How to respond to those who say: affirming hearing and sight for Allah is defining the form of the deity?

The questioner : There is an existing problem regarding the essence and the attributes of existence for Allah. Allah (Glorified and Exalted is He) said: . We naturally believe that the Qur'an ... is interpreted according to its apparent meaning. So they said: Fine, we believe in that, but you have defined the form of the deity ... .

The Shaykh : What did I say that ... defined?

The questioner : Ah ... .

The Shaykh: Yes.

The questioner : He said: So He has hearing; we said to him: ... He sees ... and he said ... .

The Shaykh : ... .

The questioner : .

The Shaykh: Yes.

The questioner : So He has a hand, yes. Then he said: So these are partial attributes that form an essence and give it a size; because the eye is an attribute or a part, for example, located on the head.

Another questioner : A part of the body.

The questioner : A part of the body located on the head, and thus the head is a part of the body ... .

Another questioner : The essence is a concept ... .
...

The Shaykh : Yes, this means, Professor, that we have returned to ... where we started; so we say: Is He not the All-Hearing and the All-Seeing?

The questioner : One person says: .

The Shaykh : Take and give with it. Do they want us to say: He is not the All-Hearing and not the All-Seeing?!

Eid Abbasi : ... This is it.

The Shaykh : This is the great misguidance. How can this person believe in the saying of Allah: ?! Allah said: and that is it?! Or did He say: ? Why did we believe in His saying: , and not believe in His saying: ?
I am telling you: Why? We believed in the verse in its entirety, from its first part to its last. These people you are referring to have predecessors from the Mu'tazilah and their like. These people believed in the first part of the verse and disbelieved in its last part. Do not tell me: No, they believe in the Qur'an, the speech of Allah, from its beginning to its end. I tell you: No; because the Qadiyyan believe in His saying (Glorified and Exalted is He): , but how did they interpret "the Seal of the Prophets" afterwards? It means the ornament of the Prophets; it means not the Seal of the Prophets. What did we benefit from their belief in the Qur'anic wording when they disbelieved in the Qur'anic meaning? We benefited nothing, except that we are misled by them into considering them Muslims when they are not Muslims; because they say: This is the speech of the Lord of the Worlds. This does not mislead us at all, by the permission of Allah, unless they believe in what the Salaf believed in. This principle is very great, and I advise every young Muslim to look into it carefully and hold onto it with their teeth; I mean the Book and the Sunnah according to the methodology of the righteous Salaf. Otherwise, they will be a sect from the seventy-three or more, a new sect.
Why did they believe in the first part of the verse and disbelieve in the second part? Because the first thing that came to their minds from His saying (Glorified and Exalted is He): was: that His hearing and sight are like our hearing and sight. So who told them that Allah means this? So that this meaning comes to their minds. Without a doubt, this meaning is false, meaning that we understand from His saying: that the hearing of Allah is like our hearing and His sight is like our sight. Without a doubt, this meaning is false. When this meaning quickly seeped in and settled in their minds, but there still remained in them a remnant of belief in the perfection of Allah and His purity from being likened to anything of His creation, they returned and said: No, we do not believe in this. Fine, you have purified Allah from His hearing and sight being like our hearing and sight, but Allah affirmed these two attributes for Himself. So what is your position regarding them? You have now explained their position, I do not know.

The questioner : Yes.

The Shaykh : Their position is: I do not believe. Can you combine this and that? In fact, when a person says: I do not know the meaning of , I say: The meaning of this statement is that he does not believe. Because what is the meaning of faith, Professor? It is firm conviction. If a person does not know whether a certain thing exists or not? Is he believing in it? He is not believing in it. So we say to them: Your understanding at first glance that His saying (Glorified and Exalted is He): means like our hearing and sight, this is an error for which you are responsible. He did not say: previously except for you to understand that when He says: , that His hearing is not like our hearing and His sight is not like our sight. And what confirms for us this reality, and they are in fact two realities, the reality of affirming the existence of Allah, and the reality of denying the existence of Allah. If we say as He said (Glorified and Exalted is He): , He is All-Hearing but not like our hearing, and His sight is not like our sight; this means that we have combined the transcendence (tanzih) with the affirmation (ithbat). As for them, they isolated themselves with the transcendence and did not believe in the affirmation. This leads to denying the existence of Allah (Mighty and Majestic), and the first leads to believing in the existence of Allah (Mighty and Majestic). How is that? We say: , "and He is the Living, the All-Powerful."

The questioner: Peace be upon you.

The Shaykh : And upon you be peace, and the mercy of Allah and His blessings.
"And He is the Living, the All-Powerful." Do those who do not believe in His saying: believe that He is the Living, the All-Powerful or not? What ... will be their answer? Hmm?

The questioner : They say: The Living, the All-Powerful, they are.

The Shaykh : Fine, what is the difference between the Living, the All-Powerful and the All-Hearing, the All-Seeing? Why did they believe in the Living, the All-Powerful and not believe in the All-Hearing, the All-Seeing? I say: It is all on one pattern, in negation and affirmation. The one who denies that He is All-Hearing and All-Seeing on the pretext that this is likening (tashbih) will deny that He is the Living, the All-Powerful, on the pretext of what? That it is likening. Now, am I not living? Fine, Allah is Living; so we will do one of two things: either we deny the life of Allah and declare Him dead because I am living.

The questioner : I exist.
Yes, I exist, or no, Allah is Living by the text of the Book and the consensus of the Ummah; so I am dead, I am not living; so whether we say this or say this; either we fall into disbelief and atheism if we deny the life of Allah, or we fall into sophistry and I deny my own life, and you see me like your story ... and I am speaking with you. Where did this sophistry come from? From not combining the belief in transcendence with the belief in affirmation, . So we say: Just as He is All-Hearing and All-Seeing, there is nothing like Him in them; so He is the Living, the All-Powerful, there is nothing like Him in them. And so extend this to all the divine attributes.
Finally, we ask: Does Allah exist or is He non-existent? What will be their speech? He exists. Fine, and we exist; so declare non-existence for one of the existing ones. The eternal, ancient existing One, the Lord of the Worlds, declare Him dead because we exist, or say as the Sufis said: Existence is one, I and you, as we mentioned to you earlier:
"And the dog and the pig are nothing but our God *** And Allah is nothing but a monk in a church"
And say: "Everything you see with your eye is Allah"; there are not two existences.

The questioner : "There is nothing in the pot but Allah."

The Shaykh : "There is nothing ... 'My glory, my glory!! How great is my state'" and so on.

The questioner : This is what they want, my professor.

The Shaykh : Yes, this is what they want, but they do not want it; because the group's intentions are good, do you see how? But they do not know how to understand the knowledge. What is the reason? They are far from the way of the righteous Salaf; therefore, it is obligatory to believe in the Book and the Sunnah and on the understanding of the righteous Salaf, otherwise the Muslims will be in clear misguidance, and it will not benefit them at all to say: I believe in Allah and His angels and His books and His messengers; because the Qadiyyan and the extreme Sufis say this speech and believe in the Qur'an and the Sunnah, but they believe in the words without the realities of the meanings.
Perhaps I was able to make it clear to you that this verse does not contain likening, my brother; because in brief I say: Because the statement regarding the attribute is like the statement regarding the essence; that is: what is said regarding the divine essence is said regarding the divine attributes. So just as Allah is an essence with a reality befitting Him (Blessed and Exalted is He), I say: The essence of Allah exists but His essence is not like our essence ; so His attributes are not like our attributes in His saying: . If we deny the attributes on the pretext of transcendence, we have judged Allah as non-existent, and that He is the existing one; because He is the Living, the All-Powerful, the All-Hearing, the All-Seeing, the Willing, the Giver of Life, the Giver of Death. So if we do not believe in these attributes, we do not believe in Allah. Do you imagine an essence without attributes? Do you imagine an essence without attributes? Whatever it is, if you imagine an essence without attributes, you have imagined non-existence.
In summary: Faith in Islam should be based on the Qur'an and the Sunnah, and faith in the Qur'an and the Sunnah should be based on the methodology of the righteous Salaf. Therefore, Allah the Exalted said: . So those who say: and do not believe in the divine attributes have contradicted the path of the believers. Why did He not say: "Follow my Sunnah only"? Because the Rightly Guided Caliphs understood the Sunnah; so we must...
And upon you be peace, and the mercy of Allah and His blessings. Welcome.
We seek help from Allah, and there is no power nor strength except with Allah.

Eid Abbasi: ... gathering cooperation ... the cooperation of Muslims at the expense of the truth includes the poet's saying:
"Peace upon disbelief that unites us *** And welcome, then, to Hellfire"

The Shaykh : I seek refuge in Allah!
...