The statement of the people of innovation regarding the verse: “Indeed, I am Allah”
Machine translationRead the Arabic original
The questioner : Welcome, welcome. He says, “I am Allah,” meaning the speech is empty, and the speech says, “I am…”
The Shaykh : Yes, indeed. This is a refutation of them. Imam Ahmad said to them, “Yes.”
The questioner : What do they say?
The Shaykh : We have a chapter called the Chapter of Metaphor. They say that Allah created this word in this tree, and it does not mean itself, but this is a matter of metaphorical usage.
The questioner : How can he say, “I am Allah”?
The Shaykh : It is as if I said to you, “I am Muhammad, and I am sent by him,” meaning one person sent me whose name is Abdullah, and you said, “I am Abdullah,” for example. You spoke to me and said, “Give me Abdullah’s right.” I am his agent to collect the right from you. You said, “Wait, let Abdullah the man [speak].” I said, “I am Abdullah,” meaning I am his agent. This is a problem. It is metaphor. Therefore, the metaphor must be broken before it is used metaphorically.
The Shaykh : Yes, indeed. This is a refutation of them. Imam Ahmad said to them, “Yes.”
The questioner : What do they say?
The Shaykh : We have a chapter called the Chapter of Metaphor. They say that Allah created this word in this tree, and it does not mean itself, but this is a matter of metaphorical usage.
The questioner : How can he say, “I am Allah”?
The Shaykh : It is as if I said to you, “I am Muhammad, and I am sent by him,” meaning one person sent me whose name is Abdullah, and you said, “I am Abdullah,” for example. You spoke to me and said, “Give me Abdullah’s right.” I am his agent to collect the right from you. You said, “Wait, let Abdullah the man [speak].” I said, “I am Abdullah,” meaning I am his agent. This is a problem. It is metaphor. Therefore, the metaphor must be broken before it is used metaphorically.
Source
قناة «فضيلة الشيخ محمد بن صالح العثيمين»، [703] قول أهل البدع في آية: ﴿إِنَّنِي أَنَا اللَّهُ﴾ - ابن عثيمين — youtube.com
The Arabic text is a machine transcription of the audio recording.