View attachment 7275
Monkey brain has graced us with more of his wisdom
Where is Allah?
The Most High transcends His creation, He is above and beyond all things. This means He does not dwell in space nor have limits nor boundaries, rather Allah is above all of that and free from any resemblance with the creation or in-dwelling in it.
As is indicated by clear evidence, place is created. Allah is however uncreated. Before the creation of the heavens and the Earth there was nothing with Him, He was without space below Him and without space above Him and then He created the throne (creating place). This is what we are taught in a Hadith of Imam at-Tirmidhi's Sunan, Kitab at-Tafsir.
The scholars like Imam al-Bayhaqi also quoted the clear Hadith of Sahih Muslim, the Dua which mentions that there is nothing above Allah nor anything below Him. This same Dua also confirms His being beyond time. Regarding Allah's absolute aboveness there are so many other Ahadith such as the famous Hadith of the slave girl. In fact this doctrine is first and foremost found in the Qur'an, for Allah negates any resemblance between Him and anything else, meaning He cannot be like anything He can create (and He can certainly create any physical form). He also stated that His noble slaves fear Him above them.
The Heresy of Jahm bin Safwan
The Sahabah would even teach each other the Dua of Sahih Muslim to say before going to bed before every night. This was the firm creed of the Salaf.
Then came a man who was a student of a famous heretic who denied Human Choice. This was Jahm bin Safwan. He taught many heresies. He negated the attributes of Allah until it was clear he did not think his creator was anything. He did this evidently due to a desire to avoid falling into Tashbih (assimilating the Creator with His creation), but by doing so he fell into the opposite heresy of Ta'til (negation of the Creator).
He thought to himself, "Allah cannot be with limits and boundaries, therefore he is without limits," and this is correct. But he misunderstood this and took it to mean that the Dhat of Allah continues forever and is everywhere. So he believed his creator was everywhere, present in the creation, immanent.
The like of him today are the fools who in fear of Tashbih say Allah is everywhere without limits. Like Jahm they misinterpret certain unclear verses and in doing so deny other verses including clear ones.
This doctrine is Kufr. Jahm who held it was a Kafir. He was executed.
The Heresy of Muqatil bin Sulayman
Never does one form of misguidance take root, but some ignoramous will come along and attempt to refute it yet in doing so they will go beyond the Qur'an and Sunnah and innovate a misguidance themselves.
There came a commentator of the Qur'an who was also a well known story-teller. Disgusted at the teachings of Jahm bin Safwan, he opposed him and debated him. He believed he was defending the Sunnah, for Ahlus Sunnah used to say, "Allah is above the Throne" and "Allah is above the Heaven".
He therefore took to opposing Jahm's Ta'til, by instead being as explicit as possible in affirmation, till he went to an extreme in it, likening his Creator with his creation. It is even suggested that he fabricated reports to do this - certainly he is not taken from in the field of Hadith. He likened the attributes of Allah to his creation, until some report that he would affirm limbs for his Creator and even skin and blood, all whilst saying that in all of this, "He does not resemble the creation".
He thought to himself, "Allah is above the Throne as the people of knowledge say, His aboveness is explicit in the Quran and Sunnah," and this is correct. But he misunderstood this and took it to mean that the Dhat of Allah is in one particular place spatially confined above the creation. So he believed is creator is in one place, dwelling in the creation, immanent.
The like of him today are the fools who in fear of Ta'til say Allah is in one place with limits/boundaries. And some of them fearing that Ahlus Sunnah might make Takfir of them instead make Tawaqquf, saying the doctrine of the righteous Salaf to negate place for him is impermissible, and that they neither confirm nor deny place for him, like the earlier innovators who said, "neither is the Qur'an created nor uncreated". Like Muqatil they misinterpret the unclear verses and in doing so negate other verses including clear ones.
The doctrine of Muqatil is Kufr. Some of the Salaf wished to kill Muqatil, and evidently according to their view he was a Kafir.
Summary
Some might think regarding these ancient heresies that the Ulama of the past refute at length in their works are the sole preserve of Jahm, Muqatil, Ibn Manda and the like and that there are none of the present period who teach their falsehood. This "Shaykh" Tauqir Ishaq is a perfect example of them being mistaken. Amongst the most ignorant and extreme section of the pseudo-Salafis one also finds explicit Tashbih.
Here is a simple rule to remember:
To believe Allah is in every place is
Kufr.
To believe Allah is in one place is
Kufr.
The
Sunnah is to believe Allah is
above and beyond all things, above the Earth, above the Heavens and above the Throne. He is separate from his creation.
The
Sunnah is to believe
He is not in a place.
We believe in all of the Qur'an and do not make baseless interpretations of the Ayat al-Mutashabihat.
May Allah destroy the Jahmiyyah and the Muqatiliyyah.
