4. ONENESS OF ALLAH’S NAMES & ATTRIBUTES
A group of non-Arabs who were from the people of innovations (ahl’ul-bid’ah) visited the city of Baghdad and started preaching to the laypeople. Most of their sermons were advocating that the Qur’an people have and read from, is not the Words of Allah for it is nothing but papers and ink! They also claimed that Allah is not above the heavens and that the slave-girl that the Prophet asked, “Where is Allah?” was a mute and so she pointed at the sky to mean that He is not from the idols being worshipped on earth! They further challenged those who stated that the Qur’an is made of letters and voice as they claimed that the words of Qur’an are actually the words of Angel Jibril (‘alayhi as-salam)
They remained preaching these innovations until they removed the glorification that most of the laypeople had for Qur’an to the point that laypeople started to agree with them and say its correct thing because Qur’an was something that Angel Jibrll brought in a bag!
This made a group of people who adhered to the Sunnah (ahl’ul sunnah) to come to me and complain about what has been happening. 1 said to them, ‘be patient because sometimes doubts raise their heads even if such doubts are refuted. Whilst the falsehood may win a round but the truth wins the battle, and you know that falsifiers are many in numbers as in each country there must be some who counterfeit money.’
One of them asked what we should say in response to these doubts. I said, ‘You should know— may Allah guide you to success— Allah, Most High, and His Messenger accepted from people to believe in the general beliefs of Islam without requiring anyone to know the details of such beliefs. This is because such details will either confuse the beliefs and creed of people or happen to be beyond the comprehension of mankind.’
The first belief that the Messenger of Allah advocated was affirming the existence of the Creator (ithbat al-Khaliq) and so the Qur’an included verses (ayat) mentioning the signs of His creation to stand as evidence for His existence. For example, Allah said,
“It is He Who made the earth a stable ground and placed within it rivers.” [al-Naml (27):61]
And
“And there signs in yourselves. Do not you see?” [al-Dhariyat (51): 21 ]
The Qur’an then continued to establish the evidence of His existence through His creation and by highlighting that He is All Powerful. Allah established the evidence on the truthfulness of the Prophet by supporting him with miracles, the greatest of which is the Qur’an, which all the creatures failed to produce anything like it. Such evidences sufficed the Companions as it did for everyone in the first generation when there was no innovation or deviation. As Allah, Most High, Knew of the innovations that will take place afterwards.
He emphasised and provided more evidences in the Qur’an since it is the fountain of all the knowledge and the greatest miracle (akhar al-mujizat) of Allah’s Messenger. To this end, He stated that the Qur’an is sent down,
“This is a Blessed Book that We have sent down.” [al-An’am (6):92]
and that He sends down from it what cures people,
“We send down the Qur’an that which is healing.” [al-Isra (17): 82]
and that the Qur’an is the His Speech (kalam), as He said
“They wish to change the Words of Allah.” [al-Fath (48): 15]
and that it is audible (masmu), as He said,
“Until he hears the Words of Allah.” [al- Tawbah (9): 6],
and that it is preserved (mahfii3), as He said,
“Inscribed in a preserved Tablet.” [al-Buruj (85):22]
And
“Rather, the Qur’an is distinct verses [preserved] within the breasts of those who have been given knowledge.” [al-Ankalmt (29):49]
and that it is written (maktub) and recited (matlu),
“And you did not recite before it any scripture, nor did you inscribe one with your right hand.” [al-‘Ankabut (29):48]
and so many other verses that stress such meanings that necessitates the authenticity of the Qur’an.
Allah then negated the capricious idea [of disbelievers] that the Prophet invented the Qur’an, so He said,
“Or do they say, ‘He invented it?’ Rather, it is the truth from your Lord.” [aI-Sajdab (32):3]
and threatened him if this had been the case,
“And if he [i.e. Muhammad] were to invent up anything about f’s some [false] sayings, We would have seized him by the right hand; then We would have cut off his life artery [aorta – of his heart].” [al-Haqqah (69): 44-46]
and promised the one who alleges that the Qur’an is the words of humans,
“[he claims] This is nothing but the word of a human being! [Hence,] I will cast him into Hell-fire.” [al-Mudaththir (74):25-26].
He punished every disbelieving nation with a particular punishment, He ordered His Angels to execute. Such as the loud shout of Jibril that extinguished [nation of] Thamud. The screaming wind that was sent upon [people of] ‘Ad. The earth swallowing Qarun, making the highest part of the city of the people of Lut its lowest, and sending birds in flocks to strike those who intended to destroy the Ka’bah with stones of hard clay from Hell.
Yet He stated the punishment for those who disbelieve in the Qur’an will be executed by Himself directly: He said,
“So leave Me, [O Muhammad], with [the matter of] whoever denies this statement [the Qur’an].” [al-Qalam (68):44]
And
“Leave me with the one I created alone.” [al-Mndaththir (74): 11]
This emphasis is because the Qur’an is the basis of all previous religions and testifies for every proceeding divinely revealed religion since they have nothing in their hands testifying to the authenticity of their beliefs except our Book, as their books were altered and changed.
Every intelligent person knows that the allegation of the disbeliever that the Qur’an is the words of a human entails that he heard it. No person with intellect will dispute the fact that the pronoun used in the verse,
“and Indeed it is.”
refers to the Qur’an and that the part of the verse,
“it was sent down.”
refer to the Qur’an too, and that,
“This is a Book.” [al-An am (6):92]
denotes a book that is present.
In fact, this is a settled and undisputed understanding that no one opposed in the time of the Messenger and his Companions (radiy Allahu ‘anhum).
Shaytan introduced innovations later on with some people saying the Qur’an was created (makhluq)\ Imam Ahmad Ibn Hanbal stood firm against this statement so that no one dare think of the Qur’an in a manner that removes its glorification ita’zim) from the hearts of people or negate its quality as being the Words of Allah.
He believed that it is disallowed to even come out with a statement that was never been said before [or found in Qur’an and Sunnah]; hence he used to respond to his opponents, ‘how could I say what was never said?’
People settled on this since then, until the appearance of ‘Ali Ibn Isma’ll al-Ash’ari who adopted the view of the Mu’tazilah at one time— and then he recanted and agreed that the Speech of Allah is an Attribute of His Essence! This claim necessitated that the Qur’an we have in our hands is created, which confused the people and impacted their beliefs negatively. Since then, the people of innovations have been swimming in waves of confusion until today.
This issue and the doubts and refutations relating to it can be found in the books of creed; therefore I will not elaborate further on it but I will mention in brief what will be enough for whoever wants Allah’s guidance: Islam required us to believe in the general statements and to glorify the texts as they are. It forbade us to delve into whatever provokes doubts and is beyond the understanding of mankind.
If it is forbidden to investigate predestination (qadr) then do you think it would be allowed to investigate the Attributes of the One who predestined fate?! The reason for preventing us from delving into such details is because of two reasons I mentioned before; namely to avert any doubt that may confuse the beliefs and creed of people and because such details are beyond the understanding of mankind.
That being the case, if the evidences prove the existence of the Qur’an then someone claims that Qur’an does not exist on earth, then he rejected the evidences that Allah’s Messenger spared no effort to establish and affirm in the hearts of people. What source will we rely on to stipulate the lawful and the unlawful and decide and affirm any issue if we had nothing from Allah?! The opponent has no choice but to support any of his own arguments by saying “Allah said…” and this statement will oppose what he tries to negate! Having said that, the truth is to comply with the apparent evidences of the religion without delving into its minute details!
If a person attempts to cast a doubt into your heart by saying, ‘If what you recite is actually your voice and what you read from is written by you, where is the Qur’an?’
You should then say to such a person, ‘We both agree that we have a source that we accept as evidence— that is the Qur’an.’
Yet, you admonish me for affirming the existence of what cannot be affirmed tangibly while, in fact, it is you who should be admonished for denying the existence of a matter that is established and affirmed by religion!
As for their statement that the Qur’an we have is just some papers and ink. It is like saying human beings are just flesh and blood! It is a farfetched notion because the essence of humans is the soul; hence if a person perceives humans as mere flesh and blood then he cannot see beyond the tangible.
If they argue, we say that the written is different from the writing, we reply: this is a statement we admonish too because neither you nor your opponent can verify it because if you believe the writings are the ink and shapes, it then means we know these things are not the Qur’an; and if you intended to mean by it, the meanings standing out from these letters, we know that these are not the writings too.
This is why such matters are inappropriate to discuss because if a person cannot verify or explain a matter that is less complex and in rank than the Qur’an, the soul for example, which we know it exists but have no knowledge of its details or true nature, then it befits more to admit that we cannot have detailed account of Allah!
It is therefore obligatory to suffice with the texts we hear while negating anything that is inappropriate to describe Him with, because delving into such topics will not only increase the confusion and bring no benefit to anyone, it also requires whoever does that to deny textual evidences that are established without the need to bring any logical evidence. This shows that safety is only achieved by following the path of the righteous predecessors (salaf al-salih).
I want to say that to affirm the existence of God by the apparent meanings of verses (ayat) and hadiths has more effect on laypeople and is more convincing than preaching to them about negating the similarity between Allah’s attributes and the attributes of humanity (tanzih) though it is a must that people affirm the tanzih of Allah, Exalted be He.
Ibn ‘Aqil used to say, ‘The apparent meanings of ayat and hadiths befit the creed of laypeople the most because they easily accept what they can relate to. But if we remove this from their hearts, their glorification and mannerism towards Allah will be removed.
Therefore, I prefer laypeople to be confused with that doubt more than having them drowned in the concept of tanzih [alone] because tashbih (i.e. understanding the Attributes of Allah according to human attributes) dips them deep in the concept of affirming Him and His Attributes and so they will hope and fear as they can relate to what makes them hopeful and fearful. All the while, tanzih [alone] will make people to negate the Attributes and so they neither will be hopeful nor fearful.
Whoever contemplates the religion will notice that texts focus on giving examples whose apparent meaning is something that people relate to such as the statement of the Bedouin who said to the Prophet “Does our Lord laugh?” and the Prophet said, “Yes” without showing annoyance because of that.
(Source: al-Hafiz Abu’l-Faraj ibn al-jawzl [d. 597AH] “CAPTURED THOUGHTS being” a translation of his masterpiece ‘Sayd al-K hatir)
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