Is it permissible to say that the first to have faith was Allah, based on the evidence of "Allah testifies that there is no god but He"?
Machine translationRead the Arabic original
Question:
May Allah reward you, Honorable Shaykh. The questioner says: Is it permissible to say that the first to have faith was Allah, based on the evidence of[Ali 'Imran 3:18]?
Answer:
That the first to have faith was Allah—this is not said regarding Allah (Glorified and Exalted is He). This testimony is not faith.[Ali 'Imran 3:18] means that He, the Exalted, informed. The meaning of testimony is informing. "Allah testifies" means that He, the Exalted, informed about His oneness. And "Allah testifies" by what He established of the proofs of tawhid (the oneness of Allah)—this is a testimony from Allah: establishing the cosmic and Qur'anic proofs. This is a testimony from Allah regarding tawhid. This is information from Allah, and it is the establishment of proofs for His oneness (Glorified and Exalted is He).
May Allah reward you, Honorable Shaykh. The questioner says: Is it permissible to say that the first to have faith was Allah, based on the evidence of
Allah witnesses that there is no deity except Him
شَهِدَ اللَّهُ أَنَّهُ لَا إِلَٰهَ إِلَّا هُوَAnswer:
That the first to have faith was Allah—this is not said regarding Allah (Glorified and Exalted is He). This testimony is not faith.
Allah witnesses
شَهِدَ اللَّهُ
Source
قناة «العلامة الدكتور صالح الفوزان»، [242 -939] هل يجوز القول أن أول من آمن هو الله، بدليل "شهد الله أنه لا إله إلا هو"؟ - صالح الفوزان — youtube.com
The Arabic text is a machine transcription of the audio recording.