Originally posted by Abu Sulayman
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I would like to give an example such that the issue becomes even clearer:
Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala is al-Basir (i.e. the All-Seeing), so He is decribed with Basar as a divine attribute. The creation is also described with Basar (seeing).
That which follows from this attribute is the detection or perception of that which can be seen.
Does this now mean that the Creator is like or similar to the creation in His reality? No!
When it comes to the Creator, then the reality of Basar is an eternal attribute subsisting in the divine Self and beyond our imagination and not something corporeal nor an organ or a tool.
When it comes to the creation however, then the reality of their seeing is based on a corporeal organ or tool and their perception of what can be seen is emergent and they need light and it is limited and so on.
So the only common thing between the Creator and the creation is in naming [and that which follows from the attribute], but NOT in its reality.
This is how the scholars of Ahl al-Sunnah - be they Hanbali or Ash'ari - have understood this issue.
Ibn 'Uthaymin however believes in a certain degree of similarity in the very reality!!!
That is why he claims (as in Majmu' Fatawa) that the Madhhab of the Ahl al-Sunna is that God has two real (!) eyes with which he sees (!) ("مذهب أهل السنة والجماعة أن لله عينين، اثنتين، ينظر بهما حقيقة على الوجه اللائق به , وهما من الصفات الذاتية الثابتة بالكتاب، والسنة.. . فهما عينان حقيقيتان لا تشبهان أعين المخلوقين").
Note that his statement two real eyes implies corporeality. If he had simply stated that Allah ta'ala is described with 'Ayn or A'yun, then this would not be a problem. The scholars of Islam said that 'Ayn either goes back to the attribute of Basar or is an additional attribute and in every case the reality is beyond our comprehension.
Then he adds to this that God sees with these two real eyes. So he turns the reality of Basar similar to the seeing of the creation, such that 'Ayn becomes the tool of seeing!!
This is clear and obvious Tashbih in the very reality of the attributes!!!
And the one who knows the thinking of this man, knows that he even thinks that God's seeing is only eternal in its kind and that His seeing is subject to temporality (this is why he says "sees with them in reality")!
This is yet another Tashbih upon his Tashbih regarding Basar and this upon his Tashbih regarding 'Ayn!
We as Allah ta'ala for well-being.
A known Hanbali statement regarding these type of issues (as found in Tabaqat al-Hanabila, Nihayat al-Mubtadi`in and other works!): They explicitly state that they reject ascribing similarity (Tashbih) and [ascribing] tools (Adawat).
So this is yet another great difference between Hanbalis and these so called "Salafis".
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