A scholarly piece of advice from the Shaykh (may Allah have mercy on him) to the Salafi students regarding the discussion with those who deny the attributes of the Lord of the Worlds.

The Shaykh : I want to add to the beneficial explanation you have heard, if Allah wills, that I arm our brothers against people like these who engage in figurative interpretation, or rather, denial. If these people are believers in the existence of Allah (Blessed and Exalted is He) truly, then they are, at least in this respect, with the believers in the Book and the Sunnah. That is, they believe in the existence of Allah (Blessed and Exalted is He) as a real existence, not a mental existence. In that case, we say to them: Do you believe that Allah, who has this name called "the Self" (Dhat), has a Self? It is not a meaning that exists only in the imagination with no existence in reality. As it is said in a poem whose first line I have forgotten, but the second line is: "The Simurgh and the loyal horse."

The questioner : Four things are impossible, three of them: *** The Ghoul, the Simurgh, and the loyal horse.

The Shaykh : So what is the point? The point is, when a person asks, "What is the Simurgh?" It is a very large bird that a person imagines, but it has no existence outside his mind. The author of the story of Sindbad the Sailor speaks about this strange, wondrous bird in purely imaginary terms. Its egg is described as a dome, a very large dome. The point is that the name "Simurgh" is a name without a body. This name is in the mind, but it has no reality outside the mind; it has no existence. So all believers, regardless of their religions, when they believe that Allah is the Creator, the Provider, the Giver of Life, and the Giver of Death, they do not mean a meaning that exists only in the mind like the name "Simurgh," but rather a reality that has existence. That is, Allah (Mighty and Majestic) has a Self. So we ask these people: Do you believe that Allah (Mighty and Majestic) has a Self? Since we have assumed they are believers with us, they must say, "Yes, He has a Self." Otherwise, we would be denying the existence of Allah and making the name of Allah like the name of the Simurgh, a name without existential reality outside the mind. If they say, "Yes, Allah (Mighty and Majestic) has a Self," then what about you, O speaker, first, and then you, O interpreter, who deny these attributes and say, "This is likening Allah to creation and division"? You have a Self, and your existence is not like that of the Simurgh. One must acknowledge his own existence as a reality. So you have a Self, and your Lord has a Self. There is a commonality between your Self and His Self. So that this believer, who has acknowledged the existence of his own Self, does not fall into what people like us are accused of, namely likening Allah to creation and ascribing a body to Him, he must do one of two things; he has no choice but one of them: either deny his own existence or deny the existence of Allah. Whichever of the two he denies, he is undoubtedly falling into clear misguidance. Perhaps you have heard of a group of Muslims today, the Sufis, but many of you may not know that among the Sufis are individuals who exaggerated in Sufism and reached absolute disbelief through the path of Sufism. When they treated their knowledge the way these students of those sciences mentioned in the previous question did, meaning they did not subject the science of Sufism to the Book and the Sunnah, they went astray. But their misguidance was in many aspects and of many types. The worst of this misguidance is those who fell into absolute denial of the existence of Allah (Blessed and Exalted is He). One of their speakers said, for example: "There is nothing in the universe but Allah. There is nothing in the universe but Allah." This is called by them the Unity of Existence. And one of their speakers says: "Whatever you see with your eye is Allah." This statement has many, many examples. The important thing is that it ends in atheism and disbelief, to the point that there is no Creator and no created being, meaning there are not two existences: one that is necessarily existent, which is Allah (Blessed and Exalted is He), and one that is possibly existent, which is us, the created beings, created by Allah. They claim that the existent is one. Therefore, their disbelief reached the point where they make tawhid (the oneness of Allah) into categories and types. They say: "The tawhid of the common people, like us, and the great scholars, at the head of whom are the righteous Salaf, and at the head of the righteous Salaf is Muhammad (peace be upon him), who was addressed in the Qur'an . These people say: The tawhid of the common people is 'La ilaha illa Allah' (There is no deity but Allah). The tawhid of the special people is 'He is He.' The tawhid of the special among the special is 'He is He, He is He, He is He, there is nothing other than Him.' In our region, or more accurately in Syria, one of them would sit like this, in his claim, observing Allah. What does he say? 'There is nothing other than Him, there is nothing other than Him.' So we tease him and say, 'What about you? You exist, you are other.' Then we enter into a long discussion with them. The bottom line is that this disbelief results in the denial of the divine attributes. This disbelief results from the denial of the divine attributes. Let us now return to the previous discussion with the one who affirmed a Self for himself and, since he is a believer, must affirm a Self for Allah. So here there are two Selves and two existences. What is the way out when he shares with Allah in one name, Self and Self? He will say what we said, and despite his nose, he must say, "Yes, but my Self is not the Self of Allah." This is the way out: my Self is not the Self of Allah. That is enough. The Self of Allah is necessarily existent, having been so from eternity, with no beginning and no end. But now, you were created from nothing. So this is a difference between the Self of the created being and the Self of the eternal God. Since this is the case, and this is a reality that no Muslim will discuss, otherwise he would fall into disbelief by saying "He is He" or "He is He." If he follows us in this sound, legal logic, we will say to him: O my brother, whatever you said about the Self, whether the Self you are speaking of is the Self of Allah or the Self of you as a created being, say the same about the attributes. What is said about the Self is said about the attributes. Just as the Self of Allah does not resemble the Selves of others, so the attributes of Allah do not resemble the attributes of the servants of Allah. And the matter is ended. Therefore, our Lord (Mighty and Majestic) trained the believers on transcending Him with affirmation. As for transcending Him with denial, that is "He is He." That is absolute denial. He trained them with what (Blessed and Exalted is He) said, which you have often read and heard: meaning the Self meaning He described Himself with the attributes of hearing and seeing. This description is not a deficiency for Allah, but it is from the perfection of Allah (Mighty and Majestic). From here, we enter into a long discussion with the Mu'tazilah and those who got involved with them, who denied some of the divine attributes, such as His rising above the Throne and the descent of Allah (Mighty and Majestic) every night to the lowest heaven, and other such attributes. Today, there is a person who has adopted the spread of this great misguidance under the name of the methodology of the people of the Sunnah and the community, which is that Allah (Mighty and Majestic) is neither inside the world nor outside it, and that Allah (Mighty and Majestic) does not descend, but rather His mercy descends. All of this is figurative interpretation, but the reality of it is denial. If one of their speakers says, "He does not descend and did not rise above the Throne," and they are told, "Allah said so," they say, "This means He moves." This is an attribute of the attributes of Allah, excuse me, of the attributes of the servants of Allah. So we say to them: First, we hold to the beginning of the previous verse and its entirety. We say, "There is nothing like Him." When we say "He rose above the Throne," we do not say "like the rising of a king on his throne," far be it from Allah. And when we say "He descends," as the Messenger of Allah (peace and blessings be upon him) said, we do not say "like the descent of a king from his throne to his land or to his chamber or to the end of it." There is nothing like Him. Second, you deduce from Allah's description of Himself with rising above the Throne, and the description of the Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him) of Allah with descent, that these are attributes of created things. So then, our Lord does not rise above the Throne, and our Lord does not descend. The attribute of one who does not descend? The attribute of one who does not move? The attribute of inanimate objects? So they are like them. We do not say "He descends." I hope you pay attention. We do not say "He descends," and we do not say "He sits," because these attributes did not come in these words that might lead to meanings unworthy of Allah (Mighty and Majestic). Rather, we say "He rose above the Throne" with a rising that befits His greatness and majesty, and "He descends" with a descent that befits His greatness and majesty. Yes.

The questioner : We do not say "He moves"... We do not say "He does not descend."

The Shaykh : Did you say "He does not descend"?

The questioner: Yes.

The Shaykh : Yes, I made a mistake in the context of affirming the descent, but we do not understand from the descent that He moves. We must describe Allah (Mighty and Majestic) as He has described Himself. My intention in all this speech is that they say, "No, the Messenger does not descend," and the Prophet says, "He descends." They say, "No, Allah does not descend," and he says, "He has risen above the Throne." They say, "He has not risen above it." He says: They say, "Allah does not come down. Why, people, do you say that? This is among the attributes of created things. Well, are not stones, trees, and mountains among the creations of Allah? They will say, 'Yes.' Well, is it among their attributes that they do not move? So where is the transcendence you claim when you negate the texts of the Book and the Sunnah under the pretext of transcendence? These people are like one who was under the rain and then moved under the gutter; he was being affected by the harm of the rain, and when all the rain poured out of the gutter, he remained in clear misguidance. From this, it becomes clear to you that the claim circulated by some of the later generations, who say that the creed of the earliest generations is safer and the creed of the later generations is more knowledgeable and more wise, is part of misguidance. In fact, the creed of the righteous earliest generations is the safest, the most knowledgeable, and the most wise. Therefore, when we affirm for Allah (Mighty and Majestic) everything by which He has described Himself (Blessed and Exalted is He) or by which His Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him) described Him, while observing transcendence along with affirmation, that is the knowledge, that is the safest, and that is the most wise. Please, Abu Yusuf.

The questioner : May Allah reward you with good.

The Shaykh : And beware of that.