regarding the phrase: "Put the hand of Allah in my hand."

The questioner : O Shaykh, ... someone said ...: "Put the hand of Allah in our hands" ...?

The Shaykh : It is not appropriate to say this.

The questioner : I mean, if it is a metaphor?

The Shaykh : Regarding metaphor, the Messenger (peace be upon him) invalidated this figurative interpretation by saying: , and in another hadith: . If you want to say, for example, "The prince's servant came," do not say "The prince came," because people will assume something other than what you intend. So what prevents you from being explicit about your meaning and saying "The prince's servant came"? No, I said "The prince came," but I meant such and such! , and . From this path, we used to respond in Syria to some of the Sufi scholars who believe in the ecstatic utterances of their sheikhs. Do you know the ecstatic utterances of the Sufis? They are phrases that, if you look at them briefly and quickly with jurisprudence and knowledge, you see them as disbelief. But they interpret those words and call them ecstatic utterances, claiming they have beautiful and permissible meanings. So we used to say to them: If the Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him) disciplined us and disciplined us well, and taught us and taught us well, and said: When you speak to people, speak with clear and explicit words, you do not need to say: "By Allah, I meant such and such." This occurs between me and many ofThe questioner : ...many of the studies on this point; because he asks a question that, if I stopped at its wording, I would answer with a response he does not want. He wants another meaning, but that other meaning is not taken from his question. He does not ask well. So I say: "My brother, I think you want such and such." He says: "Yes, by Allah." Good; why did you not say it that way? It is necessary—as the people of knowledge said: "Half of knowledge is asking a good question"—that the question be clear, and that the answer to it also be clear.
The Shaykh: The point is that these Sufis transmit statements of disbelief from some of their sheikhs. For example, they say about Ibn Arabi, who is buried there in Damascus, that he used to say: "Everything you see with your eye is Allah," "Creation is the very essence of the Truth." These are explicit statements of disbelief! They even transmitted from him or from others, such as Ibn al-Farid, that he used to say:
The Shaykh: And the dog and the pig are our god *** And Allah is nothing but a monk in a church
The Shaykh: This is explicit disbelief. And what do they say? No, he did not mean this; he means a meaning you do not understand. Good; suppose he means a meaning that only the special ones among these Sufis understand. But where is the discipline of the Messenger? A man once heard him saying to him one day while he was delivering the sermon: "What Allah wills and what you will, O Messenger of Allah." He (peace be upon him) said: . He disciplined him and clarified to him that his saying "What Allah wills and what you will" involves associating the Messenger with Allah, even if only in wording. But knowing the good intention of this speaker, the Messenger (peace be upon him) said to him: . If the Prophet rejected this wording, and if he heard someone saying "And Allah is nothing but a monk in a church," would he not reject this? Without a doubt. So we must say words that we are not forced to interpret figuratively; as you said just now, what? "His hand is in my hand."

The questioner : Put the hand of Allah in my hand.

The Shaykh : "The hand of Allah is in my hand." The understanding is that it does not mean the hand is a reality, as there is a disagreement among the people of the Sunnah regarding His saying (Glorified and Exalted is He): . The people of the Sunnah say: This is an attribute of Allah that we believe in without likening Allah to creation. As for those who deny the divine attributes and those who interpret it figuratively, they say: The hand of Allah sometimes means His power, and sometimes means His blessing. So here, this statement is interpreted figuratively. But why do we speak in words that we are forced to interpret figuratively? .