Is it permissible to say: "Allah, we have not seen Him, but we have come to know Him through reason"?
Machine translationRead the Arabic original
The questioner:
The second phrase is when someone says, "Allah, we have not seen Him, but we have come to know Him through reason." Is this statement correct?
The Shaykh:
This is incomplete. It is not [known] by reason alone. Allah is not known by reason alone; He is known by reason, the Shari'ah, revelation, the cosmic proofs, and the scriptural proofs.
The presenter:
He says: Honorable Shaykh, may Allah grant you success.
The Shaykh:
If reason were sufficient, no revelation would have been sent down and no messengers would have been sent. We would say, "Our reason is sufficient for us." It is not [known] by reason alone.
The second phrase is when someone says, "Allah, we have not seen Him, but we have come to know Him through reason." Is this statement correct?
The Shaykh:
This is incomplete. It is not [known] by reason alone. Allah is not known by reason alone; He is known by reason, the Shari'ah, revelation, the cosmic proofs, and the scriptural proofs.
The presenter:
He says: Honorable Shaykh, may Allah grant you success.
The Shaykh:
If reason were sufficient, no revelation would have been sent down and no messengers would have been sent. We would say, "Our reason is sufficient for us." It is not [known] by reason alone.
Source
قناة «العلامة الدكتور صالح الفوزان»، [2833- 4717] هل يجوز قول: الله ما رأيناه لكن بالعقل قد عرفناه؟ - الشيخ صالح الفوزان — youtube.com
The Arabic text is a machine transcription of the audio recording.