal)] He is everywhere by his knowledge and power, and nowhere, without being in a place, direction or location, because He existed eternally before all the creations (including time and space) and is clear from change. He is always in the present, yet transcends time. God is not within time; time is one of his creations and doesn't affect him, so for him there is no past, present and future.

The Hanafi-Maturidi scholar, 'Ali al-Qari (d. 1014/1606) in his Sharh al-Fiqh al-Akbar states: "Allah the Exalted is not in any place or space, nor is He subject to time, because both time and space are amongst His creations. He the Exalted was present in pre-existence and there was nothing of the creation with Him".[51]

Thus, according to Maturidis and Ash'aris, God is beyond time and space, and is transcendent, infinite (not limited) and eternal, without beginning or end, as per his words: "He is the First, the Last, the All-Outward, and the All-Inward."[Quran 57:3 (Translated by Ali Ünal)] A hadith mentioned in Sahih Muslim explains this part of the verse as follows:[128][129]

O Allah, You are the First, there is none that precedes You. You are the Last, there is none that will outlive You. You are al-Zahir (the Manifest or the Most High), and there is nothing above You. You are al-Batin (the Hidden or the Most Near), and there is nothing below You (or nearer than You).

At the same time, he is near to everything that has being; nay, he is nearer to men than their jugular veins (this is alluded to in the verse 50:16), and is witness to everything —though his nearness is not like the nearness of bodies, as neither is his essence like the essence of bodies. Neither does he exist in anything or does anything exist in him; but he is beyond space and time; for he is the creator of space and time, and was before space and time were created, and is now after the same manner as He always was (i.e., without place nor time).

He is also distinct from the creatures in his attributes, neither is there anything besides himself in his essence, nor is his essence in any other besides him. He is too holy to be subject to change or any local motion; neither do any accidents dwell in him, nor any contingencies before him; but he abides with his glorious attributes, free from all danger of dissolution. As to the attribute of perfection, he wants no addition. As to being, he is known to exist by the apprehension of the understanding; and he is seen as he is by immediate intuition, which will be vouchsafed out of his mercy and grace to the believers in the paradise, completing their joy by the vision of his glorious presence.[130]

The possibility of seeing God in the afterlife became a pillar of the Ash'ari and the Maturidi schools. Al-Ash'ari holds that God will be seen in the next world by sight. Al-Maturidi also accepts the visibility of God, however his explanation is qualified: people will see God in way that it is incomprehensible to humans in this life and is not like the normal sight that we use to sense light and distance. Al-Ghazali promised that people would enjoy the pleasure of looking on God's noble face.[131]

Ash'aris and Maturidis insisted on the reality of that vision even if they admitted their inability to fully explain how it will happen. According to them, God can be seen even if he cannot be perceived through vision. Al-Ghazali in his al-Iqtisad fi al-I'tiqad (Moderation in Belief) explains the Ash'ari position that God will be seen in the afterlife despite the fact that he has no physical body, nor any location or direction.[132]

Mu'tazilis and Shi'is deny that God can be seen for the simple reason that visibility, as man understands it requires the object of vision to be in place and this is inconceivable in reference to God. Ash'aris and Maturidis agree with this proposition, but only if they are talking of vision here on Earth and within the physical laws applicable here. However, if it is going to happen somewhere else and under a different set of laws, visibility is possible, for whatever exists can be seen under proper conditions.[133]

Ash'aris and Maturidis unanimously agree that it is only in the Hereafter that God will be seen. Among the evidences that have been used by them in establishing the permissibility of seeing God are the following:

22. Some faces on that Day will be radiant (with contentment), 23. Looking up toward their Lord.

— translated by Ali Ünal, Quran, Al-Qiyama 75:22-23[134]

For those who do good is the greatest good, and even more.

— translated by Nureddin Uzunoğlu, Quran, Yunus 10:26

Goodness (or ihsan, husna) is to act in accordance with the wise commandments of God. Muhammad defined it as being a servant to God as though one saw him. The greatest good shall be for them (i.e., Paradise), and also "even more"; the delight of gazing upon the ineffable and blessed Countenance of God.[135]

It was narrated that Suhayb said:[136]

"The Messenger of Allah recited this verse: 'For those who have done good is the best (reward) and even more.' Then he said: 'When the people of Paradise enter Paradise, and the people of the Fire enter the Fire, a caller will cry out: "O people of Paradise! You have a covenant with Allah and He wants to fulfill it." They will say: "What is it?" Has Allah not made the Balance (of our good deeds) heavy, and made our faces bright, and admitted us to Paradise and saved us from Hell?" Then the Veil will be lifted and they will look upon Him, and by Allah, Allah will not give them anything that is more beloved to them or delightful, than looking upon Him.'"

— Narrated by Ibn Majah, al-Tirmidhi, and Muslim.

During the lifetime of Muhammad some people asked:[137]

"O Allah's Messenger! Shall we see our Lord on the Day of Resurrection?" The Prophet said: "Do you have any difficulty in seeing the moon on a full moon night?" They said: "No, O Allah's Messenger." He said: "Do you have any difficulty in seeing the sun when there are no clouds?" They said: "No, O Allah's Messenger." He said: "So verily, you would see Him like this (i.e., as easy as you see the sun and the moon in the world when it is clear)."

— Narrated by Al-Bukhari, Muslim, Abu Dawud, and Ibn Majah.

Muhammad said also in an authentic hadith mentioned in Sahih al-Bukhari, Sahih Muslim, Jami' al-Tirmidhi, Sunan Abi Dawud, and Sunan ibn Majah: "Certainly, you will see your Rubb (on the Day of Resurrection) as you see this (full) moon, and you will have no difficulty (or trouble) in seeing Him."[138][139]

In addition, the Qur'an also confirms in 83:15 that: "No! Indeed, from (the sight and mercy of) their Lord, that Day, they will be veiled/blocked (i.e., on the Day of Judgment, the disbelievers will not be able to see Him)."[Quran 83:15]

Among the most significant Ash'ari-Maturidi theological works are:

Sufis

See also: Sufism and Huwa (Sufism)

The majority of Sufis adhere to the same beliefs and practices of orthodox theology of Sunni Islam,[140] both the Ash'ari and Maturidi schools, the essential difference in theology being that Sufis believe Ma'iyyat Allah (God's presence, togetherness, companionship) – derived from the Qur'anic verse 4 in Surat al-Hadid which states: "and He is with you wheresoever you may be."[Quran 57:4 (Translated by Nureddin Uzunoğlu)] – is not only by knowledge, comprehension and power, but also by nature and essence, which is God himself, being everywhere by presence. According to Ahmad ibn 'Ajiba (d. 1224/1809) in his al-Bahr al-Madid:[141] Ahl al-Batin (people of the inner knowledge who follow the esoteric interpretation, i.e., the Sufis) have a consensus on that God is everywhere by presence and essence (in all places at once with his entire being despite his spacelessness), but without Hulul (God's indwelling, fusion/infusion, incarnation in creation) and without Ittihad (God's identification, unification, union with creation),[142] unlike Ahl al-Zahir (people of the outward observance; the uninitiated), who are unanimously agreed that God is omnipresent only by knowledge and power.[141]

Among the verses that Sufis rely on to prove God's omnipresence are:[142] 2:115; 2:255 (Ayat al-Kursi); 6:3; 43:84; 57:4; and 58:7. Based on these Qur'anic verses, God's omnipresence is not limited to certain areas, but is present everywhere, all-pervasive, and all-knowing.[143][144]

According to Muhammad Metwalli al-Sha'rawi (d. 1419/1998) in his interpretation (better known as Tafsir al-Sha'rawi [ar]) of the Qur'anic verses 56:83-85, which are mentioned in Surat al-Waqi'ah: "83. Why then (are you helpless) when it (i.e., the soul of a dying person at the moment of death) reaches the throat, 84. While you are looking on, 85. And We (i.e., God and/or His angels) are nearer/closer to him (the dying human) than you are, but you do not see."

Al-Sha'rawi stated that God's statement in verse 56:85 "but you do not see" proves clearly and unequivocally that Ma'iyyatullah (meaning 'companionship of God', literally: 'togetherness with God') is true/real with his essence (dhat), which is not like the essence of created beings, and his companionship is not only with knowledge, if so, then God wouldn't say "but you do not see".[145]

Since God in Islam is transcendental and sovereign but also immanent and omnipresent, the Sufi view holds that in reality, only God exists. Thus everything in creation is reflecting an attribute of God's names. Yet these forms are not God themselves.[146] The Sufi Saint Ibn Arabi stated: There is nothing but God. This statement was mistakenly equalized to Pantheism by critics; however, Ibn Arabi always made a clear distinction between the creation and the creator.[147] Since God is the Absolute Reality,[148] the created worlds and their inhabitants are merely illusions. They just exist because of God's command Kun, but everything that would be, was already known by God.[149]

Both beliefs Hulul (incarnation) and Ittihad (unification) had been severely denounced by moderate Sunni Sufis, such as 'Abd al-Ghani al-Nabulsi (d. 1143/1731), which he described as heresies.[150]

Among the most significant Sufi theological works are:

Mu'tazilis

The Mu'tazilis reject the anthropomorphic attributes of God because an eternal being "must be unique" and attributes would make God comparable. The descriptions of God in the Quran are considered to be allegories.[152] Nevertheless, the Muʿtazilites thought God contains oneness (tawhid) and justice. Other characteristics like knowledge are not attributed to God; rather they describe his essence. Otherwise eternal attributes of God would give rise to a multiplicity entities existing eternal besides God.[153]

Among the most significant Mu'tazili theological works are:

  • Sharh al-Usul al-Khamsa (Explaining the Five Principles) by al-Qadi 'Abd al-Jabbar (d. 415/1025).
  • Al-Minhaj fi Usul al-Din (The Curriculum/Method in the Fundamentals of Religion) by al-Zamakhshari (d. 538/1144).

Shi'is

The Shi'is agreed with the Mu'tazilis and deny that God will be seen with the physical eyes either in this world or in the next.[154][155][156]

Isma'ilis

According to Isma'ilism, God is absolutely transcendent and unknowable;[157] beyond matter, energy, space, time, change, imaginings, intellect, positive as well as negative qualities. All attributes of God named in rituals, scriptures or prayers refers not to qualities God possesses, but to qualities emanated from God, thus these are the attributes God gave as the source of all qualities, but God does not consist on one of these qualities.[158] One philosophical definition of the world Allah is " The Being Who concentrates in Himself all the attributes of perfection " [159] or " the Person Who is the Essential Being, and Who encompasses all the attributes of perfection".[159] Since God is beyond all wordings, Isma'ilism also denies the concept of God as the first cause.[160]

In Ismailism, assigning attributes to God as well as negating any attributes from God (via negativa) both qualify as anthropomorphism and are rejected, as God cannot be understood by either assigning attributes to him or taking attributes away from him. The 10th-century Ismaili philosopher Abu Yaqub al-Sijistani suggested the method of double negation; for example: “God is not existent” followed by “God is not non-existent”. This glorifies God from any understanding or human comprehension.[161]

Twelvers

Main article: Theology of Twelvers

The Twelver Shi'is believe that God has no shape, no physical hand, no physical leg, no physical body, no physical face. They believe God has no visible appearance. God does not change in time, nor does he occupy a physical place. Under no circumstances, the Shi'is argues, does God change. There is also no time frame regarding God. As support for their view, Shi'i scholars often point to the Qur'anic verse 6:103 which states: "Eyes comprehend Him not, but He comprehends all eyes. He is the All-Subtle (penetrating everything no matter how small), the All-Aware." Thus one fundamental difference between Sunnis and Shi'is that the former believes that followers will “see” their Lord on the Day of Resurrection, while the latter holds that God cannot be seen because he is beyond space and time.[162]

Ibn 'Abbas says that a bedouin once came to the Messenger of Allah and said, "O Messenger of Allah! Teach me of the most unusual of knowledge!" He asked him, "What have you done with the peak of knowledge so that you now ask about its most unusual things?!" The man asked him, "O Messenger of Allah! What is this peak of knowledge?!" He said, "It is knowing Allah as He deserves to be known." The bedouin then said, "And how can He be known as He ought to be?" The Messenger of Allah answered, "It is that you know Him as having no model, no peer, no antithesis, and that He is Wahid (One, Single) and Ahad (Unique, Absolutely One): Apparent yet Hidden, the First and the Last, having no peer nor a similitude; this is the true knowledge about Him."[163]

— Muhammad Baqir al-Majlisi, "Knowing Allah", Bihar al-Anwar[164]

Among the most significant Shi'i theological works are:

Wahdat al-wujud

Further information: Wujud and Sufi philosophy

The term wahdat al-wujud which literally means "the unity of being" or "the oneness of existence" is a controversial[165][166] mystical notion mostly spoken of in connection with Ibn 'Arabi (d. 638/1240),[167][168][169][170] even though he did not employ it in his writings.[171][172][173][174][175] It seems to have been ascribed to him for the first time in the polemics of Ibn Taymiyya (d. 1328).[175][176][177]

Although the phrase refers to a subjective state or direct, inward experience attained by Sufis, it has also been understood and discussed as a philosophical concept and, as such, interpreted in different ways.[178] According to William Chittick, there are at least as many as seven possible ways of understanding it, depending on whether the person who uses it is pro or anti-Ibn 'Arabi.[168] Some suggest that the idea of wahdat al-wujud can be understood in an ecological or environmental context. In this sense it would mean the feeling of wholeness and holyness of the universe as the creation of God, which means that all men are the creatures of one God — they are all equal.[179]

Ibn 'Arabi, however, has always been a highly controversial figure for Muslims, as many have accused him of holding pantheist or monist views incompatible with Islam's pure monotheism.[180][181][182][183][184] However, according to a number of scholars including al-Sha'rani (d. 573/1565) and 'Abd al-Ra'uf al-Munawi (d. 1031/1621), the books of Ibn 'Arabi have been altered and distorted by some anonymous apostates and heretics, and therefore many sayings and beliefs were attributed to him, which are not true to what he actually wrote.[185][186]

Proponents of waḥdat al-wujūd such as 'Abd al-Ghani al-Nabulsi, 'Abd al-Ra'uf b. 'Ali al-Fansuri, Seyyed Hossein Nasr, Mir Valiuddin [de] and Titus Burckhardt disagree that waḥdat al-wujūd is identified with pantheism. Nasr, for example, considers that the term pantheism and monism cannot be used to equate with waḥdat al-wujūd.[187][188] Ideas similar to pantheism existed since the early stages of Islam. Jahm writes that God is "in heaven, on earth and in every place; there is no place where He i not (...)" and "He is in everything, neither contiguous nor separated.", a position attacked by Ahmad ibn Hanbal.[189]

Notes

  1. ^ Ibn al-Jawzi's Daf' Shubah al-Tashbih is a refutation of the historical anthropomorphic leanings of some of the Hanbali scholars.
  2. ^ In religious usage, it refers to the earliest Muslim generations, the righteous ancestors, in Arabic al-salaf al-salih.
  3. ^ The Arabic word zahir, meaning obvious, apparent, external or literal.
  4. ^ “Salaf” is a contested term, but generally and quite literally means ancestor, and is usually used as part of the expression al-salaf al-salih, i.e., “the virtuous forefathers.”[105] The Salaf included the companions of Muhammad and the early first three generations of Islam, conventionally ending with Ahmad ibn Hanbal in the ninth century, although a number of later Islamic scholars are included, such as al-Tahawi (d. 321/933), al-Ash'ari (d. 324/935) and al-Maturidi (d. 333/944). However, this is not to be confused with the Salafi movement.[106]
  5. ^ This statement also attributed to Dhu al-Nun al-Misri (d. 246/861).

See also

References

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  152. ^ John Renard Islamic Theological Themes: A Primary Source Reader Univ of California Press 2014 ISBN 978-0-520-95771-8 page 138
  153. ^ Patrick Hughes, Thomas Patrick Hughes Dictionary of Islam Asian Educational Services, 1995 ISBN 978-8-120-60672-2 page 425
  154. ^ M. Geijbels (1977). An Introduction to Islam: Muslim Beliefs and Practices. Vol. 4. Christian Study Centre. p. 367.
  155. ^ Yasin T. al-Jibouri (2012). Allah: The Concept of God in Islam. Vol. 1. AuthorHouse. p. 37. ISBN 9781468532722.
  156. ^ Yasin Jibouri (2014). Allah: the Concept of God in Islam (a Selection). p. 18. ISBN 9781312490574. Sunnis, however, believe, as the reader will find out in a later part of this book, that the believers will be able on the Day of Judgment to see Allah. Shias disagree with them as you will read later in this book, Insha-Allah.
  157. ^ Farhad Daftary Ismaili History and Intellectual Traditions Routledge 2017 ISBN 978-1-351-97503-2
  158. ^ Gnostic, Ismaili (2016-01-22). "Ismaili Teachings on the Oneness of God (Tawhid): Beyond Personalist Theism and Modern Atheism – Ismaili Gnosis". Ismailignosis.com. Retrieved 2019-01-29.
  159. ^ a b Tabatabai, Muhammad Husayn (2010). Tafsir al-Mizan. Vol. 1, 2. pp. 45, 140. ISBN 9783939416401.
  160. ^ Arzina R. Lalani Degrees of Excellence: A Fatimid Treatise on Leadership in Islam I.B.Tauris 2009 ISBN 978-0-857-71202-8 page 3
  161. ^ Virani, Shafique N. (2010). "The Right Path: A Post-Mongol Persian Ismaili Treatise". Iranian Studies. 43 (2): 197–221. doi:10.1080/00210860903541988. ISSN 0021-0862. S2CID 170748666.
  162. ^ Stephen J. Vicchio (2008). Biblical Figures in the Islamic Faith. Wipf and Stock Publishers. p. 41. ISBN 9781498275583.
  163. ^ Yasin T. al-Jibouri (2012). Allah: The Concept of God in Islam. Vol. 1. AuthorHouse. pp. 28–29. ISBN 9781468532722.
  164. ^ Muhammad Baqir al-Majlisi. "Bihar al-Anwar". www.islam4u.com. Archived from the original on 4 June 2021.
  165. ^ "Martyrdom of al-Hallaj and Unity of the Existence: the Condemners and the Commenders" (PDF). Universiti Kebangsaan Malaysia (UKM). International Journal of Islamic Thought (IJIT). p. 106. Wahdat al-wujud is a very most polemical topic discussed in the world of Islamic Tasawwuf or Sufism since 2nd century of Islamic history. This issue continued to be debated from time to time until today.
  166. ^ "Ibn ʽArabī's thought on waḥdat al-wujud and its relevance to religious diversity" (PDF). www.iis.ac.uk. State Islamic Institute Mataram. p. 30. THE HISTORY of the development of Islamic thought was tinged by the controversy of Sufi philosophical thinking developed by Ibn ʽArabī, a prime exponent of the doctrine of the unity of being (waḥdat al-wujūd).
  167. ^ Amin Banani; Richard Hovannisian; Georges Sabagh, eds. (1994). Poetry and Mysticism in Islam: The Heritage of Rumi. Cambridge University Press. p. 70. ISBN 9780521454766.
  168. ^ a b Ibrahim M. Abu-Rabi' (2008). Spiritual Dimensions of Bediuzzaman Said Nursi's Risale-I Nur. SUNY Press. p. 295. ISBN 9780791474747. the name of Ibn 'Arabi appears often in Nursi's work in connection with the doctrine of wahdat al-wujud, a doctrine to be avoided in his view. While this phrase tends to be linked with Ibn 'Arabi's name by both his supporters and detractors, it has to be approached with great caution.
  169. ^ William C. Chittick. "Wahdat al-Wujud in India" (PDF). Institute of Philosophy, Russian Academy of Sciences. Stony Brook University. In itself, waḥdat al-wujūd does not designate any specific doctrine. Over history, it came to have a variety of meanings depending on who was using it. Certainly, when it came to be controversial, Ibn ʿArabī's name was usually mentioned. Nonetheless, there is no doctrine that he or any of his early followers called waḥdat al-wujūd.
  170. ^ "Wujud". www.iis.ac.uk. The Institute of Ismaili Studies. Archived from the original on 10 September 2021. Ibn al–'Arabi (d. 638/1240) is regarded as the father of the concept of wahdat al–wujud (the unity of being).
  171. ^ William C. Chittick (2012). In Search of the Lost Heart: Explorations in Islamic Thought. SUNY Press. p. 73. ISBN 9781438439358. But Ibn al-'Arabi himself, so far as is known, never employed the term wahdat al-wujud in his enormous corpus of writings," even though he frequently discussed wujud and the fact that it can be described as possessing the attribute of oneness or unity...
  172. ^ David Lee (2015). "Peter G. Riddell (Foreword)". Contextualization of Sufi Spirituality in Seventeenth- and Eighteenth-Century China: The Role of Liu Zhi (c.1662-c.1730). Wipf and Stock Publishers. p. 45. ISBN 9781498225229. The history of the term wahdat al-wujud is summarized by Chittick: The term is not found in the writings of Ibn al-'Arabi.
  173. ^ Amin Banani; Richard Hovannisian; Georges Sabagh, eds. (1994). Poetry and Mysticism in Islam: The Heritage of Rumi. Cambridge University Press. p. 81. ISBN 9780521454766. But Ibn al-'Arabī never employs the term wahdat al-wujūd, while Qūnawi only mentions it in passing.
  174. ^ "Ibn 'Arabî (Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy)". Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy. Archived from the original on 20 June 2013. Ibn 'Arabî has typically been called the founder of the doctrine of wahdat al-wujûd, the Oneness of Being or the Unity of Existence, but this is misleading, for he never uses the expression.
  175. ^ a b "Oneness of Being (waḥdat al-wujūd)". The Muhyiddin Ibn Arabi Society (MIAS). Archived from the original on 10 September 2021. There is broad agreement amongst Ibn ʿArabī specialists that he did not use the term waḥdat al-wujūd (Oneness of Being or Unity of Existence) in his own writings, and hence did not employ this expression in his Sufi philosophical doctrine. The first to have used it, several decades after the death of Ibn ʿArabī in the late 7th century and early 8th century of the Hijri calendar, was Ibn Taymiyya, who employed the term negatively, as a critique and condemnation.
  176. ^ "Ibn 'Arabî (Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy)". Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy. Archived from the original on 10 September 2021. The first author to say that Ibn 'Arabî believed in wahdat al-wujûd seems to have been the Hanbalite polemicist Ibn Taymiyya (d. 1328), who called it worse than unbelief.
  177. ^ Abdullah Kartal. "Ahmad Sirhindî's Criticism of Wahdat Al-Wujûd and its Historical Background" (PDF). www.ijbssnet.com. International Journal of Business and Social Science. p. 171. The doctrine of wahdat al-wujûd (the unity of being), which was put forward in the work of Ibn 'Arabî (d.638/1240), has been defended by his followers. However, it was criticized not only by Muslim scholars (ulama) but also by some Sufis at varying degrees. Consequently, there accumulated a large body of literature around the name Ibn 'Arabî and the doctrine of wahdat al-wujûd. Among Muslim scholars, the most important figure in this regard is certainly Ibn Taymiyya (d.728/1328), who first initiated the debate.
  178. ^ Fethullah Gülen (2000). Questions & Answers about Islam. Vol. 2. Tughra Books. p. 41. ISBN 9781932099256.
  179. ^ JSTOR (Organization); Islamic Research Institute (Pakistan); Central Institute of Islamic Research (Pakistan) (1998). Islamic Studies. Vol. 37. Islamic Research Institute. p. 153.
  180. ^ Roger S. Gottlieb (2006). The Oxford Handbook of Religion and Ecology. Oxford University Press. p. 210. ISBN 9780199727698.
  181. ^ "Ibn ʽArabī's thought on waḥdat al-wujud and its relevance to religious diversity" (PDF). www.iis.ac.uk. State Islamic Institute Mataram. pp. 60–61. Many Muslim scholars judge Ibn ʽArabī as a pantheist. A.E. Affifi, for example, considers him a pantheist, and views this type of sufism as perfect pantheism. Fazlur Rahman also says that the teachings of Ibn ʽArabī are a system entirely monistic and pantheistic contrary to the teachings of Islamic orthodoxy. The same view on this matter is given by Hamka and Ahmad Daudy.
  182. ^ Richard Foltz (2003). Worldviews, Religion, and the Environment: A Global Anthology. Cengage Learning. p. 360. ISBN 9780534596071.
  183. ^ International Association for the History of Religions, Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam; Instituut voor Godsdienstwetenschap, University of Leeds (1987). Science of Religion. Vol. 12. Institute for the Study of Religion, Free University [and] Department of Theology and Religious Studies, University of Leeds. p. 81. Wahdat al-wujud, "unity of being" is applied to Ibn 'Arabi's (560/1165-638/1240) mystical doctrine, which became a target of severe criticism from the orthodoxy.
  184. ^ Indian Institute of Islamic Studies (1982). Studies in Islam: Quarterly Journal of the Indian Institute of Islamic Studies. Vol. 19. p. 233. His mystical theories not only came to be supported by a large following, but also became a target of severe criticism from the orthodoxy (ulamā - i zāhir), for whom their expounder was an heretic and an apostate.
  185. ^ Stephen Hirtenstein; Michael Tiernan, eds. (1993). Muhyiddin Ibn'Arabi (1165-1240 A.D.): A Volume of Translations and Studies Commemorating the 750th Anniversary of His Life and Work. Element Books Ltd. p. 311. ISBN 9781852303952.
  186. ^ "حكم من يدعي إجماع أهل السنة على تكفير الإمام محيي الدين بن العربي". Egypt's Dar al-Ifta (in Arabic). Archived from the original on 23 July 2021.
  187. ^ "Ibn ʽArabī's thought on waḥdat al-wujud and its relevance to religious diversity" (PDF). www.iis.ac.uk. State Islamic Institute Mataram. pp. 61–62.
  188. ^ Farzin Vahdat (2015). Islamic Ethos and the Specter of Modernity. Anthem Press. p. 209. ISBN 9781783084388. Nasr thus rejects an interpretation of the ontological doctrines of wahdat al-wujud (unity of existence) in which human status can be elevated by the symbolic journey towards the Divine realm: "The pantheistic accusations against the Sufis are doubly false because, first of all, pantheism is a philosophical system, whereas Muhyi al-Din [Ibn 'Arabi] and others like him never claimed to follow or create any "system" whatsoever; and secondly, because pantheism implies a substantial continuity between God and the Universe [including humans], whereas the Shaikh [Ibn al-'Arabi] would be the first to claim God's absolute transcendence over every category, including that of substance." Running into difficulties in his interpretation of the notion of "unity of existence" Nasr further wrote that wahdat al-wujud is neither pantheism, nor panentheism, nor existential monism...
  189. ^ Morris S. Seale Muslim Theology A study of Origins with Reference to the Church Fathers Great Russel Street, London 1964 p. 62

Bibliography

  • Al-Bayhaqi (1999), Allah's Names and Attributes, ISCA, ISBN 1-930409-03-6
  • Hulusi, Ahmed (1999), "Allah" as introduced by Mohammed, Kitsan, 10th ed., ISBN 975-7557-41-2
  • Muhaiyaddeen, M. R. Bawa (1976), Asmāʼul-Husnā: the 99 beautiful names of Allah, The Bawa Muhaiyaddeen Fellowship, ISBN 0-914390-13-9
  • Netton, Ian Richard (1994), Allah Transcendent: Studies in the Structure and Semiotics of Islamic Philosophy, Theology and Cosmology, Routledge, ISBN 0-7007-0287-3

External links

January 26, 2023
islam, arabic, ٱلل, romanized, allāh, contraction, ٱل, ilāh, seen, eternal, creator, sustainer, universe, will, eventually, resurrect, humans, islam, conceived, perfect, singular, immortal, omnipotent, omniscient, completely, infinite, attributes, islam, furth. God in Islam Arabic ٱلل ه romanized Allah contraction of ٱل إ ل ه al Ilah lit the God 1 is seen as the eternal creator and sustainer of the universe 2 1 3 4 5 who will eventually resurrect all humans 6 In Islam God is conceived as a perfect singular immortal omnipotent and omniscient god completely infinite in all of his attributes 1 3 5 7 Islam further emphasizes that God is most merciful 8 9 10 According to Islamic theology God has no physical body or gender although he is always referred to with masculine grammatical articles 11 and there is nothing else like him in any way whatsoever Therefore Islam rejects the doctrine of the incarnation and the notion of a personal god as anthropomorphic because it is seen as demeaning to the transcendence of God The Quran prescribes the fundamental transcendental criterion in the following verse He is the Creator of the heavens and the earth He has made for you from yourselves mates and among the cattle mates He multiplies you thereby There is nothing whatever like unto Him and He is the One that hears and sees all things 42 11 Therefore Islam strictly and categorically rejects all forms of anthropomorphism and anthropopathism of the concept of God 12 13 14 15 The Islamic concept of God emphasizes that he is absolutely pure and free from association with other beings which means attributing the powers and qualities of God to his creation and vice versa In Islam God is never portrayed in any image The Quran specifically forbade ascribing partners to share his singular sovereignty as he is considered to be the absolute one without a second indivisible and incomparable being who is similar to nothing and nothing is comparable to him Thus God is absolutely transcendent unique and utterly other than anything in or of the world as to be beyond all forms of human thought and expression 16 17 The briefest and the most comprehensive description of God in Islam is found in Surat al Ikhlas 18 According to mainstream Muslim theologians God is described as Qadim ar 16 19 Eternal timeless and infinite which literally means ancient having no first without beginning or end absolute not limited by time or place or circumstance nor is subject to any decree so as to be determined by any precise limits or set times but is the First and the Last He is not a formed body nor a substance circumscribed with limits or determined by measure neither does he resemble bodies as they are capable of being measured or divided Neither do substances exist in him neither is he an accident nor do accidents exist in him Neither is he like to anything that exists nor is anything like to him nor is he determinate in quantity nor comprehended by bounds nor circumscribed by differences of situation nor contained in the heavens and transcends spatial and temporal bounds and remains beyond the bounds of human comprehension and perceptions 20 21 18 Contents 1 Etymology 2 Other names 3 Attributes 3 1 Oneness 3 2 Uniqueness 3 3 Creator 3 4 Mercy 3 5 Omniscience 4 Relationship with creation 5 Concepts in Islamic theology 5 1 Sunnis 5 1 1 Atharis 5 1 2 Ash aris and Maturidis 5 1 3 Sufis 5 2 Mu tazilis 5 3 Shi is 5 3 1 Isma ilis 5 3 2 Twelvers 6 Wahdat al wujud 7 Notes 8 See also 9 References 10 Bibliography 11 External linksEtymology EditMain article Allah Allah is the Arabic word referring to God in Abrahamic religions 22 23 24 In the English language the word generally refers to God in Islam The Arabic word Allah is thought to be derived by contraction from al ʾilah which means the God 1 i e the only God and is related to El and Elah the Hebrew and Aramaic words for God 25 26 It is distinguished from ʾilah Arabic إ ل ه the Arabic word meaning deity which could refer to any of the gods worshipped in pre Islamic Arabia or to any other deity 27 Allah is God s most unique Name grandly referred to as Lafẓ al Jalalah The Word of Majesty It occurs in the Qur an 2 697 times in 85 of its 114 suras 28 Other names EditMain article Names of God in Islam God is described and referred to in the Quran and hadith by 99 names that reflect his attributes 29 The Quran refers to the attributes of God as most beautiful names 30 31 According to Gerhard Bowering They are traditionally enumerated as 99 in number to which is added as the highest Name al ism al ʾaʿẓam the Supreme Name of Allah The locus classicus for listing the Divine Names in the literature of Qurʾanic commentary is 17 110 32 Call upon Allah or call upon The Merciful whichsoever you call upon to Allah belong the most beautiful Names and also 59 22 24 33 which includes a cluster of more than a dozen Divine epithets Gerhard Bowering God and God s Attributes 34 Some Muslims may use different names as much as Allah for instance God in English Whether or not Allah can be considered as the personal name of God became disputed in contemporary scholarship 35 In earlier times Jahm bin Safwan claimed that Allah is a name God created for himself and that names belong to the things God created 36 Attributes EditOneness Edit Main articles Tawhid and Tanzih Islam s most fundamental concept is a strict monotheism called tawhid affirming that God is one and Tanzih waḥid The basic creed of Islam the Shahada 37 recited under oath to enter the religion involves ل ا إ ل ه إ ل ا ٱلل ه la ʾilaha ʾilla llah or I testify there is no deity other than God Muslims reject the Christian doctrine of the Trinity and divinity of Jesus comparing it to polytheism 38 Jesus is instead believed to be a prophet Tawhid constitutes the foremost article of the Muslim profession 39 The deification or worship of anyone or anything other than God shirk is the greatest sin in Islam The entirety of the Islamic teaching rests on the principle of Tawhid 40 According to Vincent J Cornell 41 the Quran also provides a monist image of God by describing the reality as a unified whole with God being a single concept that would describe or ascribe all existing things He is the First and the Last the Evident and the Immanent and He has full knowledge of all things 42 Uniqueness Edit Islam emphasises the absolute uniqueness and singularity of God in his essence attributes qualities and acts 43 As stated in Surat al Ikhlas God is Ahad 44 the unique one of absolute oneness who is indivisible in nature and there can be no other like him God is Ash Shamad 45 the ultimate source of all existence the uncaused cause who created all things out of nothing who is eternal absolute immutable perfect complete essential independent and self sufficient who needs nothing while all of creation is in absolute need of him the one eternally and constantly required and sought depended upon by all existence and to whom all matters will ultimately return he begets not nor is he begotten He is Unborn and Uncreated has no parents wife or offspring and comparable equal to him there is none 15 God s absolute transcendence over his creation as well as his unlimited individuality were asserted and emphasized with support from appropriate quotations from the Qur an as follows He is the Lord of the heavens and the earth and all that is between them so worship Him alone and be constant and patient in His worship Do you know of any whose name is worthy to be mentioned along with His as Deity and Lord to worship Quran 19 65 Translated by Ali Unal The Qur anic verse 19 65 Do you know of any that can be named with His Name emphasizes that as Allah is Unique His name is shared by none other 46 To those who do not believe in the Hereafter applies the most evil of attributes and to God applies the most sublime attribute and He is the All Glorious with irresistible might the All Wise Quran 16 60 Translated by Ali Unal Such as that described in the previous three verses 16 57 59 For the disbelievers in the Hereafter there is an evil description or in other words the most evil attribute i e the most vile which is their ignorance and ingratitude and their burying alive of newborn girls despite the fact that they are needed for the purposes of marriage and not allowing women to even inherit property and their ascribing female gender to angels and claiming that the angels are the daughters of God while so preferring sons for themselves this is also mentioned in the verses 37 149 155 whereas to God belong the highest attribute namely that there is no deity except him immensely exalted beyond and above all comparison and likeness 47 48 So do not invent similitudes for God do not liken Him to others to associate partners with Him for there is nothing similar to Him Surely God knows and you do not know the exact truth about Him and the exact nature of things Quran 16 74 Translated by Ali Unal The Originator of the heavens and the earth each with particular features and on ordered principles He has made for you from your selves mates and from the cattle mates of their own kind by this means He multiplies you and the cattle There is nothing whatever like Him He is the All Hearing the All Seeing Quran 42 11 Translated by Ali Unal The Qur anic verse 42 11 emphasizes that there is no similarity whatsoever between the creator and his creation in essence in attributes or in actions and therefore God is beyond all human concepts of him So he has no mates and nothing is like him nor does he beget nor is he begotten Nothing neither matter nor space nor time can restrict or contain him And this is why his Attributes his hearing seeing knowledge will power creating and so on are also beyond anything we can conceive 49 The same sentiment is expressed in the Qur anic verse 6 103 which states 15 Vision perceives comprehends Him not and He perceives comprehends evaluates all vision In some interpretations this verse also asserts that the senses and intellects cannot fully comprehend God 50 Likewise the Qur an also says whereas they cannot comprehend Him with their knowledge Quran 20 110 Translated by Ali Unal The Hanafi jurist and theologian al Tahawi d 321 933 wrote in his treatise on theology commonly known as al Aqida al Tahawiyya 51 16 Whoever describes Allah even with a single human quality attribute has disbelieved blasphemed So whoever understands this will take heed and refrain from such statements as those of disbelievers and knows that Allah in His attributes is utterly unlike human beings Al Tahawi also stated that 51 16 He is exalted transcendent beyond having limits ends organs limbs and parts literally tools The six directions do not encompass contain Him like the rest of created things The six directions are above below right left front and back The above statement of al Tahawi refutes the anthropomorphist s dogmas that imagine Allah has a physical body and human form and being occupied in a place direction or trajectory 51 Creator Edit According to the teachings of Islam God is the creator of the worlds and all the creatures therein He has created everything in the worlds in accordance with a definite plan and for a particular purpose There is no shortcoming or defect of any sort in any of his creations 52 The Qur an confirms this in the following verses God is the Creator of all things and He is the Guardian with power of disposition over all things Quran 39 62 Translated by Ali Unal Surely We have created each and every thing by precise measure Quran 54 49 Translated by Ali Unal Do those who disbelieve ever consider that the heavens and the earth were at first one piece and then We parted them as separate entities and that We have made every living thing from water Will they still not come to believe Quran 21 30 Translated by Ali Unal The Qur an also says in verse 25 2 and He has created everything and designed it in a perfect measure and ordained its destiny in a precise manner And in another verse 25 59 it is emphasized It is He who created the heavens and the earth and all that is between them The Qur an states that God is the Rabb al Alamin When referring to God the Arabic term Rabb is usually translated as Lord and can include all of the following meanings 53 54 owner master ruler controller creator upbringer trainer sustainer nourisher cherisher provider protector guardian and caretaker The same term Rabb is used in a limited sense for humans as in the head of the family master of the house or owner of the land or cattle The Arabic word al Alamin can be translated as the Worlds or Universes 55 There are many worlds astronomical and physical worlds worlds of thought spiritual worlds everything in existence including angels jinn devils humans animals plants and so on 56 The Worlds may also be taken to refer to different domains or kingdoms within this earthly world or other worlds beyond this earth Thus the Qur anic expression Rabb al Alamin really means the Creator of the Worlds 57 the Ruler of the Universes 58 the Creator and Sustainer of all the peoples and Universes 59 Mercy Edit The most commonly used names in the primary sources are Al Rahman meaning Most Compassionate and Al Rahim meaning Most Merciful 60 The former compasses the whole creation therefore applying to God s mercy in that it gives every necessary condition to make life possible The latter applies to God s mercy in that it gives favor for good deeds Thus Al Rahman includes both the believers and the unbelievers but Al Rahim only the believers 61 62 God is said to love forgiving with a hadith stating God would replace a sinless people with one who sinned but still asked repentance 63 Omniscience Edit God s omniscience is the knowledge of all things 64 whether they are actual or possible or whether they are past present or future It also includes his knowledge of people places events circumstances etc God has full knowledge of everything everywhere always and from eternity past and he is fully aware of whatever one thinks intends and does and the reins of all things and events are in his power He knows whatever happens in the universe down to the fall of a leaf and he knows all the deeds thought and intentions of humankind His appointed angels record these and people will be called to account for these acts in the other world 65 His knowledge is eternal in the sense of being timeless i e atemporal So since God s knowledge is eternal and unchanging it is likewise self existent and infinite It is self existent in that it is not dependent on anything not even time According to the Qur an God Allah is omniscient he eternally knows whatever comes into being be it universal or particular in character He has known all things from before the creation of the world His knowledge of things before their coming into existence and afterwards is exactly the same Hence there is no discovery or surprise with God Muslim theologians therefore considered that omniscience is a necessary and ignorance is an impossible property for God Various Qur anic verses designate this basic intuition such as 3 5 6 59 65 12 and 24 35 66 Relationship with creation EditSee also Islamic holy books Quran and Quranic createdness Further information Salat Taqwa and Predestination Muslims believe that God is the only true reality and sole source of all creation everything including its creatures are just a derivative reality created out of love and mercy by God s command 67 Be and it is 9 68 and that the purpose of existence is to worship or to know God 69 70 71 It is believed that God created everything for a divine purpose the universe governed by fixed laws that ensure the harmonious working of all things Everything within the universe including inanimate objects praises God and is in this sense understood as a Muslim 72 An exception are humans who are endowed with free will and must live voluntarily in accordance with these laws to live to find peace and reproduce God s benevolence in their own society to live in accordance with the nature of all things known as surrender to God in the Islamic sense 72 73 As in the other Abrahamic religions God is believed to communicate with his creation via revelations given to prophets to remind people of God The Qur an in particular is believed by Muslims to be the verbatim word of God as revealed to Muhammad Hadith are the records of Muhammad s sayings and example and Hadith Qudsi is a sub category of hadith which Muslims regard as the words of God repeated by Muhammad According to al Sharif al Jurjani d 816 1413 the Hadith Qudsi differ from the Qur an in that the former are expressed in Muhammad s words whereas the latter are the direct words of God 74 In Islam there are no intermediaries between God and people so Muslims address contact God directly in their prayers supplications and dhikr and also seek forgiveness and repentance from sins directly from God as the Qur an states And when O Messenger My servants ask you about Me then surely I am near I answer the prayer of the suppliant when he prays to Me Quran 2 186 Translated by Ali Unal Therefore according to this verse God answers all the prayers done sincerely However he answers sometimes by giving whatever is asked for sometimes by giving what is better sometimes by postponing giving to the afterlife and sometimes by not giving at all since it will not turn out in favor of the one who prays The way that God answers a prayer depends on his wisdom 75 Al Bukhari in his Ṣaḥiḥ Bukhari narrates a hadith qudsi that God says I am as My servant thinks expects I am 76 77 When Sufis claim union with God it is not that they become one in essence rather the will of the Sufi is fully congruent to God 78 The Sufis are in fact careful to say no matter what degree of union is realized the slave remains the slave and the Lord remains the Lord 79 The Qur an affirms that God does not stand in need of anything outside him and nothing external to him can affect or influence him in any way All his creatures are responsible to him and dependent on him There is no other being to whom he can be responsible or on whom he can be dependent 80 He has the right to do whatever he wants with his possessions creatures it is under God s own total sovereignty Accordingly he is not answerable for his actions due to his wisdom and justice greatness and uniqueness of Divinity while all others jinn humans or false deities 81 are accountable for what they do and don t do as God says in the Qur an 82 He shall not be questioned about what He does but they shall be questioned Quran 21 23 Translated by Royal Aal al Bayt Institute While the existence of the creation is dependent contingent temporal and received from beyond itself the existence or reality of God is eternal independent self sufficient and self existent being who needs no other being for his existence and consequently exists by and through himself alone The divine name al Samad the supremely independent self sufficient being endowed with all the attributes of perfection to which all else turns in need for existence life guidance help forgiveness etc implies that there is a blessed linkage between the creator and his creation where the one creator will sustain the creation by looking after it This relationship also signifies that since God is the sustainer he is in need of nothing and even as he gives nothing is diminished from his treasury 83 84 Concepts in Islamic theology EditSunnis Edit See also Sunnis Atharis Edit See also Traditionalist theology Islam and Ahl al Hadith For Atharis the names and attributes of God are to be understood with the formula of bila kayfa lit without how i e without modality 85 86 without further enquiry 87 or without further specifying their manner or modality 88 89 which is to unquestioningly accept the Divine attributes of God without ta wil allegorical interpretation or ta til lit suspension i e divesting God of His attributes or tashbih anthropomorphism immanence or comparison which is to believe that God resembles his creations or attributing the attributes of human beings to God 90 Any anthropomorphic expressions of these names and attributes is negated using the admission that their meanings can never be known The meaning is left to the knowledge of God himself and they simply say that the meaning is as befits his majesty and perfection This method of tafwid is that of Ahmad ibn Hanbal eponymous founder of Atharism al Ash ari Ibn Qudama and Ibn Kathir 91 Usually Atharis are vehemently opposed to engaging in ta wil allegorical interpretations and reject batin inner meaning or hidden esoteric Sufi interpretations of the Qur an and God s divine attributes 92 In maintaining that one is not permitted to interpret the meaning of the Qur anic verses or the Prophetic traditions that mention various attributes of God Ibn Qudama d 620 1223 in his work Lum at al I tiqad ar The Luminance of Creed is endorsing the principle of bila kayfa without asking or knowing how in Islamic theology 93 According to this principle one has to accept the sacred text as it is indissolubly linked with tanzih God s incomparability and transcendence without trying to interpret its meaning In other words one must accept the sacred texts that refer to God without positively ascribing corporeal features to him 94 95 Ibn al Jawzi d 597 1201 took the question of people associating anthropomorphism with Hanbalism so seriously that he wrote a book Daf Shubah al Tashbih bi Akaff al Tanzih Rebuttal of the Insinuations of Anthropomorphism at the Hands of Divine Transcendence refuting this heresy and exonerating Ahmad ibn Hanbal of any association with it Note 1 According to him such words whose meanings could give the impression that God resembles his creations shouldn t be understood literally such as God s face hands eyes and the like 96 97 98 Another book was written by the Shafi i scholar Taqi al Din al Hisni ar d 829 1426 titled Daf Shubah man Shabbaha wa Tamarrad wa Nasaba dhalik ila al Sayyid al Jalil al Imam Ahmad ar Rebuttal of the Insinuations of him who makes Anthropomorphisms and Rebels and Ascribes that to the Noble Master Imam Ahmad defending Ahmad ibn Hanbal against the innovated beliefs later ascribed to him by Ibn Taymiyya and those who claimed to follow his school 99 100 Ibn Kathir d 774 1373 appears to offer a definition similar to that of al Ash ari d 324 936 when he discusses tafwid in his exegesis of the Qur anic verse 7 54 pertaining to God s istiwa He states 91 101 People have said a great deal on this topic and this is not the place to expound on what they have said On this matter we follow the good ancestors i e the way of the earliest Muslims dubbed the pious ancestors in Arabic al salaf al salih Note 2 Malik al Awza i al Thawri al Layth ibn Sa d al Shafi i Ahmad Ishaq ibn Rahwayh and others among the imams of the Muslims both ancient and modern that is to let it the verse in question pass as it has come without saying how it is meant min ghayr takyif without likening it to created things wa la tashbih and without nullifying it wa la ta til The external literal meaning zahir Note 3 that occurs to the minds of anthropomorphists al mushabbihin is negated of Allah for nothing from his creation resembles him There is nothing whatsoever like unto Him and He is the All Hearing the All Seeing Qur an 42 11 Here Ibn Kathir is diverting the meaning of the text from its apparent meaning and implicitly affirming that one valid definition of the term zahir is its literal linguistic meaning which is anthropomorphic However some modern followers of Ibn Taymiyya claim that bi la takyif would only mean tafwid of modality not of meaning ma na but according to the Ash ari Maturidi position modality kayfiyya is a part of meaning and without detailing which aspect of meaning remains after de anthropomorphizing a term one ends up with tafwid In addition to that the imams of the salaf the righteous early generations of Muslims used to say bila kayf without how or modality at all On the other hand both Ibn Taymiyya d 728 1328 and his student Ibn al Qayyim d 751 1350 argued that the anthropomorphic references to God such as God s hands or face are to be understood literally and affirmatively according to their apparent meanings 91 102 103 In their footsteps and following them come the Salafi groups of modern times such as the followers of Muhammad ibn Abd al Wahhab d 1201 1787 who closely follow Ibn Taymiyya s approach regarding the Divine names and attributes 104 The doctrine of the Salaf Note 4 that Ibn Taymiyya derives from his traditionalist sources consists in describing God as he describes himself and as his messenger describes him neither stripping the attributes away ta til in the fashion of kalam rational or speculative theology nor likening tamthil them to the attributes of creatures because there is nothing like God Q 42 11 For Ibn Taymiyya this means that the Salaf knew the meanings of the Divine attributes and they do not merely delegate them to God However certain formulaic statements attributed to them do not appear to support his position unequivocally Ibn Taymiyya notes that al Awza i d 157 774 Sufyan al Thawri d 161 778 and others said concerning the attributes Let them pass by as they came and Let them pass by as they came without how He explains that letting the attributes pass by imrar means leaving them intact and not stripping away their meanings while affirming the attributes without how or without modality bi la kayf means not assimilating them to the attributes of creatures With this Ibn Taymiyya holds affirmation of the meanings of God s attributes together with denial of their likeness to creatures in a double perspective by drawing a distinction between the known meanings of the attributes and their inscrutable modalities 107 103 Ibn Taymiyya does not clarify how modality kayfiyya and meaning ma na relate to each other semantically Rather he deploys the two terms in tandem to maintain the seemingly paradoxical conviction that God is completely different and beyond human experience on the one hand while God s attributes do signify something real and meaningful in human language on the other In denying knowledge of the modality and affirming knowledge of the meaning Ibn Taymiyya does not resolve the paradox nor even acknowledge it but simply holds its two sides together in the conviction that this is the most faithful and rational set of beliefs 107 It is often assumed that the question of God s nature has occupied the minds of early Muslims and as such Muhammad forbade them from thinking about it as he said Think about God s bounties but do not think about God s essence dhat Otherwise you will vanish perish Accordingly Muslims should not think about what God is but about his attributes and his blessings granted to humanity because God s essence dhat cannot be understood by the limited human capacity 108 In this regard it has been mentioned in some narrations that are ascribed to Ahmad ibn Hanbal d 241 855 109 110 it has been reported that he said Note 5 Whatever comes to your mind i e regarding God and His nature God is different than that 111 Or in the words God is completely different from whatever comes to your mind concerning Him According to al Shahrastani d 548 1154 in his al Milal wa al Nihal Religious Sects and Divisions Ahmad ibn Hanbal and Dawud al Zahiri d 270 884 and a group of imams of the Salaf they followed the way of the early traditionalists ashab al hadith such as Malik ibn Anas d 179 795 They took a safe path saying We believe in whatever is reported from the Book and the Sunna and we do not try to interpret it knowing for certain that God does not resemble any created things and that all the images we form of Him are created by Him and formed by Him They avoided anthropomorphism tashbih to such an extent that they said that if a man moved his hand while reading the Qur anic verse that speaks of God s creating Adam using his own hands Q 38 75 or if he pointed with his two fingers while reporting the hadith The heart of the believer is between the two fingers of al Rahman the Most Compassionate his hand must be cut off and the two fingers torn out 112 113 These early scholars were often called the People of Tradition Ahl al Hadith or Salaf such as Abu Hanifa Malik al Shafi i and Ahmad ibn Hanbal They left the verses of the Qur an in question as well as the related hadiths simply as they were accepting the poetical statements just as they occurred without applying much reason either to criticize or expand upon them Their position was that these ambiguous verses must be understood in light of the Qur anic dictum that There is nothing whatever like Him Q 42 11 hence negating all possibilities of anthropomorphism At the same time they used and maintained the same phrases or terminology implied by the Qur an with regards to God such as God s face without looking further into their meaning or exegesis And this is what is being referred to by use of their phrase bila kayfa wa la tashbih meaning without inquiring how and without anthropomorphism or comparison 90 However according to some scholars Ahmad ibn Hanbal like the other early Muslims also gave some figurative interpretations ta wil to scriptural expressions that might otherwise have been misinterpreted anthropomorphically which is what neo Salafis condemn the Ash ari and Maturidi schools for doing For example Ibn Kathir reports that al Bayhaqi d 458 1066 related from al Hakim d 405 1014 from Abu Amr ibn al Sammak d 344 955 from Hanbal ibn Ishaq al Shaybani d 273 886 the son of the brother of Ahmad ibn Hanbal s father that Ahmad ibn Hanbal d 241 855 figuratively interpreted the word of Allah Most High And your Lord comes Q 89 22 as meaning His recompense thawab shall come Al Bayhaqi then said This chain of narrators has absolutely nothing wrong in it 114 Ibn Hazm d 456 1064 in his book al Fasl fi al Milal wa al Ahwa wa al Nihal ar The Distinction Concerning Religions Heresies and Sects said also that Ahmad ibn Hanbal figuratively interpreted And your Lord comes Q 89 22 but as meaning And your Lord s command decree has come 115 Among the most significant Athari theological works are Lawami al Anwar al Bahiyya wa Sawati al Asrar al Athariyya by Al Saffarini d 1188 1774 Bahjat al Nazirin wa Ayat al Mustadillin The Delight of Onlookers and the Signs for Investigators by Mar i al Karmi d 1033 1624 on cosmology and the affairs of the Last Judgment and the Afterlife 116 Ash aris and Maturidis Edit See also Ahl al Ra y and Kalam A rock carved with the text of al Aqida al Murshida the Guiding Creed by Ibn Tumart d 524 1130 the student of al Ghazali d 505 1111 and the founder of the Almohad dynasty praised and approved by Fakhr al Din Ibn Asakir d 620 1223 located at al Salah Islamic secondary school in Baalbek Lebanon Ash aris and Maturidis are in agreement that God s attributes are eternal and are to be held to be metaphorically 117 References to anthropomorphic attributes can probably not be understood correctly by humans 118 Although God s existence is considered to be possibly known by reason human mind can not fully understand God s attributes Ash ari and Maturidi scholars have two positions regarding the Mutashabihat texts ambiguous passages in the Qur an and Hadith related to God s attributes 119 Tafwid affirming the attributes of God but consigning entrusting both their meaning and modality to God or in other words leaving the interpretation of anthropomorphic expressions to God and Ta wil metaphorical interpretation The two positions disregard the literal meaning of the texts due to the definitive evidences denoting the transcendence of God above the attributes of his created beings as per his words There is nothing whatever like Him Quran 42 11 Translated by Ali Unal and And comparable to Him there is none Quran 112 4 Translated by Ali Unal For example when believers in paradise see God they do not see God in the way humans are able to see on Earth 118 Ash aris and Maturidis asserts since God is the creator of everything that exists and creation neither affects nor alters God the Throne of God is not a dwelling place for God 120 Abu Mansur al Baghdadi d 429 1037 in his al Farq bayn al Firaq The Difference between the Sects reports that Ali ibn Abi Talib the fourth Caliph said Allah created the Throne as an indication of His power not for taking it as a place for Himself 121 Accordingly expressions such as God s istiwa on the Throne means by ta wil or figurative interpretation exercise of his power upon the universe this denotes his assumption of authority of his created world the throne being a symbol of authority and dominion while in tafwid they just say Allahu A lam God knows best together with their understanding of Tanzih God s incomparability and transcendence which means that his istiwa upon the throne in the manner which he himself has described and in that same sense which he himself means which is far removed from any notion of contact or resting upon or local situation It is impermissible to say that he established himself with a contact or a meeting with it Because God is not subject to change substitution nor limits whether before or after the creation of the throne 122 Ash aris and Maturidis are in general agreement that God is free from all imperfections and flaws He has Divine attributes Divine attributes are characteristics or qualities that God alone possesses The Divine attributes are classified into negative and positive By the Negative Attribute they mean the negation of the negative i e negation of imperfection Among the most important are the following 123 The negative divine attributes are of two kinds firstly those which are meant to deny all imperfections in God s Being e g that he has no equal and no rival no parents and no children secondly those which indicate his beyondness e g that he is not body or physical is neither substance nor attribute is not space or spatial is not limited or finite has neither dimensions nor relations i e he is above the application of our categories of thought The positive divine attributes are such as life knowledge power will hearing seeing and speaking 124 The Ash ari and Maturidi scholars emphasise that the Qur an expresses that God does not need any of his creation as he is perfect 125 He is immutable does not change self subsisting and self sufficient without figure form colour or parts His existence has neither beginning nor end He is not a body composed of substances or elements He is not an accident inherent in a body or dwelling in a place 126 He is unique unlike anything in his creation He is ineffable beyond human understanding comprehension and therefore human description 127 as per his words There is nothing whatever like Him Quran 42 11 Translated by Ali Unal He is omnitemporal in the way that he is omnipresent as per his words And He is with you wherever you may be Quran 57 4 Translated by Ali Unal He is everywhere by his knowledge and power and nowhere without being in a place direction or location because He existed eternally before all the creations including time and space and is clear from change He is always in the present yet transcends time God is not within time time is one of his creations and doesn t affect him so for him there is no past present and future The Hanafi Maturidi scholar Ali al Qari d 1014 1606 in his Sharh al Fiqh al Akbar states Allah the Exalted is not in any place or space nor is He subject to time because both time and space are amongst His creations He the Exalted was present in pre existence and there was nothing of the creation with Him 51 Thus according to Maturidis and Ash aris God is beyond time and space and is transcendent infinite not limited and eternal without beginning or end as per his words He is the First the Last the All Outward and the All Inward Quran 57 3 Translated by Ali Unal A hadith mentioned in Sahih Muslim explains this part of the verse as follows 128 129 O Allah You are the First there is none that precedes You You are the Last there is none that will outlive You You are al Zahir the Manifest or the Most High and there is nothing above You You are al Batin the Hidden or the Most Near and there is nothing below You or nearer than You At the same time he is near to everything that has being nay he is nearer to men than their jugular veins this is alluded to in the verse 50 16 and is witness to everything though his nearness is not like the nearness of bodies as neither is his essence like the essence of bodies Neither does he exist in anything or does anything exist in him but he is beyond space and time for he is the creator of space and time and was before space and time were created and is now after the same manner as He always was i e without place nor time He is also distinct from the creatures in his attributes neither is there anything besides himself in his essence nor is his essence in any other besides him He is too holy to be subject to change or any local motion neither do any accidents dwell in him nor any contingencies before him but he abides with his glorious attributes free from all danger of dissolution As to the attribute of perfection he wants no addition As to being he is known to exist by the apprehension of the understanding and he is seen as he is by immediate intuition which will be vouchsafed out of his mercy and grace to the believers in the paradise completing their joy by the vision of his glorious presence 130 The possibility of seeing God in the afterlife became a pillar of the Ash ari and the Maturidi schools Al Ash ari holds that God will be seen in the next world by sight Al Maturidi also accepts the visibility of God however his explanation is qualified people will see God in way that it is incomprehensible to humans in this life and is not like the normal sight that we use to sense light and distance Al Ghazali promised that people would enjoy the pleasure of looking on God s noble face 131 Ash aris and Maturidis insisted on the reality of that vision even if they admitted their inability to fully explain how it will happen According to them God can be seen even if he cannot be perceived through vision Al Ghazali in his al Iqtisad fi al I tiqad Moderation in Belief explains the Ash ari position that God will be seen in the afterlife despite the fact that he has no physical body nor any location or direction 132 Mu tazilis and Shi is deny that God can be seen for the simple reason that visibility as man understands it requires the object of vision to be in place and this is inconceivable in reference to God Ash aris and Maturidis agree with this proposition but only if they are talking of vision here on Earth and within the physical laws applicable here However if it is going to happen somewhere else and under a different set of laws visibility is possible for whatever exists can be seen under proper conditions 133 Ash aris and Maturidis unanimously agree that it is only in the Hereafter that God will be seen Among the evidences that have been used by them in establishing the permissibility of seeing God are the following 22 Some faces on that Day will be radiant with contentment 23 Looking up toward their Lord translated by Ali Unal Quran Al Qiyama 75 22 23 134 For those who do good is the greatest good and even more translated by Nureddin Uzunoglu Quran Yunus 10 26 Goodness or ihsan husna is to act in accordance with the wise commandments of God Muhammad defined it as being a servant to God as though one saw him The greatest good shall be for them i e Paradise and also even more the delight of gazing upon the ineffable and blessed Countenance of God 135 It was narrated that Suhayb said 136 The Messenger of Allah recited this verse For those who have done good is the best reward and even more Then he said When the people of Paradise enter Paradise and the people of the Fire enter the Fire a caller will cry out O people of Paradise You have a covenant with Allah and He wants to fulfill it They will say What is it Has Allah not made the Balance of our good deeds heavy and made our faces bright and admitted us to Paradise and saved us from Hell Then the Veil will be lifted and they will look upon Him and by Allah Allah will not give them anything that is more beloved to them or delightful than looking upon Him Narrated by Ibn Majah al Tirmidhi and Muslim During the lifetime of Muhammad some people asked 137 O Allah s Messenger Shall we see our Lord on the Day of Resurrection The Prophet said Do you have any difficulty in seeing the moon on a full moon night They said No O Allah s Messenger He said Do you have any difficulty in seeing the sun when there are no clouds They said No O Allah s Messenger He said So verily you would see Him like this i e as easy as you see the sun and the moon in the world when it is clear Narrated by Al Bukhari Muslim Abu Dawud and Ibn Majah Muhammad said also in an authentic hadith mentioned in Sahih al Bukhari Sahih Muslim Jami al Tirmidhi Sunan Abi Dawud and Sunan ibn Majah Certainly you will see your Rubb on the Day of Resurrection as you see this full moon and you will have no difficulty or trouble in seeing Him 138 139 In addition the Qur an also confirms in 83 15 that No Indeed from the sight and mercy of their Lord that Day they will be veiled blocked i e on the Day of Judgment the disbelievers will not be able to see Him Quran 83 15 Among the most significant Ash ari Maturidi theological works are Kitab al Tawhid by Abu Mansur al Maturidi d 333 944 Al Insaf fima Yajib I tiqaduh by Abu Bakr al Baqillani d 403 1013 A Guide to Conclusive Proofs for the Principles of Belief by Abu al Ma ali al Juwayni d 478 1085 The Moderation in Belief by Abu Hamid al Ghazali d 505 1111 Tabsirat al Adilla by Abu al Mu in al Nasafi d 508 1114 Asas al Taqdis by Fakhr al Din al Razi d 606 1209 The Commentaries on Al Aqida al Tahawiyya Sufis Edit See also Sufism and Huwa Sufism The majority of Sufis adhere to the same beliefs and practices of orthodox theology of Sunni Islam 140 both the Ash ari and Maturidi schools the essential difference in theology being that Sufis believe Ma iyyat Allah God s presence togetherness companionship derived from the Qur anic verse 4 in Surat al Hadid which states and He is with you wheresoever you may be Quran 57 4 Translated by Nureddin Uzunoglu is not only by knowledge comprehension and power but also by nature and essence which is God himself being everywhere by presence According to Ahmad ibn Ajiba d 1224 1809 in his al Bahr al Madid 141 Ahl al Batin people of the inner knowledge who follow the esoteric interpretation i e the Sufis have a consensus on that God is everywhere by presence and essence in all places at once with his entire being despite his spacelessness but without Hulul God s indwelling fusion infusion incarnation in creation and without Ittihad God s identification unification union with creation 142 unlike Ahl al Zahir people of the outward observance the uninitiated who are unanimously agreed that God is omnipresent only by knowledge and power 141 Among the verses that Sufis rely on to prove God s omnipresence are 142 2 115 2 255 Ayat al Kursi 6 3 43 84 57 4 and 58 7 Based on these Qur anic verses God s omnipresence is not limited to certain areas but is present everywhere all pervasive and all knowing 143 144 According to Muhammad Metwalli al Sha rawi d 1419 1998 in his interpretation better known as Tafsir al Sha rawi ar of the Qur anic verses 56 83 85 which are mentioned in Surat al Waqi ah 83 Why then are you helpless when it i e the soul of a dying person at the moment of death reaches the throat 84 While you are looking on 85 And We i e God and or His angels are nearer closer to him the dying human than you are but you do not see Al Sha rawi stated that God s statement in verse 56 85 but you do not see proves clearly and unequivocally that Ma iyyatullah meaning companionship of God literally togetherness with God is true real with his essence dhat which is not like the essence of created beings and his companionship is not only with knowledge if so then God wouldn t say but you do not see 145 Since God in Islam is transcendental and sovereign but also immanent and omnipresent the Sufi view holds that in reality only God exists Thus everything in creation is reflecting an attribute of God s names Yet these forms are not God themselves 146 The Sufi Saint Ibn Arabi stated There is nothing but God This statement was mistakenly equalized to Pantheism by critics however Ibn Arabi always made a clear distinction between the creation and the creator 147 Since God is the Absolute Reality 148 the created worlds and their inhabitants are merely illusions They just exist because of God s command Kun but everything that would be was already known by God 149 Both beliefs Hulul incarnation and Ittihad unification had been severely denounced by moderate Sunni Sufis such as Abd al Ghani al Nabulsi d 1143 1731 which he described as heresies 150 Among the most significant Sufi theological works are Al Ta aruf li Madhhab Ahl al Tasawwuf Inquiry into the Tenets of the Sufis by Abu Bakr al Kalabadhi d 385 995 recognised as an authoritative treatise on the mystical doctrines 151 Al Risala al Qushayriyya by al Qushayri d 465 1072 Futuh al Ghayb Revelations of the Unseen by Abd al Qadir al Jilani d 561 1166 Al Burhan al Mu ayyad The Advocated Proof by Ahmad al Rifa i d 578 1182 Mu tazilis Edit The Mu tazilis reject the anthropomorphic attributes of God because an eternal being must be unique and attributes would make God comparable The descriptions of God in the Quran are considered to be allegories 152 Nevertheless the Muʿtazilites thought God contains oneness tawhid and justice Other characteristics like knowledge are not attributed to God rather they describe his essence Otherwise eternal attributes of God would give rise to a multiplicity entities existing eternal besides God 153 Among the most significant Mu tazili theological works are Sharh al Usul al Khamsa Explaining the Five Principles by al Qadi Abd al Jabbar d 415 1025 Al Minhaj fi Usul al Din The Curriculum Method in the Fundamentals of Religion by al Zamakhshari d 538 1144 Shi is Edit The Shi is agreed with the Mu tazilis and deny that God will be seen with the physical eyes either in this world or in the next 154 155 156 Isma ilis Edit According to Isma ilism God is absolutely transcendent and unknowable 157 beyond matter energy space time change imaginings intellect positive as well as negative qualities All attributes of God named in rituals scriptures or prayers refers not to qualities God possesses but to qualities emanated from God thus these are the attributes God gave as the source of all qualities but God does not consist on one of these qualities 158 One philosophical definition of the world Allah is The Being Who concentrates in Himself all the attributes of perfection 159 or the Person Who is the Essential Being and Who encompasses all the attributes of perfection 159 Since God is beyond all wordings Isma ilism also denies the concept of God as the first cause 160 In Ismailism assigning attributes to God as well as negating any attributes from God via negativa both qualify as anthropomorphism and are rejected as God cannot be understood by either assigning attributes to him or taking attributes away from him The 10th century Ismaili philosopher Abu Yaqub al Sijistani suggested the method of double negation for example God is not existent followed by God is not non existent This glorifies God from any understanding or human comprehension 161 Twelvers Edit Main article Theology of Twelvers The Twelver Shi is believe that God has no shape no physical hand no physical leg no physical body no physical face They believe God has no visible appearance God does not change in time nor does he occupy a physical place Under no circumstances the Shi is argues does God change There is also no time frame regarding God As support for their view Shi i scholars often point to the Qur anic verse 6 103 which states Eyes comprehend Him not but He comprehends all eyes He is the All Subtle penetrating everything no matter how small the All Aware Thus one fundamental difference between Sunnis and Shi is that the former believes that followers will see their Lord on the Day of Resurrection while the latter holds that God cannot be seen because he is beyond space and time 162 Ibn Abbas says that a bedouin once came to the Messenger of Allah and said O Messenger of Allah Teach me of the most unusual of knowledge He asked him What have you done with the peak of knowledge so that you now ask about its most unusual things The man asked him O Messenger of Allah What is this peak of knowledge He said It is knowing Allah as He deserves to be known The bedouin then said And how can He be known as He ought to be The Messenger of Allah answered It is that you know Him as having no model no peer no antithesis and that He is Wahid One Single and Ahad Unique Absolutely One Apparent yet Hidden the First and the Last having no peer nor a similitude this is the true knowledge about Him 163 Muhammad Baqir al Majlisi Knowing Allah Bihar al Anwar 164 Among the most significant Shi i theological works are Kitab al Tawhid Book of Monotheism by Ibn Babawayh also known as al Shaykh al Saduq d 381 H 991 Tajrid al I tiqad Sublimation of Belief by Nasir al Din al Tusi d 672 1274 Wahdat al wujud EditFurther information Wujud and Sufi philosophy The term wahdat al wujud which literally means the unity of being or the oneness of existence is a controversial 165 166 mystical notion mostly spoken of in connection with Ibn Arabi d 638 1240 167 168 169 170 even though he did not employ it in his writings 171 172 173 174 175 It seems to have been ascribed to him for the first time in the polemics of Ibn Taymiyya d 1328 175 176 177 Although the phrase refers to a subjective state or direct inward experience attained by Sufis it has also been understood and discussed as a philosophical concept and as such interpreted in different ways 178 According to William Chittick there are at least as many as seven possible ways of understanding it depending on whether the person who uses it is pro or anti Ibn Arabi 168 Some suggest that the idea of wahdat al wujud can be understood in an ecological or environmental context In this sense it would mean the feeling of wholeness and holyness of the universe as the creation of God which means that all men are the creatures of one God they are all equal 179 Ibn Arabi however has always been a highly controversial figure for Muslims as many have accused him of holding pantheist or monist views incompatible with Islam s pure monotheism 180 181 182 183 184 However according to a number of scholars including al Sha rani d 573 1565 and Abd al Ra uf al Munawi d 1031 1621 the books of Ibn Arabi have been altered and distorted by some anonymous apostates and heretics and therefore many sayings and beliefs were attributed to him which are not true to what he actually wrote 185 186 Proponents of waḥdat al wujud such as Abd al Ghani al Nabulsi Abd al Ra uf b Ali al Fansuri Seyyed Hossein Nasr Mir Valiuddin de and Titus Burckhardt disagree that waḥdat al wujud is identified with pantheism Nasr for example considers that the term pantheism and monism cannot be used to equate with waḥdat al wujud 187 188 Ideas similar to pantheism existed since the early stages of Islam Jahm writes that God is in heaven on earth and in every place there is no place where He i not and He is in everything neither contiguous nor separated a position attacked by Ahmad ibn Hanbal 189 Notes Edit Ibn al Jawzi s Daf Shubah al Tashbih is a refutation of the historical anthropomorphic leanings of some of the Hanbali scholars In religious usage it refers to the earliest Muslim generations the righteous ancestors in Arabic al salaf al salih The Arabic word zahir meaning obvious apparent external or literal Salaf is a contested term but generally and quite literally means ancestor and is usually used as part of the expression al salaf al salih i e the virtuous forefathers 105 The Salaf included the companions of Muhammad and the early first three generations of Islam conventionally ending with Ahmad ibn Hanbal in the ninth century although a number of later Islamic scholars are included such as al Tahawi d 321 933 al Ash ari d 324 935 and al Maturidi d 333 944 However this is not to be confused with the Salafi movement 106 This statement also attributed to Dhu al Nun al Misri d 246 861 See also Edit Islam portal Religion portalAttributes of God in Islam Conceptions of God Ethical monotheism Existence of God God in Abrahamic religions God in the Bahaʼi Faith God in Christianity God in Judaism God in Mormonism Jehovah s Witnesses beliefs God Religion in pre Islamic ArabiaReferences Edit a b c d Gardet Louis 1960 Allah In Bosworth C E van 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Islam In Lindsay Jones ed Encyclopedia of Religion Vol 5 2nd ed MacMillan Reference USA p 724 God Islam Empire of Faith PBS Retrieved 2010 12 18 Translation of the meanings Ayah 1 Surah Al Fatihah Dr Waleed Bleyhesh Omary English Translation The Noble Qur an Encyclopedia Retrieved 2022 02 01 Bentley David September 1999 The 99 Beautiful Names for God for All the People of the Book William Carey Library ISBN 0 87808 299 9 Quran 7 180 Quran 17 110 Quran 20 8 Quran 59 24 Names of God Oxford Islamic Studies Online oxfordislamicstudies com Retrieved 2018 08 13 Encouraged by the Quran 7 180 17 110 20 8 Muslims selected ninety nine attributes of God describing his perfection from the Quran and traditions Referred to as the most beautiful names of God they describe a range of characteristics that balances the power of God the Creator the Sovereign and the All Knowing with his love and mercy the All Loving the Most Gracious and the All Forgiving The names are frequently memorized and used in supplications Preceded by the words Abd or Amat male or female servant they are often used in proper names e g Abd al Rahman servant of the Merciful Quran 17 110 Quran 59 22 24 Bowering Gerhard God and God Attributes Encyclopaedia of the Qurʾan Andreas Gorke and Johanna Pink Tafsir and Islamic Intellectual History Exploring the Boundaries of a Genre Oxford University Press in association with The Institute of Ismaili Studies London ISBN 978 0 19 870206 1 p 478 Morris S Seale Muslim Theology A study of Origins with Reference to the Church Fathers Great Russel Street London 1964 p 58 Hossein Nasr The Heart of Islam Enduring Values for Humanity April 2003 pp 3 39 85 27 272 Allah The concise Oxford dictionary of world religions Bowker John 1935 Oxford University Press Oxford Oxford University Press 2000 ISBN 9780191727221 OCLC 49508601 a href Template Cite book html title Template Cite book cite book a CS1 maint others link D Gimaret Tawhid Encyclopaedia of Islam Tariq Ramadan 2005 p 203 Vincent J Cornell Encyclopedia of Religion Vol 5 pp 3561 3562 Quran 57 3 Translated by Yusuf Ali Mohammad Rafi ud Din 1968 The Manifesto of Islam An Exposition of Islam as the Inevitable World Ideology of the Future Din Muhammadi Press p 145 ISBN 9781597840002 Islam emphasises the absolute oneness or uniqueness of the Creator in His person as well in His qualities and attributes IslamAwakened Qur an 112 1 IslamAwakened com Archived from the original on 4 June 2021 IslamAwakened Qur an 112 2 IslamAwakened com Archived from the original on 4 June 2021 Nureddin Uzunoglu The Holy Qur an with Translation and Commentaries Qur an 19 65 Semazen NET Islamic Publications for the Holy Qur an Association Archived from the original on 4 June 2021 Jalal al Din al Mahalli Jalal al Din al Suyuti Tafsir al Jalalayn www greattafsirs com Translated by Feras Hamza Royal Aal al Bayt Institute for Islamic Thought Archived from the original on 11 July 2021 Gurdofarid Miskinzoda Farhad Daftary eds 2014 The Study of Shi i Islam History Theology and Law Bloomsbury Publishing p 218 ISBN 9780857723383 Ali Unal 2006 The Qur an with Annotated Interpretation in Modern English Tughra Books p 989 ISBN 9781597840002 Ibn Kathir Tafsir Ibn Kathir Qur an 6 103 Altafsir com Royal Aal al Bayt Institute for Islamic Thought Archived from the original on 8 Jun 2021 وقيل المراد بقوله لا ت د ر ك ه ٱلأ ب ص ـ ر أي العقول a b c d Mohammad Ibrahim Teymori The Creed of Imam Tahawi PDF Afghan Islamic Cultural Centre in London UK pp 20 24 Muhammad Shahabuddin Nadvi 1997 Holy Qur an and the Natural World Furqania Academy Trust p 60 Saheeh International Saheeh International Qur an 1 2 quranenc com Archived from the original on 7 June 2021 Ali Unal The Qur an with Annotated Interpretation in Modern English Qur an 1 2 mquran org Tughra Books Archived from the original on 7 June 2021 Khwaja Kamaluddin 1939 The Islamic Review Vol 27 Woking Muslim Mission and Literary Trust p 169 If the other Planets are inhabited the people there are as much the Creatures of Allah as those upon this Earth and the Holy Qur an speaks of Alamien Worlds or Universes Abdullah Yusuf Ali 2015 The Meaning of the Holy Qur an Complete Translation with Selected Notes Kube Publishing Ltd p 19 ISBN 9780860376118 Syed Mahmud un Nasir 1981 Islam Its Concepts amp History Kitab Bhavan p 331 The phrase The Creator of the Worlds is preceded by the word al Hamd which first means praise eulogy and approbation and secondly our submission to the ways of the Creator for by saying hamd we express our willingness to submit to His laws and the literal interpretation of Islam is submission M R Bawa Muhaiyaddeen 2004 Islam amp World Peace Explanations of a Sufi The Fellowship Press p 159 ISBN 9780914390657 Rabb A God the Lord the Creator and Protector Rabb al alamin A The Ruler of the universes Hayim Gordon Leonard Grob 1987 Education for Peace Testimonies from World Religions Orbis Books p 97 ISBN 9780883443590 Bentley David September 1999 The 99 Beautiful Names for God for All the People of the Book William Carey Library ISBN 0 87808 299 9 Prince Sorie Conteh Traditionalists Muslims and Christians in Africa Interreligious Encounters and Dialogue Cambria Press 2009 ISBN 978 1 604 97596 3 page 80 Mahmoud Ayoub The Qur an and Its Interpreters Volume 1 SUNY Press 1984 ISBN 978 0 873 95727 4 page 43 Allah would replace you with a people who sin islamtoday net Archived from the original on October 14 2013 Retrieved July 23 2012 BBC Religions Islam Basic articles of faith Archived from the original on 13 August 2018 Retrieved 2018 08 13 Ali Unal 2008 The Qur an with Annotated Interpretation in Modern English Tughra Books p 284 ISBN 9781597841443 Gurbuz Deniz December 2009 Al Farabi on Divine Knowledge PDF ankara edu tr Islamic University of Europe According to the Qur an God Allah is omniscient He eternally knows whatever can be known be it universal or particular in character Muslim theologians therefore considered that omniscience is a necessary and ignorance is an impossible property for God Nothing can escape his knowledge Various verses in the Qur an such as Allah truly knows everthing 4 179 Nothing can be hidden from His knowledge 34 3 10 62 He knows whatever in the Heavens and the Earth even a leaf cannot fall without His awareness 47 59 designate this basic intuition Sachiko Murata The Tao of Islam A Sourcebook on Gender Relationships in Islamic Thought SUNY Press 1992 ISBN 978 0 791 40913 8 page 77 Quran 2 117 Human Nature and the Purpose of Existence Patheos com Retrieved 2011 01 29 David Leeming The Oxford Companion to World Mythology Oxford University Press 2005 ISBN 978 0 195 15669 0 page 209 Quran 51 56 a b Roger S GottliebThe Oxford Handbook of Religion and Ecology Oxford University Press 9 Nov 2006 ISBN 9780199727698 p 210 Rebecca Stein Philip L Stein The Anthropology of Religion Magic and Witchcraft Routledge 2017 ISBN 9781315532158 chapter Islam 1 Archived 2015 10 15 at the Wayback Machine 3rd paragraph October 2015 Ali Unal 2008 The Qur an with Annotated Interpretation in Modern English Tughra Books p 86 ISBN 9781597841443 I am as My Servant Thinks expects I am hadithaday org Retrieved 2014 07 31 Center for Muslim Jewish Engagement usc edu Archived from the original on 2017 05 15 Retrieved 2014 11 01 Maha Elkaisy Friemuth God and Humans in Islamic Thought Abd Al Jabbar Ibn Sina and Al Ghazali Routledge 2006 ISBN 978 1 134 14676 5 page 146 Cyril Glasse 2003 The New Encyclopedia of Islam Rowman Altamira p 191 ISBN 9780759101906 Abdullah Yusuf Ali 1975 The Glorious Qur an Text Translation and Commentary p 215 The Miraculous Quran 21 23 mquran org Archived from the original on 23 May 2021 Royal Aal al Bayt Institute Translation Altafsir com Archived from the original on 23 May 2021 Hassan Hasan Sheikh Salim El Yacoubi Jane Biddle Merritt El Yacoubi 1994 Islam The Language of Oneness Tawhid the Islamic Paradigm Colorado Boulder p 71 ASIN B001YVOZR8 Thomas F Michel ed 1984 A Muslim Theologian s Response to Christianity Caravan Books p 6 ISBN 9780882060583 Philip K Hitti 2002 History of The Arabs Macmillan International Higher Education p 431 ISBN 9781137039828 Sayed Mahmudul Hasan 1962 Muslim Creed and Culture An Interpretation of Fundamental Institutions Ideal Publications p 276 Farid Esack 2005 The Qur an A User s Guide Oneworld Publications p 110 ISBN 9781851683543 Peter Groff 2007 Islamic Philosophy A Z Edinburgh University Press p 52 ISBN 9780748629275 J van Lent Hakeem Uddeen Qureshi Peri J Bearman eds 1995 The Encyclopaedia of Islam New Edition Glossary and Index of Technical Terms E J Brill p 44 ISBN 9789004097780 a b Zulfiqar Ali Shah 2012 Anthropomorphic Depictions of God The Concept of God in Judaic Christian and Islamic Traditions Representing the Unrepresentable International Institute of Islamic Thought IIIT p 573 ISBN 9781565645752 a b c Aaron Spevack 2014 The Archetypal Sunni Scholar Law Theology and Mysticism in the Synthesis of al Bajuri SUNY Press pp 129 130 ISBN 9781438453729 Joseph J Kaminski 2017 The Contemporary Islamic Governed State A Reconceptualization Springer p 41 ISBN 9783319570129 Sufficiency in Creed Lum at ul Itiqaad Imaam Ibn Qudaamah abdurrahman org Archived from the original on 7 October 2021 Imran Aijaz 2018 Islam A Contemporary Philosophical Investigation Routledge p 61 ISBN 9781317436591 Francis E Peters 1990 Judaism Christianity and Islam The Classical Texts and Their Interpretation Vol 3 Princeton University Press pp 303 305 ISBN 9780691020556 Ibn al Jawzi 2006 The Attributes of God Ibn al Jawzi s Daf Shubah al Tashbih bi Akaff al Tanzih Translated by Abdullah bin Hamid Ali Khalid Yahya Blankinship Introduction Amal Press ISBN 9780955235900 Gibril Fouad Haddad 2015 The Biographies of the Elite Lives of the Scholars Imams and Hadith Masters Zulfiqar Ayub p 226 Understanding Texts Giving the Impression that Allah Resembles His Creation aliftaa jo The General Fatwa Department of the Hashemite Kingdom of Jordan Archived from the original on 7 October 2021 Gibril Fouad Haddad 2015 The Biographies of the Elite Lives of the Scholars Imams and Hadith Masters Zulfiqar Ayub p 323 Zameelur Rahman Ebrahim Desai ed What is the beliefs of Imam Ahmed and ibn Taymiyya askimam org Askimam Archived from the original on 9 October 2021 Tafsir Ibn Kathir on Qur an 7 54 altafsir com in Arabic Royal Aal al Bayt Institute for Islamic Thought Archived from the original on 7 October 2021 Khaled El Rouayheb 2015 Islamic Intellectual History in the Seventeenth Century Cambridge University Press p 277 ISBN 9781107042964 Ibn Taymiyya thus insisted that the apparent zahir sense of passages that state that God has eyes hands and feet and that He occasionally descends to the lowest heavens should simply be accepted in the same way that one should accept passages that state that God knows or wills or speaks a b Carl Sharif El Tobgui 2020 Ibn Taymiyya on Reason and Revelation brill com Islamic Philosophy Theology and Science Texts and Studies Brill pp 179 226 ISBN 9789004412866 Archived from the original on 8 October 2021 In diametric opposition to this tendency Ibn Taymiyya insists that the true meanings of the revealed texts are in one manner or another entirely embedded in the language of those texts themselves This obviates or at least minimizes the need to appeal for a proper understanding of revelation to any factors or considerations extrinsic to the texts including indeed especially the deliverances of abstract rational speculation as practiced by the philosophers and theologians 3 We have seen in previous chapters that Ibn Taymiyya s overriding concern in the Darʾ taʿaruḍ is to vindicate a plain sense understanding and straightforward affirmation of the divine attributes predicated of God in revelation over against the rationalists negation nafy or nullification taʿṭil of any of the said attributes He insists that this way of affirmation was the consensus approach and understanding of the Salaf and for that reason it remains uniquely authoritative throughout time The kinds of rational objections muʿariḍ ʿaqli raised by various theological schools usually involve the claim that a given revealed attribute such as the possession of a hand or face or the act of descending or settling upon the throne if affirmed of God in accordance with the obvious sense ẓahir of the texts would entail a likening tamthil or assimilation tashbih of God to created beings and thus infringe upon the radical uniqueness of God s divinity and His utter dissimilarity to anything tainted by creatureliness contingency or limitation of any kind Zulfiqar Ali Shah 2012 Anthropomorphic Depictions of God The Concept of God in Judaic Christian and Islamic Traditions Representing the Unrepresentable International Institute of Islamic Thought IIIT p 578 ISBN 9781565645752 Frederic Volpi ed 2013 Political Islam A Critical Reader Routledge p 58 ISBN 9781134722075 Mohammed Gamal Abdelnour 2021 A Comparative History of Catholic and Ash ari Theologies of Truth and Salvation Inclusive Minorities Exclusive Majorities Brill Publishers p 54 ISBN 9789004461765 a b Ayman Shihadeh Jan Thiele 2020 Philosophical Theology in Islam Later Ash arism East and West Brill Publishers pp 200 201 ISBN 9789004426610 Huseyin Hilmi Isik 2014 Islam and Christianity Hakikat Kitabevi p 362 ISBN 9781530501601 Al Mawardi 2012 al Sayyid Abd al Maqsud ibn Abd al Rahim ed Tafsir al Mawardi al Nukat wa al Uyun in Arabic Beirut Lebanon Dar al Kutub al Ilmiyya p 71 وما أحسن ما روي عن الإمام أحمد بن حنبل والإمام الزاهد ذي النون المصري رحمهما الله تعالى أنهما قالا مهما تصورت ببالك فالله بخلاف ذلك لأن التصور ينشأ عن الصور والخيالات والله سبحانه وتعالى منزه عن مشابهة كل المخلوقات Al Mawardi 2012 al Sayyid Abd al Maqsud ibn Abd al Rahim ed Tafsir al Mawardi al Nukat wa al Uyun in Arabic Beirut Lebanon Dar al Kutub al Ilmiyya p 470 فلقد ثبت لي بعض الروايات عن الإمام أحمد بن حنبل إمام أهل السنة والجماعة أنه قال مهما تصورت ببالك فالله بخلاف ذلك وهذه الرواية أيضا رويت عن الزاهد الصالح الشهير ذي النون المصري Oliver Leaman ed 2006 The Qur an An Encyclopedia Routledge p 36 ISBN 9781134339754 Al Shahrastani 2013 Muslim Sects and Divisions Translated by A K Kazi J G Glynn Routledge p 88 ISBN 9781136138829 Namira Nahouza 2018 Wahhabism and the Rise of the New Salafists Theology Power and Sunni Islam Bloomsbury Publishing p 49 ISBN 9781838609825 Husam b Hasan Sarsour 2004 آيات الصفات ومنهج ابن جرير الطبري في تفسير معانيها in Arabic Beirut Lebanon Dar al Kutub al Ilmiyya p 350 ISBN 9782745142092 قال ابن كثير روى البيهقي عن الحاكم عن أبي عمر بن السماك عن حنبل أن أحمد ابن حنبل تأول قول الله تعالى وجاء ربك أنه جاء ثوابه ثم قال البيهقي وهذا إسناد لا غبار عليه Muhammad Zahid al Kawthari 2017 Al Aqidah wa Ilm al Kalam in Arabic Beirut Lebanon Dar al Kutub al Ilmiyya p 233 ISBN 9782745143648 وقال ابن حزم الظاهري فى فصله وقد روينا عن أحمد بن حنبل رحمه الله أنه قال وجاء ربك إنما معناه جاء أمر ربك اهـ Hebrew University of Jerusalem 1954 Scripta Hierosolymitana Publications of The Hebrew University of Jerusalem Vol 35 Magnes Press p 283 Abdullah Saeed Islamic Thought An IntroductionRoutledge 2006 ISBN 978 1 134 22564 4 chapter legal thought a b Andrew Rippin Muslims Their Religious Beliefs and Practices Psychology Press 2005 ISBN 978 0 415 34888 1 page 86 Khaled El Rouayheb 2015 Islamic Intellectual History in the Seventeenth Century Cambridge University Press p 276 ISBN 9781107042964 Imam Al Bayhaqi Allah s Names and Attributes ISCA 1999 ISBN 978 1 930 40903 3 page 19 Allah s Establishment Over the Throne sunnah org As Sunnah Foundation of America Archived from the original on 31 May 2021 Al Bayhaqi 1999 Allah s Names and Attributes Vol 4 Translated by Gibril Fouad Haddad As Sunna Foundation of America p 88 ISBN 9781930409033 Burhan Ahmad Faruqi 2010 The Mujaddid s Conception of Tawhid p 66 ISBN 9781446164020 Hiroyuki Mashita ed 2013 Theology Ethics and Metaphysics Royal Asiatic Society Classics of Islam Routledge p 73 ISBN 9781136872051 Namira Nahouza 2018 Wahhabism and the Rise of the New Salafists Theology Power and Sunni Islam I B Tauris p 16 ISBN 9781838609832 Muhammad Ibrahim H I Surty 1990 The Qur an And Al Shirk Polytheism Ta Ha Publishers p 103 ISBN 9780907461678 Coeli Fitzpatrick Adam Hani Walker eds 2014 Muhammad in History Thought and Culture An Encyclopedia of the Prophet of God ABC CLIO p 476 ISBN 9781610691789 Ali Unal 2006 The Qur an with Annotated Interpretation in Modern English Tughra Books p 1105 ISBN 9781597840002 Allah the Manifest and the Hidden Arab News Archived from the original on 22 May 2021 Jami 2010 Flashes of Light A Treatise on Sufism Translated by E H Whinfield Muhammad Kazvini Golden Elixir Press pp 65 67 ISBN 9780984308224 Gokhan Bacik 2019 Islam and Muslim Resistance to Modernity in Turkey Springer Nature pp 80 81 ISBN 9783030259013 Frank Griffel 2021 The Formation of Post Classical Philosophy in Islam Oxford University Press p 420 ISBN 9780190886349 Kamil Y Avdich 1979 Survey of Islamic Doctrine 2 ed Unity Publishing Company p 153 ASIN B00DDVCR90 The Miraculous Quran Translation by Chapter mquran org Retrieved 2022 07 01 Nureddin Uzunoglu The Holy Qur an with Translation and Commentaries Qur an 10 26 Semazen NET Islamic Publications for the Holy Qur an Association Archived from the original on 15 June 2021 G Hussein Rassool 2021 Islamic Psychology Human Behaviour and Experience from an Islamic Perspective Routledge pp 246 247 ISBN 9781000362923 Gene Netto 2019 Searching For God And Finding Allah Yayasan Bambu Biru Blue Bamboo Foundation p 188 Al Nawawi Riyad al Salihin The Gardens of the Righteous Sunnah com Archived from the original on 15 June 2021 Al Bukhari Sahih al Bukhari Sunnah com Archived from the original on 15 June 2021 Who Are Sufi Muslims and Why Do Some Extremists Hate Them The New York Times Archived from the original on 26 July 2020 The vast majority of Sufis are Sunni though some are Shiite a b Ahmad ibn Ajiba Al Bahr al Madid fi Tafsir al Qur an al Majid Qur an 57 4 www altafsir com in Arabic Altafsir com Archived from the original on 30 May 2021 وهو معكم أينما كنتم بالعلم والقدرة والإحاطة الذاتية وما ادعاه ابن عطية من الإجماع أنه بالعلم فإن كان مراده من أهل الظاهر فمسل م وأم ا أهل الباطن فمجم عون على خلافه انظر الإشارة وهو معكم أينما كنتم بذاته وصفاته على ما يليق بجلال قدسه وكمال كبريائه إذ الصفة لا ت فارق الموصوف فإذا كانت المعية بالعلم ل ز م أن تكون بالذات فافهم وسل م إن لم تذق حدثني شيخي الفقيه المحرر الجنوي أن علماء مصر اجتمعوا للمناظرة في صفة المعية فانفصل مجلسهم على أنها بالذات على ما يليق به وسمعت ه أيضا يقول إن الفقيه العلامة سيدي أحمد بن مبارك لقي الرجل الصالح سيدي أحمد الصقلي فقال له كيف تعتقد وهو معكم أين ما كنتم فقال بالذات فقال له أشهد أنك من العارفين هـ قلت فبحر الذات متصل لا يتصور فيه انفصال ولا يخلو منه مكان ولا زمان كان ولا زمان ولا مكان وهو الآن على ما عليه كان a b Ahmad ibn Ajiba Al Bahr al Madid fi Tafsir al Qur an al Majid Qur an 67 16 www altafsir com in Arabic Altafsir com Archived from the original on 30 May 2021 واعلم أن ذات الحق ـ جل جلاله ـ عم ت الوجود فليست محصورة في مكان ولا زمان فأينما ت ولوا ف ث م وجه الله فأسرار ذاته ـ تعالى ـ سارية في كل شيء قائمة بكل شيء كما تقد م فهو موجود في كل شيء لا يخلو منه شيء أسرار المعاني قائمة بالأواني وإنما خص الحق ـ تعالى ـ السماء بالذكر لأنها مرتفعة معظ مة فناسب ذكر العظيم فيها وعلى هذا ت حمل الأحاديث والآيات الواردة على هذا المنوال وليس هنا حلول ولا اتحاد إذ ليس في الوجود إلا تجليات الحق ومظاهر ذاته وصفاته كان الله ولا شيء معه وهو الآن على ما كان عليه Stefan Kalms Dorothee Zerwas Harald F O von Kortzfleisch 2013 Ubiquitous Entrepreneurship BoD Books on Demand p 14 ISBN 9783844102864 Nureddin Uzunoglu The Holy Qur an with Translation and Commentaries Qur an 2 115 Semazen NET Islamic Publications for the Holy Qur an Association Archived from the original on 30 May 2021 Muhammad Metwalli al Sha rawi Tafsir al Sha rawi Qur an 56 85 www noor book com in Arabic Akhbar el Yom pp 14885 14886 هذه الكلمة ولكن ﻻ تبصرون الواقعة 85 حلت لنا إشكاﻻت متعددة ﻷن البعض يفهم مسألة معية الله في مثل إن الله معنا التوبة 40 و إن الله مع الذين اتقوا النحل 128 أنها معية علم ولو كانت كذلك ما قال سبحانه ولكن ﻻ تبصرون الواقعة 85 إذن هي معية حقيقية ولو كان عندكم بصر حديد ي مك نكم من الرؤية لرأيتم فلم ﻻ يتسع التصور في المعية بدون تحي ز ولك في نفسك مثال فالروح التي تدير حركة حياتك كلها هل تعلم أين هي من جسمك إذن أنت ﻻ تدركها وهي فيك فما بالك بالحق سبحانه وتعالى الذي يدير هذا الكون كله فمعية الله بذاته التي ليست كالذوات فإذا كنت ﻻ تدرك مخلوقا لله فهل تطمع في أن تدرك معية الله لك إذن فمخلوق لله ﻻ ي در ك فكيف تريد أن تدرك من خلق ما ﻻ ي د ر ك Karin Jironet The Image of Spiritual Liberty in the Western Sufi Movement Following Hazrat Inayat Khan Peeters Publishers 2002 ISBN 978 9 042 91205 2 page 32 J I Laliwala Islamic Philosophy of Religion Synthesis of Science Religion and Philosophy Sarup amp Sons 2005 ISBN 978 8 176 25476 2 page 39 Jean Louis Michon Roger Gaetani Sufism Love amp Wisdom World Wisdom Inc 2006 ISBN 978 0 941 53275 4 page 207 William C Chittick Ibn Arabi Heir to the Prophets Oneworld Publications 2012 ISBN 978 1 780 74193 2 Elizabeth Sirriyeh 2004 Sufi Visionary of Ottoman Damascus Abd al Ghani al Nabulusi 1641 1731 Routledge p 51 ISBN 9781134294664 N Hanif 2002 Biographical Encyclopaedia of Sufis Central Asia and Middle East Sarup amp Sons p 229 ISBN 9788176252669 John Renard Islamic Theological Themes A Primary Source Reader Univ of California Press 2014 ISBN 978 0 520 95771 8 page 138 Patrick Hughes Thomas Patrick Hughes Dictionary of Islam Asian Educational Services 1995 ISBN 978 8 120 60672 2 page 425 M Geijbels 1977 An Introduction to Islam Muslim Beliefs and Practices Vol 4 Christian Study Centre p 367 Yasin T al Jibouri 2012 Allah The Concept of God in Islam Vol 1 AuthorHouse p 37 ISBN 9781468532722 Yasin Jibouri 2014 Allah the Concept of God in Islam a Selection p 18 ISBN 9781312490574 Sunnis however believe as the reader will find out in a later part of this book that the believers will be able on the Day of Judgment to see Allah Shias disagree with them as you will read later in this book Insha Allah Farhad Daftary Ismaili History and Intellectual Traditions Routledge 2017 ISBN 978 1 351 97503 2 Gnostic Ismaili 2016 01 22 Ismaili Teachings on the Oneness of God Tawhid Beyond Personalist Theism and Modern Atheism Ismaili Gnosis Ismailignosis com Retrieved 2019 01 29 a b Tabatabai Muhammad Husayn 2010 Tafsir al Mizan Vol 1 2 pp 45 140 ISBN 9783939416401 Arzina R Lalani Degrees of Excellence A Fatimid Treatise on Leadership in Islam I B Tauris 2009 ISBN 978 0 857 71202 8 page 3 Virani Shafique N 2010 The Right Path A Post Mongol Persian Ismaili Treatise Iranian Studies 43 2 197 221 doi 10 1080 00210860903541988 ISSN 0021 0862 S2CID 170748666 Stephen J Vicchio 2008 Biblical Figures in the Islamic Faith Wipf and Stock Publishers p 41 ISBN 9781498275583 Yasin T al Jibouri 2012 Allah The Concept of God in Islam Vol 1 AuthorHouse pp 28 29 ISBN 9781468532722 Muhammad Baqir al Majlisi Bihar al Anwar www islam4u com Archived from the original on 4 June 2021 Martyrdom of al Hallaj and Unity of the Existence the Condemners and the Commenders PDF Universiti Kebangsaan Malaysia UKM International Journal of Islamic Thought IJIT p 106 Wahdat al wujud is a very most polemical topic discussed in the world of Islamic Tasawwuf or Sufism since 2nd century of Islamic history This issue continued to be debated from time to time until today Ibn ʽArabi s thought on waḥdat al wujud and its relevance to religious diversity PDF www iis ac uk State Islamic Institute Mataram p 30 THE HISTORY of the development of Islamic thought was tinged by the controversy of Sufi philosophical thinking developed by Ibn ʽArabi a prime exponent of the doctrine of the unity of being waḥdat al wujud Amin Banani Richard Hovannisian Georges Sabagh eds 1994 Poetry and Mysticism in Islam The Heritage of Rumi Cambridge University Press p 70 ISBN 9780521454766 a b Ibrahim M Abu Rabi 2008 Spiritual Dimensions of Bediuzzaman Said Nursi s Risale I Nur SUNY Press p 295 ISBN 9780791474747 the name of Ibn Arabi appears often in Nursi s work in connection with the doctrine of wahdat al wujud a doctrine to be avoided in his view While this phrase tends to be linked with Ibn Arabi s name by both his supporters and detractors it has to be approached with great caution William C Chittick Wahdat al Wujud in India PDF Institute of Philosophy Russian Academy of Sciences Stony Brook University In itself waḥdat al wujud does not designate any specific doctrine Over history it came to have a variety of meanings depending on who was using it Certainly when it came to be controversial Ibn ʿArabi s name was usually mentioned Nonetheless there is no doctrine that he or any of his early followers called waḥdat al wujud Wujud www iis ac uk The Institute of Ismaili Studies Archived from the original on 10 September 2021 Ibn al Arabi d 638 1240 is regarded as the father of the concept of wahdat al wujud the unity of being William C Chittick 2012 In Search of the Lost Heart Explorations in Islamic Thought SUNY Press p 73 ISBN 9781438439358 But Ibn al Arabi himself so far as is known never employed the term wahdat al wujud in his enormous corpus of writings even though he frequently discussed wujud and the fact that it can be described as possessing the attribute of oneness or unity David Lee 2015 Peter G Riddell Foreword Contextualization of Sufi Spirituality in Seventeenth and Eighteenth Century China The Role of Liu Zhi c 1662 c 1730 Wipf and Stock Publishers p 45 ISBN 9781498225229 The history of the term wahdat al wujud is summarized by Chittick The term is not found in the writings of Ibn al Arabi Amin Banani Richard Hovannisian Georges Sabagh eds 1994 Poetry and Mysticism in Islam The Heritage of Rumi Cambridge University Press p 81 ISBN 9780521454766 But Ibn al Arabi never employs the term wahdat al wujud while Qunawi only mentions it in passing Ibn Arabi Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy Archived from the original on 20 June 2013 Ibn Arabi has typically been called the founder of the doctrine of wahdat al wujud the Oneness of Being or the Unity of Existence but this is misleading for he never uses the expression a b Oneness of Being waḥdat al wujud The Muhyiddin Ibn Arabi Society MIAS Archived from the original on 10 September 2021 There is broad agreement amongst Ibn ʿArabi specialists that he did not use the term waḥdat al wujud Oneness of Being or Unity of Existence in his own writings and hence did not employ this expression in his Sufi philosophical doctrine The first to have used it several decades after the death of Ibn ʿArabi in the late 7th century and early 8th century of the Hijri calendar was Ibn Taymiyya who employed the term negatively as a critique and condemnation Ibn Arabi Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy Archived from the original on 10 September 2021 The first author to say that Ibn Arabi believed in wahdat al wujud seems to have been the Hanbalite polemicist Ibn Taymiyya d 1328 who called it worse than unbelief Abdullah Kartal Ahmad Sirhindi s Criticism of Wahdat Al Wujud and its Historical Background PDF www ijbssnet com International Journal of Business and Social Science p 171 The doctrine of wahdat al wujud the unity of being which was put forward in the work of Ibn Arabi d 638 1240 has been defended by his followers However it was criticized not only by Muslim scholars ulama but also by some Sufis at varying degrees Consequently there accumulated a large body of literature around the name Ibn Arabi and the doctrine of wahdat al wujud Among Muslim scholars the most important figure in this regard is certainly Ibn Taymiyya d 728 1328 who first initiated the debate Fethullah Gulen 2000 Questions amp Answers about Islam Vol 2 Tughra Books p 41 ISBN 9781932099256 JSTOR Organization Islamic Research Institute Pakistan Central Institute of Islamic Research Pakistan 1998 Islamic Studies Vol 37 Islamic Research Institute p 153 Roger S Gottlieb 2006 The Oxford Handbook of Religion and Ecology Oxford University Press p 210 ISBN 9780199727698 Ibn ʽArabi s thought on waḥdat al wujud and its relevance to religious diversity PDF www iis ac uk State Islamic Institute Mataram pp 60 61 Many Muslim scholars judge Ibn ʽArabi as a pantheist A E Affifi for example considers him a pantheist and views this type of sufism as perfect pantheism Fazlur Rahman also says that the teachings of Ibn ʽArabi are a system entirely monistic and pantheistic contrary to the teachings of Islamic orthodoxy The same view on this matter is given by Hamka and Ahmad Daudy Richard Foltz 2003 Worldviews Religion and the Environment A Global Anthology Cengage Learning p 360 ISBN 9780534596071 International Association for the History of Religions Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam Instituut voor Godsdienstwetenschap University of Leeds 1987 Science of Religion Vol 12 Institute for the Study of Religion Free University and Department of Theology and Religious Studies University of Leeds p 81 Wahdat al wujud unity of being is applied to Ibn Arabi s 560 1165 638 1240 mystical doctrine which became a target of severe criticism from the orthodoxy Indian Institute of Islamic Studies 1982 Studies in Islam Quarterly Journal of the Indian Institute of Islamic Studies Vol 19 p 233 His mystical theories not only came to be supported by a large following but also became a target of severe criticism from the orthodoxy ulama i zahir for whom their expounder was an heretic and an apostate Stephen Hirtenstein Michael Tiernan eds 1993 Muhyiddin Ibn Arabi 1165 1240 A D A Volume of Translations and Studies Commemorating the 750th Anniversary of His Life and Work Element Books Ltd p 311 ISBN 9781852303952 حكم من يدعي إجماع أهل السنة على تكفير الإمام محيي الدين بن العربي Egypt s Dar al Ifta in Arabic Archived from the original on 23 July 2021 Ibn ʽArabi s thought on waḥdat al wujud and its relevance to religious diversity PDF www iis ac uk State Islamic Institute Mataram pp 61 62 Farzin Vahdat 2015 Islamic Ethos and the Specter of Modernity Anthem Press p 209 ISBN 9781783084388 Nasr thus rejects an interpretation of the ontological doctrines of wahdat al wujud unity of existence in which human status can be elevated by the symbolic journey towards the Divine realm The pantheistic accusations against the Sufis are doubly false because first of all pantheism is a philosophical system whereas Muhyi al Din Ibn Arabi and others like him never claimed to follow or create any system whatsoever and secondly because pantheism implies a substantial continuity between God and the Universe including humans whereas the Shaikh Ibn al Arabi would be the first to claim God s absolute transcendence over every category including that of substance Running into difficulties in his interpretation of the notion of unity of existence Nasr further wrote that wahdat al wujud is neither pantheism nor panentheism nor existential monism Morris S Seale Muslim Theology A study of Origins with Reference to the Church Fathers Great Russel Street London 1964 p 62Bibliography EditAl Bayhaqi 1999 Allah s Names and Attributes ISCA ISBN 1 930409 03 6 Hulusi Ahmed 1999 Allah as introduced by Mohammed Kitsan 10th ed ISBN 975 7557 41 2 Muhaiyaddeen M R Bawa 1976 Asmaʼul Husna the 99 beautiful names of Allah The Bawa Muhaiyaddeen Fellowship ISBN 0 914390 13 9 Netton Ian Richard 1994 Allah Transcendent Studies in the Structure and Semiotics of Islamic Philosophy Theology and Cosmology Routledge ISBN 0 7007 0287 3External links EditAllah by Encyclopaedia Britannica Belief in God Allah by Al Azhar Islamic belief in God on YouTube by Musharraf Hussain Retrieved from https en wikipedia org w index php title God in Islam amp oldid 1135164473, wikipedia, wiki, book, books, library,

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