What is the ruling on imagining some of the attributes of Allah in the mind if that becomes frequent?
Machine translationRead the Arabic original
The questioner : Sometimes a person imagines the attributes of Allah (Glorified and Exalted is He) or the Throne in his mind, and his mind wanders in every direction, unable to determine anything specific.
The Shaykh : You do not determine this. You believe that Allah has a hand and a face, but you do not know about this face or its modality. Whatever you imagine or estimate in your mind is a lie, and whatever you imagine or estimate in your mind, Allah is greater. Therefore, it is never possible to ask how an attribute is.
The questioner : It can become more frequent.
The Shaykh : You must not drive it away from yourself; it is never possible. Whatever modality you estimate, know that it is a lie. Because you will not estimate a modality except in connection with a similar thing, and that is not possible.
The Shaykh : You do not determine this. You believe that Allah has a hand and a face, but you do not know about this face or its modality. Whatever you imagine or estimate in your mind is a lie, and whatever you imagine or estimate in your mind, Allah is greater. Therefore, it is never possible to ask how an attribute is.
The questioner : It can become more frequent.
The Shaykh : You must not drive it away from yourself; it is never possible. Whatever modality you estimate, know that it is a lie. Because you will not estimate a modality except in connection with a similar thing, and that is not possible.
Source
قناة «فضيلة الشيخ محمد بن صالح العثيمين»، [714] ما حكم تخيل بعض صفات الله في الذهن إذا كثر ذلك؟ - ابن عثيمين — youtube.com
The Arabic text is a machine transcription of the audio recording.