Transcendence and Anthropomorphism
in Understanding the Divine Essence and His Attributes

By: Shaykh Professor Abu Omar Abdul Hadi Palazzi

Bismi 'Llahi 'r-Rahmani 'r-Rahim

All praise is for Allah, Lord of all the worlds, and blessings and peace upon His servant Sayyiduna Muhammad (salla 'Llahu `alayhi wa sallam), upon his family, his companions, his wives and those who follow him for the best until the Day of the judgment.

I want to heartily thank the International Institute of Islamic Thought for arranging this International Conference dedicated to the theme "Al-Ghazali's Legacy and its Contemporary Relevance", and also want to thank Prof. Dr. Wan Mohd Nor b. Wan Daud, Chairman of the Conference, for extending me the invitation to be part of this body of distinguished lecturers.

My beloved friend and colleague, the late Director of the Islamic School of Rome al-Ustadh Hamed Muhammad Shawky al-Misri, rahimah-Ullah, used to remind his students how Imam an-Nawawi was considering Ihya' `Ulumi 'd-Din of Imam al-Ghazali as a necessary counterpart of the Glorious Qur'an for those who want to acquire expertise in the field of Islamic sciences. On the base of this conviction of his, he made the study of Ihya' a cornerstone in the curriculum of our center of learning, and clarified this attitude of his by saying, "May young students of ours, while being thirsty of knowledge, but bereft of a solid theoretical background, are frequently falling victims of heretic sects and extremist  pseudo-religious groups. If sectarianism and fanaticism are dangerous viruses, the study of Imam al-Ghazali's masterpiece is the antidote which can cure them". This speech of mine is based on this same approach. Today I am in sha' Allah trying to show how in the writings of Imam al-Ghazali we can find not only the refutation of the sects of bid`ah and dalalah which existed in his time, but also some essential guidelines for the refutation of some sects which appeared after his death, including most of those sects and movements which are spreading deviant beliefs among many uneducated Muslims of today.

The `Aqidah of Ahlu 's-Sunnah wa 'l-Jama`ah about the majestic transcendence of Allah Ta`ala is condensed by Imam al-Ghazali in two important treatises of his, Qawa'id al-`Aqa'id and Risalah al-Qudsiyyah. We hereby start our exposition by mentioning some excepts wherein Imam al-Ghazali elucidates the Sunni ontotheology and refutes the deviance of those who apply to Allah Ta`ala some attributes which only befit created entities. He writes:

- "He [Allah Ta`ala] is not a body with a form, or a limited, quantitative substance, not resembling bodies in quantifiability or divisibility, or in being a substance or qualified by substance, or in being an accident or qualified by accidents. He does not resemble anything that exists, nor does anything that exists resemble Him. There is nothing whatsoever like unto Him, nor is He like unto anything. He is not delimited by magnitude, contained by places, encompassed by directions, or bounded by heavens or earth." (Qawa'id, 1.3)

- "He - the Most High - is not a body composed of different substances, since the body is that which is composed of substances. When His being a substance limited by place is refuted, His being a body is also refuted, because every body is limited by place and is composed of substances. But it is impossible for the substance to be free from division, composition, motion, rest, form, and quantity, all of which are characteristics of originated phenomena. And if it were possible to believe that the Maker of the world is a body, it would also be possible to believe in the divinity of the sun and the moon as well as other heavenly bodies. If, therefore, one should dare to call Allah a body but not meaning thereby a composition of substances, he would be wrong as far as the name is concerned, but not in negating the idea of body." (Risalah, 1.5)

- "He - the Most High - is immune from being limited by any direction, because a direction is either above or below, right or left, before or behind. All these He created and originated through the creation of man whom he made with two extremities, the one rests on the earth and comprises his feet, while the opposite extremity is his head. Consequently the term 'above' was originated to indicate the direction of the head, and the term 'below' the direction of the feet. This is true even of the ant which creeps on the ceiling, with the result that the directions, in relation to it, are reversed: what we consider 'above' is to it 'below', and what we consider 'below' is to it 'above'. Similarly people were created with two hands, one hand usually being stronger than the other. The term right was therefore originated to indicate the direction of the stronger hand, and the term left to indicate the opposite direction. Consequently the right hand side is called the right, and the opposite direction is called the left.

"Mankind was also created with two other directions from one of which he sees and toward which he moves. Consequently the term 'before' was originated to designate the direction toward which he moves, while the term 'behind' was originated to designate the opposite. Therefore the directions are originated through the creation of man; and had he not been created along these lines, but rather created round like a sphere, these directions would never have existed.

"How then could Allah have been subject to a direction in eternity when every direction is originated? Or how could He have become subject to a direction when He never had any direction above Him when He created man? For that will mean that He has a head, since 'above' designates the direction above the head. But Allah is far exalted above His creatures to have a head. Again how could He have become subject to a direction when He never had any direction below Him when He created mankind? For that will mean that He has feet, since 'below' designates the direction below the feet. Allah is far exalted above His creatures to have feet. All this is too impossible to imagine in the mind. For whatever the mind conceives is definite in so far as it is limited by place, in the same way as substances are limited, or by substances, in the same way as their qualities are. But the impossibility of His being a substance or its attribute has been established - consequently His being subject to a direction becomes impossible." (Risalah, 1.5)

- "He is 'firmly established on the Throne (mustawin) in the way He says and the meaning He intends, 'established' in a manner transcending contact, settledness, fixity, indwelling, or movement. The Throne does not bear Him up, but is borne, up by the subtlety of His infinite power, as are the angels who carry it, and all are powerless in His grasp. He is above the Throne, the heavens, and all else to the farthest reaches of the stars, with an aboveness that does not increase His nearness to the Throne or heavens, or His distance from the earth and what lies beneath it."  (Qawa'id, 1.3)

- "He is as exalted in degree above the Throne and the heavens as He is above the earth and its depths, though He is near to everything in existence, nearer to a servant than his own jugular vein, and is witness to everything. His nearness no more resembles the nearness of objects to one another than His Essence resembles the essences of objects. He does not dwell in anything, nor anything indwell in Him. He is as exalted above containment in space as he is above confinement in time. He was, before creating time and space, and is now as He was before, distinguished from His creation by His attributes. There is nothing in His Essence other that Him, nor is His Essence in what is other than Him. He is beyond change and motion: events neither occurs with in Him." (Ibid.)

- "He - the Most High - speaks, commands, forbids, promises, and warns, with beginninglessly eternal Speech (Kalam) that is an attribute of His , not resembling the speech of creatures in being a sound generated by the passage of air or impact of bodies, nor in letters articulated by compressing the lips or moving the tongue. The Koran, Torah, Gospel, and Psalms are His Books, revealed to His messengers, upon whom be peace." (Qawa'id, 1.8)

All those principles represent a definition of the transcendental ontotheology of Ahlu 's-Sunnah, and also a refutation of the wrong opinions of some of the sects which existed in the time of Imam al-Ghazali. Proving that Allah Ta`ala is neither a body, nor a substance, and that He is immune by limits and not qualified by location and directions represents a refutation of the Anthropomorphists of old, the followers of Ibn Karram, while the explanation concerning the uncreated nature of kalamu 'Llah is a refutation of those who considered the Glorious Qur'an to be created, i.e. the Mu`tazilah and the Jahmiyyah. Imam al-Ghazali takes those heretic beliefs in due consideration while explaining in details what had already been declared by the Ulema of the early generations. Imam Abu Hanifah for instance writes in Fiqh al-Akbar:

"The Qur'an is the Speech of Allah Ta`ala which is written in mushayf, memorized in hearts and read by tongues, and which was revealed to the Prophet, salla 'Llahu `alayhi wa sallam. Our actions in reading the Qur'an are created, and our actions in writing it are also created, while the Qur'an itself is not created [...]. Differently from the attributes of the created entities, He knows, but not in the way we know, He decrees, but not in the way we decree, He sees, but not in the way we see, He hears, but not in the way we hear, He speaks, but not in the way We speak [...]. He is a Thing, but not like unto any other things, in the sense that He subsists without being a body or a substance, without an accident and without having a limit, without a rival, without a counterpart, and without the existence of anything like unto Him."

A distinguished student of Abu Hanifah, the Imam Abu Ja`far Ahmad Ibn Muhammad at-Tahawi writes in his famous `Aqidah:

"Anyone who does not guard himself against negating the attributes of Allah, or against likening Allah to something else, has gone astray and has failed to understand Allah's transcendence, because our Lord, the Glorified and the Exalted, can only be correctly described in terms of Oneness and Absolute Singularity and no created entity is in any way like unto Him. He is beyond having limits placed on Him, or being restricted, or having parts or limbs. Nor is He contained by the six directions, as all created entities are."

The same belief which was synthetically explained by the Salaf, and discussed into details by the Imams Abu 'l-Hasan al-Ash`ari and Abu Hamid al-Ghazali was successively condensed by the Imam Ibn `Asakir, who writes in his `Aqidah al-Murshidah:

"Know, and may Allah guide us and you, that it is obligatory upon every accountable person to know that Allah is the only deity in His dominion, [...] that He existed before the creation, that He has neither 'before' nor 'after', neither 'above' nor 'below', neither 'right' nor 'left', neither 'in front' nor 'behind', neither 'whole' nor 'part', that it must not be asked: 'when was He?' or 'where was He?' or 'how is He?', since He exists without a place. He created the universe and willed the existence of time. He is not bound to time and is not designated with place."

During the period between the seventh and the eighth century of hijrah many of those primary or secondary principles of the Sunni belief which were proved by Imam al-Ghazali were unilaterally rejected by Abu 'l-`Abbas Ahmad Taqiyyu 'd-Din Ibn Taymiyyah al-Harrani. The Ulema of his time speared no effort to invite him to tawbah and to call him back to the right path, but in vain. When it became evident that there no opportunity was left in order to call Ibn Taymiyyah back to the fold of Ahlu 's-Sunnah wa 'l-Jama`ah, the muftis of the Four Schools unanimously judged that it was necessary to protect the Iman of the Muslims by imprisoning Ibn Taymiyyah for life, or until he abjured his kufriyyat and his heresies. Nevertheless, he stubbornly refused to make a public tawbah, and consequently died in the same prison of Damascus where he spent the last years of his life.

As Shaykhu 'l-Islam Ibn Hajar al-Haytami writes in Hashiyyah `ala Shahri 'l-Idah, Ibn Taymiyyah "was declared a kafir by plenty of Ulema", including both those who were his contemporaries, and those who lived after him. Shaykh 'l-Islam al-Hafiz Taqiyyu 'd-Din 'Ali Ibn `Abdi 'l-Kafi as-Subki writes in the Preface of his book ad-Durratu 'l-Mudiyyah :

"By his claims Ibn Taymiyyah innovated foul things in the usul of belief, and infringed the foundations of Islam, and in the same time covered himself under the pretext of following the Book and Sunnah, outwardly showing that he was a caller to Truth and a guide to heaven, while on the contrary he deviated from following the Book and Sunnah to innovation, and deviated from the consensus of the Muslims by infringing the ijma`. He said what leads to the attribution of a body and of composition to the Divine Essence, and that it is not impossible that Allah is composed by parts. He said that the Essence of Allah Ta`ala contains contingent elements (hawadith) that the Qur'an is also contingent, and that Allah spoke it after it was not, that He speaks and keeps silent, and that phenomena take place in Him in the same way they take place in created beings. He crossed the limit to the point of claiming that the world is eternal, and was coherent with this assumption to the point of claiming that there is no beginning for the contingencies, Hence, he confirmed that - according to his opinion - the eternal attributes [of Allah] are contingent and the contingent created entities are eternal. None has ever joined those two opinions together in any religion. He was not among the seventy-three groups into which the Ummah is divided [i.e. he is neither a Sunni, nor a member of one of the seventy two heretic sects, but rather the founder of a new sect of his own]. In spite of all of this being horrible kufr, it is little compared to what he innovated in the furu'."

Al-Hafiz Waliyyu 'd-Din Ibn Zaynu 'd-Din al-`Iraqi, wrote about Ibn Taymiyyah in his book al-Ajwibatu 'l-Mardiyyah:

 "His knowledge is bigger than his mind [...]. He infringed the ijma` in many issues, and it was said that their total number is sixty issues, some of which are in the field of usul, while others are in the field of furu'. After the ijma` was settled upon those issues, he openly violated it."

One must deeply regret that, in our time, many Muslims are simply not informed about the kufriyyat and the ugly innovations introduced by Ibn Taymiyyah, and out of this reason dare to call Ibn Taymiyyah "Shaykhu 'l-Islam", and suppose him to be among the reliable Ulema of this Ummah. This is among the relevant problems of the contemporary situation of the Muslim world, especially since Ibn Taymiyyah's deviance paved the way for many sects which are today active in making propaganda, and in diverting many uneducated Muslims from the Path of Sunnah and Jama`ah.  Sects like Wahhabis (pseudo-Salafis), Deobandis, Mawdudiyyun, Ikhwan al-Muslimin, Albaniyyun, Qaradawiyyun are nothing but a contemporary consequence of the fitnah which was caused by the diffusion of the heresies of Ibn Taymiyyah and of his student Ibn Qayyim al-Jawziyyah, the same heresies that - during the twelfth century of hijrah - were resurrected and aggravated by Muhammad Ibn `Abdi 'l-Wahhab an-Najdi. As a consequence of the occupation of the al-Haramayn by his followers, and of the creation of the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia in the Arabian Peninsula, as small group of illiterate bedouins was able to enforce their primitive and literalist belief as the official religion of the territory were Rasul-Ullah, salla 'Llahu `alayhi wa sallam, and his Sahabah lived, and from where Islam spread to the rest of the world. As a consequence of the discovery of oil in the Arabian Peninsula, the Saudi regime became very affluent, and was able to create and to fund a powerful network of Wahhabi missionaries, professional preachers who are more or less active in any part of the world and whose job consists in opposing the belief, the fiqh and the kalam of Ahlu 's-Sunnah wa 'l-Jama`ah, and in propagating the anthropomorphist belief of Ibn Taymiyyah, Ibn Qayyim and Ibn `Abdi 'l-Wahhab.

Those propagandists - who are frequently referred as "shaykhs" and "imams" although most of them never followed a traditional course of Islamic studies, and never received any ijazah from any of the competent Ulema of this Ummah - are instilling in the mind of their unfortunate followers the idea that the Wahhabi belief is in agreement with the minhaj of the Salaf, and try to support this claim of theirs by attributing to themselves the label of "Salafi". That is the reason why we consider defending the 'aqidah of our Brothers and Sisters from this propaganda as one of the most important challenges which traditional Sunni scholars are effacing. The pseudo-Salafi propagandists hate and despise Imam al-Ghazali, and frequently accuse him of being a "deviant Sufi" (as if Tasawwuf were a deviation from Islam!), of transmitting hadiths which are fabricated and the like. This does not happen by chance, but by a deliberate choice. By making Imam al-Ghazali their preferred target, they show hoe the know very well that the Imam has clarified how Tasawwuf is an integral part of Islam, and how he has refuted in advance the anthropomorphism of the Wahhabi-Taymiyyun sect.

That is the reason way, we feel that it is our duty to declare that the methodic study of the works of Imam al-Ghazali (and of Ihya' in particular) can easily make that missionary activity ineffective. The one who studies Imam al-Ghazali's writings extensively while find no difficulty in proving that the 'aqidah that they contain agrees the 'aqidah of the Salaf as-Salihun, while on the contrary the 'aqidah of Ibn Taymiyyah and of his followers, Ibn `Abdi-l-Wahhab, al-Mawdudi, Ibn Baz, al-Albani and al-Qaradawi greatly differ and is in flagrant contradiction with the `aqidah of the Salaf. Because of the limitation in the time of our exposition we will in sha' Allah mention some examples only.

As it is proved by the sources that we have already quoted, Imam al-Ghazali confirms the fatwa of Imam Abu Hanifah according to which the belief of the Muslims opposes the attribution to Allah of a body (jism). Ibn Taymiyyah, on the contrary, resurrected in his time the belief of al-Mujassimah (those who attribute to Allah a body). The Maliki Qadi `Ali Ibn Makhluf was so horrified by this anthropomorphist stand of his to declare:

"Ibn Taymiyyah preaches the attribution to Allah of a body, and according to our madhhab the one who abides by this belief is a kafir, and executing him is wajib."

 In Talbisu 'l-Jahmiyyah  Ibn Taymiyyah writes:

"In the Book of Allah, in the Sunnah of His Messenger, in the sayings of each of the Salaf of the Ummah and of its Imams there exists nothing proving that He [Allah] is not a body, or that His attributes are neither corporeal, nor accidental."

Apart from being palpably false, this affirmation is also a slander against the Salaf and the Imams. As we have seen, Imam Abu Hanifah openly writes, "He subsists without being a body". Notwithstanding this, in order to defend Ibn Taymiyyah's anthropomorphism, the late mufti of the Wahhabis, `Abdu 'l-`Aziz Ibn Baz, dares to write in Taliqatu Hammah `ala ma Katabahu 'l-Shaykh Muhammad `Ali al-Sabuni fi Sifati 'Llah:

"To declare that Allah does not possessing body (al-jism), pupils (al-hadaqah), auditory meatus (al-simakh), tongue (al-lisan), and larynx (al-hanjarah) is not the position of Ahlu 's-Sunnah."

This is enough to prove how far the leader of the Wahhabis was from the `aqidah of the Salaf, i.e. from that same 'aqidah that Imam al-Ghazali confirms by writing:

"He - the Most High - is not a body composed of different substances, since the body is that which is composed of substances."

It is really sad that, out of lack of Islamic education or information, some Muslims are today convinced that the late Ibn Baz was a reliable `alim, and that they even study his many, contradictory fatawa as if they were authoritative. The study of Ihya' can in sha' Allah also contribute to dissolve this undue misunderstanding.

Moreover, Imam al-Ghazali also refutes those who attribute a limit (hadd) to Allah Ta`ala, and this is confirmed by Fiqh al-Akbar and by the `Aqidah of Imam at-Tahawi. Ibn Taymiyyah says quite the opposite, since he dares to attribute to Allah Ta`ala two supposed limits, the one being unknown and the other known. He writes in al-Muwafaqah:

"Allah Ta`ala has a limit which is known to none but Him, and measuring this limit is not permitted to anyone; one must believe in this limit, and trust in Allah for what concerns its knowledge. Moreover, He [Allah] also has a limit in His location, and it consists in being upon His Throne, above His heavens. So these are two limits [?].The Muslims and the kuffar agree that Allah is located in the sky and they limit Him to this."

In order to make this blasphemous idea of the "two limits of Allah" compatible with the `aqidah of the Salaf, Ibn Baz does not hesitate to misinterpret the text of `Aqidah at-Tahawiyyah in a way that cannot be described except that as a violence against the logic of his readers. In his Commentary to this text, while Imam at-Tahawi says, "He is beyond having limits", Ibn Baz dares to write, "Allah is beyond limits that we know, but has limits He knows." An "explanation" simply changes what the Imam says to the exact opposite.

In out time, a relevant contribute to knowledge of Imam al-Ghazali's legacy is given by Shaykh Dr. Ibrahim Muhammad al-Battawi (al-Azhar University), by Shaykh Prof. Hasan El Fatih Qaribullah (University of Umm Durban) and by Prof. Syed Muhammad Naquib al-Attas (founder of the International Institute of Islamic Thought, the same Institute which is hosting this International Conference of ours). Every Muslims is indebted to them for the preservation of this patrimony of ours and for its renovation.

Like Imam al-Ghazali exposed the doctrines of the heretic sects of his time and refuted them in al-Munqidhu mina 'd-Dalal, other outstanding representatives of the Ash`ari kalam are benefiting from his teaching in order to refute the innovators of our time. From this point of view I think is worthy mentioning how the innovations of Nasiru 'd-Din al-Albani were refuted by al-Muhaddith Shaykh `Abdullah Ibn Muhammad Ibn al-Sadiq al-Ghumari in Irghamu 'l-Mubtadi` 'l-Ghabi and by al-Muhaddith Shaykh `Abdullah al-Harari as-Shafi`i in Dalalat al-Albani. While reading those pages of theirs it is impossible not to perceive the trace that the method of Imam al-Ghazali has left in the method of the Ash`ari Ulema who perform the praiseworthy task of refuting the sects of bid`ah and dalalah. This is particularly true for want concerns a fundamental work of Shaykh al-Harari, Maqalatu s'-Sunniyyah, which can be regarded as a companion of al-Munqidhu mina 'd-Dalal, in the sense that it refutes the people of innovation who came after Imam al-Ghazali on the base of the same methodology that the Imam developed nine centuries ago.

Even so, although the works of those scholars which I have mentioned - and of other colleagues of theirs which was impossible to mention - contains everything which is needed in order to protect those who intoxicate of youth with deviant opinions in the field of fiqh, `ilm al-kalam and `ilm al-hadith, one must also admit that the means that are at disposal of Ahlu 's-Sunnah for tarbiyyah are very limited, if compared to the unlimited means which are in the hands of the heretics and of the extremists.

The opinions of Ibn Taymiyyah, Ibn `Abdi 'l-Wahhab, Ibn Baz, al-Albani and al-Qaradawi are circulated by means of books, video- and audio-tapes, Web sites, TV channels, by all possible sophisticated media, and often what Ahlu 's-Sunnah can oppose to this is very limited. Dr. Yusuf al-Qaradawi in particular has at his disposal a very popular TV broadcast, by which he can voice the most extravagant opinions, like claiming that Allah Ta`ala is a power (quwwah) and a substance (jawahir) - and this was not even said by the innovators who were before him - that non-Palestinian Muslims must abstain from praying in al-Aqsa, and even that suicide terrorism is permissible according to the Shari`ah, and that dying as a suicide bomber is "the higher form of martyrdom". Allah only knows how many uneducated young Muslims were misguided and led to perdition by those terrible heresies, and in Him we trust in order to receive the strength which enables us to contribute to prevent this evil.

By browsing the Internet, it is easy to verify that the works of Ibn Baz, al-Albani and al-Qaradawi are published in many Web sites, both in Arabic and in other different languages. On the contrary, if we look for Web sites which deal with Islam from a Sunni point of view, we are compelled to admit that they represent an exception, and not the rule. In a time when the Internet is become a powerful means to make knowledge accessible, we cannot permit that the preachers of misguidance represent more of 90 % of the sites dealing with our Din. It is in sha' Allah necessary to win this challenge, and to publish on the Internet the treasures of the Islamic knowledge, both the writings of the Ulema of old, and the essays written by our contemporary scholars.

At the presence of this distinguished body of experts in Imam al-Ghazali's legacy, I want to launch a proposal which permits this legacy to be resurrected and revitalized. Let us - with Allah's help and with His permission - begin to reflect about the opportunity to create a precious Web resource, a portal dedicated to Imam al-Ghazali, were his fundamental works can be published and made accessible online. Once the project has in sha' Allah been implemented, each local participant can contribute by translating those same books into different language. With Allah's help, I am convinced that this can be a worthy tribute that we can offer to the memory of Imam al-Ghazali, rahimahu 'Llah, and in the same time an invaluable gift for the future generations of Muslims.

Wa 's-salamu `alaykum wa rahmatu 'Llahi wa barakatuH.

The Author:

Shaykh Prof. Abdul Hadi Palazzi was appointed to teach Shafi`i jurisprudence and Qur'anic exegesis by Shaykh Isma`il al-Azhari and Shaykh Husayn al-Khalwati, and ordained as a community imam by Shaykh Abu Ibrahim al-Badawi. A former lecturer in Middle East Studies at the Research Institute for Anthropological Sciences (IFOSCA), he is secretary-general of the Italian Muslim Assembly (AMdI) and director of the Cultural Institute of the Italian Islamic Community.

[Home][Istac][Email]