28. Proving Fingers for Allah Almighty: Kitāb al-Tawḥīd (The Book on Monotheism) by Abū Bakr b. Khuzaymah

 

28. Proving Fingers for Allah Almighty

This is a Prophetic statement. It has not originated from someone other than the Prophet as has been assumed by some ignorant and stubborn people. They held that the ḥadīth of Ibn Masᶜūd [under discussion] is not a Prophetic statement. They take it to be the statement of a Jew. They deny the fact that the Prophet smiled to affirm the statement of the Jew.

108. (1) ᶜAbd Allāh b. Muhammad al-Zuhrī and Ḥusayn b. ᶜAbd al-Raḥmān al-Jarjarāᵓī and Muhammad b. Khallād al-Bāhilī and Muhammad b. Maymūn and Muhammad Ibn Manṣūr al-Makkī → al-Walīd b. Muslim:

al-Zahrī → ᶜAbd al-Raḥmān b. Yazīd b. Jābir

Muhammad b. Khalād says that he heard from al-Makkī who heard from ᶜAbd al-Raḥmān b. Yazīd b. Jābir

Basr b. ᶜUbayd Allāh al-Haḍramī → Abū Idrīs al-Khawlānī → al-Nuwās b. Samᶜān al-Kalābī:

The Prophet said: “Allah Almighty holds every heart in two fingers. If He wants, it stays, if He wants, He removes it.” The Prophet used to pray thus: “O the one in control of the hearts, set my heart firm on your religion. The balance is in Allāh’s hand; He lowers it and lifts it.”

This is the wording reported by Bāhilī. Others have reported the following version: “If He wants to sustain it, He keep it. And when He intends to remove it, He removes it.” Muhammad b. Maymūn said: “or he said uplifts and lowers.” He was, however, doubtful. Husayn b. ᶜAbd al-Raḥmān stated that ᶜAbd al-Raḥmān b. Yazīd al-Azdī reported the following wording as has al-Jarjāᵓī: ‘Yā Muqallib al-Qulūbi (O the one who changes hearts).” ᶜAbd Allāh b. Muhammad al-Zuhrī once stated: “There is no heart which is not in the grip of the two of the fingers of the Lord of the worlds. If He wants to sustain it, He lets it sustain.”

Abū Bakr said: Based on the ḥadīth I argue that the words “He lifts the qisṭ and lowers it” occurring in the ḥadīth of Abū Mūsā mean: “He lifts the scales”. The above-mentioned narrative states that the mīzān (scales/balance) is in the hand of the merciful. He lifts it and lowers it. Allah has said: “We shall set up scales of justice (qisṭ) for the Day of Judgment.” (Q 21:47) I have included all these ḥadīths in Kitāb al-Qadr (Predestination).

109. (2) Ibn Wahb → Ibrāhīm b. Nashīṭ al-Waᶜlānī → Ibn Abī al-Ḥusayn (ᶜAbd Allāh b. ᶜAbd al-Raḥmān b. Abī Ḥusayn al-Makkī → Shahr b. Ḥawshib:

Umm-i-Salamah said:

The Prophet often used to supplicate in the following words: “O Allah, the one who changes and turns the hearts! Keep my heart firm on Your religion.” I said O Messenger of Allāh, will the hearts be changed?” He said: “Yes. Hearts of all the children of Adam are in the control of Allah. He holds them between His two fingers. If He wants to keep it firm, He keeps it so and He causes them to deviate if He so desires.”

Abū Bakr said: So we pray to Allah not to cause our hearts to deviate after guiding us to the right path. We beseech Him to grant us mercy. He is the grantor of bounties without measure.

110. (3) Aḥmad b. ᶜAbd al-Rahmān → his uncle and reported ᶜAbd Allāh Shrāḥabīl b. al-Ḥakam → ᶜĀmir b. Nāᵓil → Kathīr b. Murrah → Abū Dhar → the Messenger of Allāh:

The hearts of the children of Adam are between two of the fingers of Allāh and whenever He wills, he causes it to deviate, and He turns it over on will. The best among the good things Allāh grants anyone is to create certainty and conviction (yaqīn) in his heart. Allāh has the keys of hearts. When he intends some good for His servant, He opens the lock of his heart and grants him faith and truthfulness. He makes his heart a vessel ready to absorb what is put in it. He makes his heart pure and his tongue true. He makes his nature firm and committed. He makes his ears hearing and his eyes watchful. The worst thing a human being ever received is that doubt dwells in his heart. His very person is turned into evil. Evil in him is obvious and dominating. Wealth does not benefit him no matter how much. Allah locks his heart and makes it constricted and narrow. [It is so much stuffed] that he seems to be ascending to a place as high as the heavens.

The same narrative has been narrated to us by Muhammad b. Yaḥyā from Isḥāq b. Ibrāhīm al-Zubaydī from ᶜAbd Allāh b. Rajāᵓ.

Abū Bakr said: I denounce basing myself on the narratives reported by people such as Sharḥabīl b. al-Ḥakam and ᶜĀmir b. Nāᵓil. Allāh has provided us better sources and we are grateful to Him for that. I would plead to this kind of narratives on this very issue. O people of understanding ponder. Think over what we have stated about the hands of Allah. Our view in this regard is like our stance on the face and two eyes of Allah. Obtain conviction in the correct view by the guidance Allāh has provided you. Our Lord opened your hearts for faith as He has stated in the holy Qurᵓān about His attributes. Learn, by Allah’s given power, that the truth, and the right and just view in this regard is our view; the view of the followers of the tradition, adherents of the sunan. Ignore those who have, out of ignorance, declared these followers of the truth as mushabbihah (believers in assimilation). The Jahmīs Muᶜaṭṭilah (negators  of Allah’s attributes) do not know what tashbīh (assimilation) truly means.

We hold that Allāh has two hands as He has told us in the holy Qurᵓān and through the tongue of His Prophet. Both hands of our Lord are right hands as the Prophet has explained to us. We hold that Allāh takes the whole earth in one of His hands and He rolls up the heavens in His other hand. Both His hands are right hands. Neither of them is left hand. We hold that even the strongest and mightiest men with unblemished hands and sound and properly proportioned limbs cannot grip and hold in the least way any of the seven earths. If all the humans created by Allah since the time of Adam to this day and, also those who are destined to come before the Day of Judgment jointly try to hold in their hands any of the seven earths, they will not be able to do that. Similarly, all of them would not be able to roll up any of the seven heavens with their hands. They will be unable and at a loss in such an effort. How it is possible, O those endowed with understanding, to declare such believers as attribute the power and the hands described above to the Almighty as mushabbihah? How is it possible to declare those who attribute to the hands of the created things weakness and powerlessness described above to have committed tashbīh? How can they be considered to have compared the hands of the creator with the hands of the created things? How can it be justly and correctly said that those who describe Allah’s fingers as did the Prophet as a believer in tashbīh? We cite the ḥadīth which states that Allāh holds the heavens on His fingers and the earths on His fingers.

All the human beings coming between the creation of Adam to this day the trumpet will be blown cannot jointly hold even a piece of any of the seven heavens. They cannot hold any of the seven earths. They are unable to do so even if they employ their whole bodies jointly not to say of fingers. They will prove powerless. How then it is possible to declare those as attribute to Allah what Allah himself has described in His book as mushabbih, comparing the hands of Allah with the hands of the humans?

We declare: Allāh has two open hands. He spends as He likes. With them He created Adam. He wrote Torah for Moses with His hand. His hands are eternal. They will remain forever. The hands of the creatures are created things. They are mortal not destined to live for eternity. They are weak. They will die, will decay into dust, and will be recreated again. “So blessed be Allah, the best to create” (Q 23:14) Which kind of tashbīh is possible to attribute to our scholars, O men of understanding? Their crime is nothing but to attribute to Allah what He Himself and His Messenger have attributed to Him.

The view of these Muᶜaṭṭilah entails that every believer who recites the Book of Allāh and believes in it in his heart and professes faith in it openly commits tashbīh. This faction believes that Allāh has not described His Self (nafsahū) in the holy Qurᵓān. This view also entails that whoever attributes hands to Allah commits tashbīh. He compares the Creator with His creatures. So the essence of their stance entails that we must deny what all that Allāh has attributed to Himself in His book and through the tongue of His Prophet. May Allāh send His curses upon them! For it is they who reject all that Allāh has attributed to Himself in His book and through the tongue of His Prophet. They believe in nothing of the sort contained in the Book of Allah and the Prophetic traditions.

Would comparing hands of the most powerful man, knower of many artifacts, a perfect calligrapher, able to write swiftly with that of the weakest man who does not know any productive trade, is clumsy, and cannot even write a word be committing tashbīh? Or will it be understandable to compare the hand of such a powerful and adept person with the hand of an infant or with that of an old man, descript one, whose hands shiver with old age and who has no power to firmly hold something?

Can we tell the man described above that his hands are like that of an ape, or pig, or bear, or dog or any other animal? If the listener is of sound mind and knowing he will tell us that we are wrong. He will say that we do not understand and properly use comparison and have presented wrong examples. He will hold that we have uttered an improbable thing and have twisted the use of comparison. For not all that can be called hand is perfectly like another such object. All those who understand Arabic exhaustively know that a single word is conventionally applied to objects of different qualities. Objects signified by a single word can be different. A single word can therefore give different meanings.

We cannot declare someone as mushabbih who tells another man that human beings have hands just like apes. How it is then possible to call someone a mushabbih who says that Allah has two hands based on his knowledge of the Qurᵓān and the Sunnah. We say that a human being has two hands. We also say that Allah has two hands by which He has created man. By His hands He has written Torah for Moses. His hands are open. He spends on will. The hands of man, on the contrary, are created things. This I have explained earlier in the chapters on face and eyes as well as in the present chapter above.

The Jahmīs Muᶜaṭṭilah have assumed that the divine saying: “but His both hands are open” means His two bounties. This is indeed distortion not interpretation.

The proof against their claim follows. Allāh’s bounties are innumerable. None but Allah can count them. On the contrary, He has only two hands. He said to the accursed Satan: “What prevents you from prostrating yourself to one whom I have created with my hands (yadayy)?” (Q 38:75) The Almighty has also told us that He created Adam with His hand. If someone thinks that Allāh has created Adam with His blessings he dares to change the word of Allāh. Allāh said: “On the Day of Judgment the whole of the earth will be but His handful, and the heavens will be rolled up in His right hand” (Q 39:67) Do the faithful not understand that the whole earth will not be grasped in a bounty, nor will the heavens be clinched in another one on the Last Day?

Do not the reasoning believers see that the claim of Jahmīs is mere ignorance? Or it is pretended ignorance worse than ignorance. In fact, the earth will be in grasp of the one hand of the Almighty on the Day of Judgment. The heavens will be held in His right hand which is the other hand. Both hands of the Almighty are right hands. Neither is the left hand. He is above than having a left hand. Left hand is characteristic of the created things. Allah is not like the created things. What I understand from the view of the Jahmīs is that according to the convention of the Arabic language their interpretation is distortion of the divine text. It is not a valid interpretation. They take the word yadāhu in “yadāhu (both of His hands) are outstretched” to mean bounties. If this is the case, then the verse would have read as follows: yadāhu mabsūṭatun (the last word in singular form). This is because Allāh has bestowed countless bounties. It is impossible to confine His bounties to only two and no more.

The divine saying, “both of His hands are extended” conclusively means that He has two hands. He has told us that both are outspread, and He spends as He likes.

Another verse also proves that hands in this verse cannot be taken to mean bounty. Allāh has quoted the Jews in the holy Qurᵓān. He says: “the Jews say that Allāh’s hand is tied up” (Q 5:64). Allāh rejected this statement of theirs saying: “but their (the Jews) hands are tied up” (Q 5:64). He also said: “But His both hands are spread out” (Q 5:64). Every believer fully knows that Allāh did not respond to them saying that their bounties are tied up. No, not even the Jews meant that Allāh’s bounty is tied up. Allāh negated their blame and rejected their saying that Allāh’s hand is tied up. He told the believers that both His hands are widely spread. He spends at He likes. We have already mentioned that Allāh grants His creatures His blessings with His hands with the help of a ḥadīth reported by Himmām b. Munabbiḥ from Abū Hurayrah from the Prophet. It says that Allāh’s right hand is generous, a giving one. No spending can exhaust it.

So the Prophet let us know that Allāh spends with His right hand. It is these two hands with which He spends as He wills.

Some Jahmīs believe that the verse: “Allāh created Adam with His hand” means He created them with His power (bi quwwatihī). They think that the hand in this verse stands for power. This is also a distortion. Those who hold this view are ill-bred in Arabic stylistics. In Arabic the word for power is ᵓal-ayd not al-yad. Those who cannot differentiate between the word al-ᵓayd and al-yad belong to the elementary schools rather than the scholarly discussions and polemics.

Allāh has told us that He created the heavens with His strength (al-ᵓayd). A hand (al-yad) or two (al-yadān) are not (al-ᵓayd) strength. Had Allāh created Adam with power or strength (al-ᵓayd) as He created the heavens with (al-ᵓayd) rather than honoring Adam by creating Him with His hand He would not have said to Iblīs: “What prevents you from prostrating yourself to the one whom I have created with my hands?” (Q 38:75).

There is no doubt in that Allāh created the accursed Satan also with His power. He had the power to create him too. What is then the meaning of His saying: “What prevents you from prostrating yourself to the one whom I have created with my hands?”(Q 38:75) in the view of the Muᶜaṭṭilah Jahmīs? For mosquitoes, ants, and all the creatures Allāh has created with His might and strength.

There was a man who adopted a view like that of the Jahmīs after being rejected by the adherents of the traditions. Thus he abandoned his original view. He assumed that in the above mentioned ḥadīth of Ibn Masᶜūd, the Jew stated that Allāh holds the heavens and the earth on His fingers. He, however, rejected the view that the Prophet smiled and affirmed the statement of the Jew.

His view is paraphrased as follows. This is the statement of Ibn Masᶜūd. The Prophet smiled in astonishment and not confirmation of the Jew. I was greatly surprised at his rejection of the report. Previously he and been accepting the reports proving the fingers for Allah. He had pleaded to the following ḥadīth in more than one of his books: “There is no heart as is not held between two fingers of the Almighty, the creator and provider of all the Creatures.”

When he declared this tradition sound, he indeed believed in that Allah has fingers. According to the conventions of the Arabic language when we talk of aṣbaᶜayn min al-aṣābiᶜ (two of the many fingers) we affirm more than two fingers. I do not understand how this person accepts that Allah has fingers in one instance and rejects it at another. This shows he is greatly confused in his view.

I have related more than once the story of the person who had long sittings and discussions with me. After he left Nisāpūr he shifted his belief in the Unicity three times. I have also described his views. He jumped from one position to another. I have noticed that in some of his books, he pleads to the ḥadīth of Layth b. Abī Sulaym from ᶜAbd al-Raḥmān b. Sābiṭ from Abū Amāmah from the Prophet. (The same narrative has been reported by Khālid b. al-Lajlāj from ᶜAbd al-Raḥmān b. ᶜĀᵓish from the Prophet. It reads: “I saw my Lord in (fī) His best countenance.”) This way he presents as evidence such narratives transmitted through weak and unreliable chains of transmitters (isnād) which are obvious nonsense. Such narratives are not acceptable to those having even little knowledge of the science of Hadīth.

Then he turned to a historically sound (ṣaḥīḥ) report as is less objectionable to the Jahmīs Muᶜaṭṭilah. This report says: “I saw my Lord from (min) His best countenance.” This is rejection of faith (kufr) appended to sound isnād. Thus, he rebukes the scholars of the Hadīth for narrating these sound reports. Such views are product of lack of knowledge as well as enmity to the upholders of the counter views. Allāh is the source of all help. If this person repents for what he has said, Allah might forgive him. We pray to Allāh to forgive him.