Assalamualaykum to all of my dear and respected brothers and sisters on the forums.
The question(s) I am posing is very important for me and an answer will be very helpful for me and many others, inshaallah. Alhamdulillah, I live in a part of the US where Muslims are plentiful. Most of us are Salafi. The problem is that most of them are confused and blindly following the Wahhabi-influenced aqeedah that most of Saudi Arabia is propagating. The main place where the problems seem to occur is in the area of Tawheed al-Asma was-Sifaat. The majority of us follow the Athari way and affirm the attributes, but I think it is necessary to know the distinction between affirming Allah's Attributes (the ones he affirmed for himself)
and implying Tashbeeh (by using ambiguous terms, delving into its nature and trying to interpret them, or affirming those which he didn't explicitly affirm, such as saying allah has 5 fingers in his right hand). I think there is supposed to be a line here, and the line has been crossed and trampled over by the Wahhabis and the Mujassimah.
In Imam Abu Hanifa's Fiqh al-Akbar, he mentioned (rough translation):
"He is Attributed with Yad ("Hands"), Wajh ("Face"), and Nafs ("Soul").
What Allah mentioned in the Qur'an about the Yad, Wajh, and Nafs
is that they are His Attributes without a Modality."
In a Deobandi article, Mufti Taqi Uthmani mentioned that Sheikh Ibn Taymiyah's method (of taking Allah's attributes in a literal sense) is one of the 4 accepted methods of interpreting the attributes of Allah (as long as there is no Tashbeeh or Kayf of-course).
So it is apparent that it is permissible to affirm those attributes. The way I've always understood it is that allah mentions these things in the qur'an, and these are real, but they are not limbs or parts. "yad" when it pertains to humans, indicates limbs or parts. When it is an attribute of allah, it is not "hands" as we think of it, but rather, we believe init without a modality (allah is transcendent, and beyond the creation, and is above having parts). Yad is an attribute of allah representing a metaphysical reality that our minds can never comprehend. That is all fine and dandy (inshaallah), but here is the thing: I've seen Salafis add a number to the "yad", saying that allah has two hands. They also affirm 2 eyes for allah, and a shin (surah Qalam, and hadith in Sahih Bukhari), though "clear verses of the quran". Some of them even go as far as to say allah has 5 fingers in his right hand(in a hadith) and interpret "istiwa" as "julus".
So, my question is... is that permitted? I understand that it is permitted to attribute allah with what he has affirmed in the qur'an (like yad, nafs, and wajh, as imam abu hanifa stated) as long as you maintain allah's transcendence and not give him a body, space, direction, limbs or parts, or liken him to creation in any way, but are we allowed assign a number to allah's yad? Are we allowed to attribute eyes to allah (while maintaining uniqueness and transcendence)? As for "yawma yukshafu ansak" some have told me that that is a linguistic device meaning "that day when matters become dire" or something of the sort. But then again, how do we view the hadith which mentions allah "revealing his shin"?
So summarized: what are the attributes that is permissible to attribute to Allah (while maintaining uniqueness and trancendence) and what are the common attributed attributes which are not permitted to be attributed to Allah (because linguistically it means something else, or it would mean anthropomorphism, or other)?
I hope to hear from several members of this community for my benefit and for others. If I have offended anyone, please forgive me, and if I have made any mistakes, please correct me. Jazakallahu Khayr
The question(s) I am posing is very important for me and an answer will be very helpful for me and many others, inshaallah. Alhamdulillah, I live in a part of the US where Muslims are plentiful. Most of us are Salafi. The problem is that most of them are confused and blindly following the Wahhabi-influenced aqeedah that most of Saudi Arabia is propagating. The main place where the problems seem to occur is in the area of Tawheed al-Asma was-Sifaat. The majority of us follow the Athari way and affirm the attributes, but I think it is necessary to know the distinction between affirming Allah's Attributes (the ones he affirmed for himself)
and implying Tashbeeh (by using ambiguous terms, delving into its nature and trying to interpret them, or affirming those which he didn't explicitly affirm, such as saying allah has 5 fingers in his right hand). I think there is supposed to be a line here, and the line has been crossed and trampled over by the Wahhabis and the Mujassimah.
In Imam Abu Hanifa's Fiqh al-Akbar, he mentioned (rough translation):
"He is Attributed with Yad ("Hands"), Wajh ("Face"), and Nafs ("Soul").
What Allah mentioned in the Qur'an about the Yad, Wajh, and Nafs
is that they are His Attributes without a Modality."
In a Deobandi article, Mufti Taqi Uthmani mentioned that Sheikh Ibn Taymiyah's method (of taking Allah's attributes in a literal sense) is one of the 4 accepted methods of interpreting the attributes of Allah (as long as there is no Tashbeeh or Kayf of-course).
So it is apparent that it is permissible to affirm those attributes. The way I've always understood it is that allah mentions these things in the qur'an, and these are real, but they are not limbs or parts. "yad" when it pertains to humans, indicates limbs or parts. When it is an attribute of allah, it is not "hands" as we think of it, but rather, we believe init without a modality (allah is transcendent, and beyond the creation, and is above having parts). Yad is an attribute of allah representing a metaphysical reality that our minds can never comprehend. That is all fine and dandy (inshaallah), but here is the thing: I've seen Salafis add a number to the "yad", saying that allah has two hands. They also affirm 2 eyes for allah, and a shin (surah Qalam, and hadith in Sahih Bukhari), though "clear verses of the quran". Some of them even go as far as to say allah has 5 fingers in his right hand(in a hadith) and interpret "istiwa" as "julus".
So, my question is... is that permitted? I understand that it is permitted to attribute allah with what he has affirmed in the qur'an (like yad, nafs, and wajh, as imam abu hanifa stated) as long as you maintain allah's transcendence and not give him a body, space, direction, limbs or parts, or liken him to creation in any way, but are we allowed assign a number to allah's yad? Are we allowed to attribute eyes to allah (while maintaining uniqueness and transcendence)? As for "yawma yukshafu ansak" some have told me that that is a linguistic device meaning "that day when matters become dire" or something of the sort. But then again, how do we view the hadith which mentions allah "revealing his shin"?
So summarized: what are the attributes that is permissible to attribute to Allah (while maintaining uniqueness and trancendence) and what are the common attributed attributes which are not permitted to be attributed to Allah (because linguistically it means something else, or it would mean anthropomorphism, or other)?
I hope to hear from several members of this community for my benefit and for others. If I have offended anyone, please forgive me, and if I have made any mistakes, please correct me. Jazakallahu Khayr