The Ruling on Attributing to Allah the Attribute of Being Above His Creation and Asserting His Punishment of a Specific Person
Machine translationRead the Arabic original
Question:
The questioner: I heard a man say, "By Allah, Allah will not forgive this person for this sin." If a person commits a sin that is forbidden, what is the ruling on this and similar instances of attributing to Allah the attribute of being above His creation?
Answer:
The Shaykh: As for the fact that Allah holds His servants accountable, that is correct. Allah holds His servants accountable. It is permissible to swear that Allah will hold His servants accountable because He has informed us that He will hold His servants accountable. However, you must not be certain about a specific individual. You may be certain about your own situation, saying, "I fear for you," or "I fear that Allah will hold me accountable for this matter," or "I fear that Allah will take you to account and punish you," as a form of advice and admonition. But to be certain that Allah will punish him, hold him accountable, and punish him, this is not permissible. This is like the one who says, "By Allah, Allah will not forgive so-and-so." The Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him) said, and Allah the Exalted said:
The questioner: I heard a man say, "By Allah, Allah will not forgive this person for this sin." If a person commits a sin that is forbidden, what is the ruling on this and similar instances of attributing to Allah the attribute of being above His creation?
Answer:
The Shaykh: As for the fact that Allah holds His servants accountable, that is correct. Allah holds His servants accountable. It is permissible to swear that Allah will hold His servants accountable because He has informed us that He will hold His servants accountable. However, you must not be certain about a specific individual. You may be certain about your own situation, saying, "I fear for you," or "I fear that Allah will hold me accountable for this matter," or "I fear that Allah will take you to account and punish you," as a form of advice and admonition. But to be certain that Allah will punish him, hold him accountable, and punish him, this is not permissible. This is like the one who says, "By Allah, Allah will not forgive so-and-so." The Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him) said, and Allah the Exalted said:
Who is the one who presumes against Me that I will not forgive him? Indeed, I have forgiven him and rendered his deeds void
من ذا الذي يتعلى علي أن لا أغفر لهنا إني قد غفرت له وأحبطت عمله
Source
شرح العقيدة الطحاوية [14] — alfawzan.live (1:19:54)
The Arabic text is a machine transcription of the audio recording.