What is the definitive statement regarding His saying, Exalted is He: “Allah mocks them,” and His saying, Exalted is He: “Allah ridiculed them”

The questioner : The questioner:The questioner : He says: What is the definitive statement regarding His saying, Exalted is He: , and His saying, Exalted is He: , and other similar verses? Do we affirm what Allah has affirmed for Himself? Or do we interpret them in a way that leads to their negation, as some exegetes have said? May Allah reward you with good.

The Shaykh : The answer to this question is well known among the Salaf and the followers of the Salaf, and in contrast, among the followers of the Khalaf. It is known that the Salaf used to say regarding such verses: “Let them pass as they came.” They do not mean—as some of the Khalaf today imagine—that they let them pass without understanding. Rather, they let them pass as they came with correct understanding, without likening Allah to creation or asking how, and consequently without figurative interpretation or denial of the divine attributes. The decisive answer regarding these two verses is that we should recall the saying of Allah, Mighty and Majestic, regarding two other attributes, namely the attributes of hearing and sight, when our Lord, Mighty and Majestic, said: . In this verse there is purification of Allah from all imperfections, and there is affirmation of the attributes of hearing and sight. The meaning of purification is that when we affirm for Allah, Mighty and Majestic, an attribute that came in His Book or in the Sunnah of His Prophet, we affirm it for Him in a manner befitting His greatness, Blessed and Exalted is He, and His majesty. We do not ask how, so we do not say His hearing is like our hearing, or His sight is like our sight. Nor do we interpret it as some of the extremists of the Mu'tazilah did in the past, where they interpreted hearing and sight as knowledge. They said: He is the All-Hearing, the All-Seeing, meaning: He is the All-Knowing. Knowing that Allah, Mighty and Majestic, has described Himself with knowledge in more than one verse in the Noble Qur'an. So when those extremist Mu'tazilah come and interpret hearing and sight as knowledge, that is the denial of the divine attributes that some of our early scholars, such as Ibn Taymiyyah and Ibn al-Qayyim al-Jawziyyah, may Allah have mercy on them, spoke of. They said: “The one who denies the attributes worships non-existence, and the one who ascribes a body to Allah worships an idol.”
On this basis—of purification and affirmation without likening Allah to creation or figurative interpretation—we say regarding the two previous verses about Allah mocking those who mock His verses, and Allah, Mighty and Majestic, ridiculing those and their like: it is a mocking that befits Allah, Mighty and Majestic, and it is not of the nature of one human mocking another human, or one human mocking another human. Both verses are treated in the same manner as the ambiguous verses. We let them pass as they came with sound understanding, in accordance with what the righteous Salaf did, without likening Allah to creation. Here, we do not liken Allah's mocking of the polytheists to the way people mock one another. Rather, we say it is a mocking that befits Allah, Blessed and Exalted is He, as it came. Exactly as it is in the authentic, established report from Imam Malik, may Allah have mercy on him, that a man came to him and said: O Malik, How did He rise above? He said: “The rising is known, the how is unknown, and asking about it is an innovation. Take the man out; for he is an innovator.” Similarly, we know that mocking, linguistically, is known, and it is the opposite of the mocker being mocked by his like. But Allah, Mighty and Majestic, since it is established for us with certainty that there is nothing like Him, we do not say His mocking is like our mocking. As Malik said exactly: “Allah's rising above His Throne is known, but it is without a how, and asking about the how is an innovation.” Therefore, he ordered the man to be taken out, considering him an innovator. Similarly, we say regarding all verses of attributes, including the attributes of mocking and ridicule: their meanings are known linguistically, but there is no asking how and no likening Allah to creation. And this is the methodology in all verses of attributes and hadiths of attributes.