Is it appropriate to teach the attributes in detail to the common people?
Machine translationRead the Arabic original
The questioner : Yes. Actually, speaking in detail about the attributes of Allah (Blessed and Exalted is He) is not for the common people or for a reader.
The Shaykh : No, no, no. It is for the students of knowledge. The common people, if you were to say something detailed to them, they might fall into likening Allah to creation, because their minds cannot grasp the combination of the reality of the attributes and the negation of likening Allah to creation.
The questioner : Some students, when they begin teaching, even if the people do not know anything, they begin.
The Shaykh : No, it is good that this is not done. Rather, some people, may Allah protect us from that, have been bold and said that the hearts of the children of Adam are all between two fingers of the fingers of the Most Merciful, and he held the pen and said, "Like this." This means that if he cut off his fingers, it would be good. What made him know that Allah acts upon hearts in this way? No one knows, and it is not possible. I myself sometimes have a thing between my fingers, sometimes between the little finger and the thumb, sometimes between the ring finger and the thumb, sometimes between the middle finger and the thumb, sometimes between the index finger and the thumb. What made him know that Allah said, "Like this"?
The Shaykh : No, no, no. It is for the students of knowledge. The common people, if you were to say something detailed to them, they might fall into likening Allah to creation, because their minds cannot grasp the combination of the reality of the attributes and the negation of likening Allah to creation.
The questioner : Some students, when they begin teaching, even if the people do not know anything, they begin.
The Shaykh : No, it is good that this is not done. Rather, some people, may Allah protect us from that, have been bold and said that the hearts of the children of Adam are all between two fingers of the fingers of the Most Merciful, and he held the pen and said, "Like this." This means that if he cut off his fingers, it would be good. What made him know that Allah acts upon hearts in this way? No one knows, and it is not possible. I myself sometimes have a thing between my fingers, sometimes between the little finger and the thumb, sometimes between the ring finger and the thumb, sometimes between the middle finger and the thumb, sometimes between the index finger and the thumb. What made him know that Allah said, "Like this"?
Source
قناة «فضيلة الشيخ محمد بن صالح العثيمين»، 1306 - 4600 هل تدريس الصفات بالتفصيل للعوام مما ينبغي؟ ابن عثيمين — youtube.com
The Arabic text is a machine transcription of the audio recording.