Salafi Research Institute SRI
بسم الله الرحمن الرحيم
After narrating from the Prophet ﷺ “Indeed, Allāh accepts charity and takes it in His Right Hand and nurtures it for one of you, just as one of you nurtures his foal, until a (single) morsel becomes like (Mount) Uḥud.“ [Jāmi’ al-Tirmidhi 662]
al-Tirmidhi (D. 279) said:
وقد قال غير واحد من أهل العلم في هذا الحديث وما يشبه هذا من الروايات من الصفات ونزول الرب تبارك وتعالى كل ليلة إلى السماء الدنيا، قالوا: قد ثبتت الروايات في هذا، ويؤمن بها ولا يتوهم ولا يقال كيف؟
هكذا روي عن مالك وسفيان بن عيينة وعبد الله بن المبارك أنهم قالوا في هذه الأحاديث: أمروها بلا كيف. وهكذا قول أهل العلم من أهل السنة والجماعة، وأما الجهمية فأنكرت هذه الروايات وقالوا: هذا تشبيه
وقد ذكر الله عز وجل في غير موضع من كتابه اليد والسمع والبصر، فتأولت الجهمية هذه الآيات ففسروها على غير ما فسر أهل العلم، وقالوا: إن الله لم يخلق آدم بيده! وقالوا: إن معنى اليد ههنا القوة.
وقال إسحاق بن إبراهيم: إنما يكون التشبيه إذا قال: يد كيد أو مثل يد، أو سمع كسمع أو مثل سمع، فإذا قال سمع كسمع أو مثل سمع فهذا التشبيه.
وأما إذا قال كما قال الله: يد وسمع وبصر، ولا يقول كيف ولا يقول مثل سمع ولا كسمع، فهذا لا يكون تشبيها، وهو كما قال الله تبارك وتعالى في كتابه: {ليس كمثله شيء وهو السميع البصير}.
More than one from the people of knowledge said about this Ḥadīth and what resembles it from the narrations concerning the Attributes such as the descent of the Rabb, Blessed and Exalted is He, (in the last third of) every night to the lowest heaven. They said: The narrations regarding this are established. They are to be believed in, not to be imagined, nor said How. Likewise is narrated from Mālik (1), Sufyān ibn ʿUyaynah, (2) and ʿAbdullāh ibn al-Mubārak that they said regarding these aḥādīth: “Affirm them without (asking/explaining) how.” And this is the statement of the people of knowledge from Ahl al-Sunnah wa al-Jamāʿah. As for the Jahmiyyah, they denied these narrations and said this is tashbīh (likening Allah to the creation). And Allāh ‘Azza wa Jall has mentioned in more than one place in His Book: the Hand, the Hearing, and the Sight. The Jahmiyyah then engaged in taʾwīl (figurative interpretation) of these verses, explaining them in a manner other than how the people of knowledge explained them. They said: “Indeed, Allāh did not create Ādam with His Hand”! And they said: “The meaning of the Hand here is power.” And Isḥāq bin Ibrāhīm (bin Rahuyah, D. 238) said: “Tashbīh only occurs if one says, ‘A hand like a hand or similar to a hand’ or ‘hearing like hearing or similar to hearing.’ So if one says, ‘hearing like hearing’ or ‘similar to hearing’ this is tashbīh. But if one says, as Allāh has said, ‘Hand’ ‘Hearing’ and ‘Sight’ and does not say ‘how’ nor does one say ‘similar to a hearing’ or ‘like a hearing’ then this is not tashbīh. And it is as Allāh, Blessed and Exalted is He, has said in His Book: {There is nothing like unto Him, and He is the All-Hearing, the All-Seeing.}” [Al-Shūrā: 11].
(1) and Sufyān al-Thawri, al-Awza’i, Layth bin Sa’d. Cf. Tarikh li ibn Abi Khaythamah 4688, al-‘ilal li Ibn Abi Hatim (5/468), al-Tamheed (5/171) with Sahih asanid
(2) Aḥmad ibn Naṣr said:
I asked Sufyān ibn ʿUyaynah: “O Abā Muḥammad, I want to ask you.” He said: “Do not ask.” I said: “If I do not ask you, then whom shall I ask?” He said: “Ask.” I said: “What is your statement regarding these aḥādīth that have been narrated, such as: ‘The hearts are between two Fingers (of the Most Merciful),’ and that ‘Allāh laughs or is amazed by the one who remembers Him in the marketplaces’?” So he said: “Affirm them as they have come without (asking/explaining) how.” [al-Marasil li Abi Dawud (75); Jayyid isnad]
And he said after narrating the Hadith of seeing Allah in Jannah (2558):
وقد روي عن النبي صلى الله عليه وسلم روايات كثيرة مثل هذا، ما يذكر فيه أمر الرؤية أن الناس يرون ربهم، وذكر القدم، وما أشبه هذه الأشياء. والمذهب في هذا عند أهل العلم من الأئمة مثل سفيان الثوري ومالك بن أنس وابن المبارك وابن عيينة ووكيع وغيرهم أنهم رووا هذه الأشياء، وقالوا: تروى هذه الأحاديث، ونؤمن بها، ولا يقال: كيف، وهذا الذي اختاره أهل الحديث أن يرووا هذه الأشياء كما جاءت، ويؤمن بها، ولا تفسر ولا تتوهم ولا يقال كيف، وهذا أمر أهل العلم الذي اختاروه، وذهبوا إليه.
And many narrations like this have been reported from the Prophet ﷺ, in which the matter of al-Ruʾyah is mentioned, that the people will see their Rabb (in Jannah), and the mention of the Foot (of Allah), and what resembles these things. The (true) position in this matter, according to the people of knowledge from the Imāms such as Sufyān al-Thawrī, Mālik ibn Anas, (1) Ibn al-Mubārak, Ibn ʿUyaynah, Wakīʿ, (2) and others is that they narrated these things and said these aḥādīth are to be narrated, and we believe in them, and it is not to be said ‘how?’. This is what the Ahl al-Ḥadīth have chosen: to narrate these things as they have come, to believe in them, not to (figuratively) interpret them, not to imagine them, and not to say, ‘how?’ This is the matter which the people of knowledge chose and adopted as their way.
(1) Yaḥyā ibn Yaḥyā says:
We were with Mālik ibn Anas when a man came and said: “O Abā ʿAbdullāh, {The Most Merciful upon the Throne Istawā (rose above)} [Ṭāhā: 5]. So how did He Istawā?” He (Yaḥyā) said: Mālik bowed his head until he was overcome with sweat. Then he said: “Al-Istiwāʾ is not unknown (in meaning), the how cannot be comprehended, belief in it is obligatory and asking about (the how) is an innovation (bidʿah). And I do not see you except as an innovator.” Then he ordered for him to be removed (from the gathering). [al-Tamhid (5/149), al-Asma wa al-Siffat by al-Bayhaqi (867); Both isnad Hasan]
(2) Zakariyyā bin ʿAdī asked Wakīʿ, saying: “O Abā Sufyān, these aḥādīth, for example, the ḥadīth that the Kursī is the place of the two Feet, and others like it?” Wakīʿ said: “We were contemporaries of Ismāʿīl ibn Abī Khālid, Sufyān (al-Thawrī), and Misʿar (ibn Kidām), and they used to narrate these aḥādīth without offering any (figurative) interpretation for them.” [Tarikh al-Duri (2543), al-Asma wa al-Siffat by al-Bayhaqi (759); Isnad Sahih]
Something very similar was said after the Hadith (3045)
