What is the ruling on the phrase “May Allah’s face be against you,” and the phrase “We have not seen Allah, but we have known Him by reason”?
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Question:
May Allah reward you. The honorable Shaykh says: What is the ruling on the phrase “May Allah’s face be against you,” and the phrase “We have not seen Allah, but we have known Him by reason”?
Answer:
“May Allah’s face be against you” means that you are seeking intercession through Allah’s face against this person. This is forbidden; it is a great sin. When a man said to the Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him), “We seek intercession with Allah against you,” the Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him) became angry and said, “Woe to you! Do you know what Allah is? Allah is greater than that.” It is not permissible to seek intercession with Allah or with Allah’s face against any of His creation. And saying “May Allah’s face be against you” means that you are making Allah’s face an intercessor who intercedes for you with this person. It is known that the one with whom intercession is sought is greater than the one who intercedes. This is a matter concerning Allah. As for “We have not seen Him,” that is correct; we have not seen Him in this world, but we have seen His signs—His cosmic and Qur’anic signs and indicators point to Him (Glorified and Exalted is He), and the Messengers (peace be upon them) conveyed to us about Allah.
So we believe in Him, even though we have not seen Him in this world, based on these rational, transmitted, and auditory proofs.
May Allah reward you. The honorable Shaykh says: What is the ruling on the phrase “May Allah’s face be against you,” and the phrase “We have not seen Allah, but we have known Him by reason”?
Answer:
“May Allah’s face be against you” means that you are seeking intercession through Allah’s face against this person. This is forbidden; it is a great sin. When a man said to the Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him), “We seek intercession with Allah against you,” the Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him) became angry and said, “Woe to you! Do you know what Allah is? Allah is greater than that.” It is not permissible to seek intercession with Allah or with Allah’s face against any of His creation. And saying “May Allah’s face be against you” means that you are making Allah’s face an intercessor who intercedes for you with this person. It is known that the one with whom intercession is sought is greater than the one who intercedes. This is a matter concerning Allah. As for “We have not seen Him,” that is correct; we have not seen Him in this world, but we have seen His signs—His cosmic and Qur’anic signs and indicators point to Him (Glorified and Exalted is He), and the Messengers (peace be upon them) conveyed to us about Allah.
So we believe in Him, even though we have not seen Him in this world, based on these rational, transmitted, and auditory proofs.
Source
قناة «العلامة الدكتور صالح الفوزان»، ما حكم هذه العبارة «وجه الله عليك»، وعبارة «الله ما شفناه، وبالعقل عرفناه»؟ للشيخ صالح الفوزان — youtube.com
The Arabic text is a machine transcription of the audio recording.