Thursday, November 8, 2012

Is there any proven report that attributes a knee to Allah, may He be glorified and exalted?

I read in the book Naqd 'Uthmaan ibn Sa'eed 'alaBishr al-Muraysi the
following report from Mujaahid: "Dawood will say on the Day of
Resurrection: 'Bring me closer.' It will be said to him: 'Come
closer." So hewill come closer until he touches His knee.'"
Do Ahl as-Sunnah wa'l-Jamaa'ah believe that Allah has a knee? Did
Shaykh al-Islam Ibn Taymiyah or Ibn Baaz or Shaykh Ibn 'Uthaymeen (may
Allah have mercy on them all) say that? Is this report attributed to
the Prophet (blessings and peace of Allah be upon him)?.
Praise be to Allaah.
What the questioner has mentioned about the report of Mujaahid was
narrated by ad-Daarimi (may Allah have mercy on him) in his book
an-Naqd (p. 463) via Sufyaan ibn 'Uyaynah from Humayd al-A'raj from
Mujaahid.
In the commentary of Shaykh Mansoor as-Saamiri on an-Naqd, it says
that this report was narrated by 'Abdullah ibn Ahmad ibn Hanbal in his
book as-Sunnah (hadeeth 1085, 1181) from Mujaahid from 'Ubayd ibn
'Umayr, without any mention of touching the knee, and he classed it as
saheeh from him.
There are other narrations and versions of the report from Mujaahid,
'Ubayd ibn 'Umayr, Sa'eed ibn Jubayr and others, with isnaads some of
which are saheeh and some areda'eef. All of these narrators are among
thesenior Taabi'een. Even if these people were narrating from the
Prophet (blessings and peace of Allah be upon him), these reports
would be classed as mursal and da'eef, but they did not narrate
thatfrom the Prophet (blessings and peace of Allah be upon him);
perhaps they narrated it from the books of the Children of Israel.
Whatever the case, the basic principle of Ahl as-Sunnah (may Allah
have mercy on them) was not to ascribe any attribute to Allah, may He
be exalted, on the basis of the words of anyof the Sahaabah or
Taabi'een; rather attributes can only be ascribed to Allah, may Hebe
exalted, on the basis of the texts of the Qur'aan and saheeh Sunnah.
The attributes of Allah, may He be glorified and exalted, are
tawqeefi, which means that nothing of that nature can be ascribed to
Him except that which Allah ascribed to Himself or that His Messenger
(blessings and peace of Allah be upon him ascribed to Him, becauseno
one is more knowledgeable about Allah than He Himself, and no created
being is more knowledgeable about his Creator than the Messenger of
Allah (blessings and peace of Allah be upon him).
At the same time, Ahl as-Sunnah do not deny any attribute for Allah,
may He be exalted, except that which Allah Himself negated or that His
Messenger (blessings and peace of Allah be upon him) negate.
Seeing as the "knee" is not proven in any verse or saheeh hadeeth, we
do not ascribe it to Allah,may He be exalted, because it is not
proven. But we do not deny it either, because there is no text of the
Qur'aan orSunnah to that effect. If this attribute was proven in the
texts of the Qur'aan or Sunnah, then our attitude towards it would be
the same as our attitude towards all the other divine attributes that
areproven in the Qur'aan and Sunnah, which is to affirm it and to
believe in it without any distortion, denial, likening Him to His
creation or discussing how.
See the answer to question no. 145804
We have not seen this attribute affirmed in the books of Shaykh
al-IslamIbn Taymiyah or Ibn al-Qayyim (may Allah have mercy on them),
and it has not been confirmed by our two contemporary shaykhs, Ibn
Baaz and al-'Uthaymeen (may Allah have mercy on them).
And Allah knows best.

No comments:

Post a Comment