The Meaning of al-Tahawi's Statement: "Imagination does not reach Him, nor do intellects comprehend Him, nor is He like any of creation."

The Shaykh : ... Among this is his statement: "Imagination does not reach Him, nor do intellects comprehend Him." By this, he is referring to the saying of Allah, the Exalted: .
Then he said: "Nor is He like any of creation." This refers to the verse that is often repeated on such occasions, namely the saying of Allah, the Exalted: .
Here, the scholars of the Salaf speak in commentary on this verse, first in response to the Mu'tazilah, and then to those who ... regarding the attributes of Allah, Mighty and Majestic. They say that the verse—meaning the saying of Allah, the Exalted: —does not intend to negate what He, Blessed and Exalted is He, has affirmed for Himself, as is explicit in the remainder of the verse: . Rather, the intention is to negate what may occur to the minds of some regarding likening Allah, Mighty and Majestic, to some of His creations in some of the attributes that He affirmed in His Book or that His Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him) mentioned in his hadith. They use this statement to refute the Mu'tazilah, who, for example, completely deny the second part of this verse: . They do not describe Allah, Mighty and Majestic, as Hearing and Seeing. Their entire argument in this matter—if it can be called an argument—is that if Allah, Mighty and Majestic, is described as Hearing, then we have likened Him to the human being who is described in the explicit text of the Qur'an as Hearing and Seeing. So, to escape this alleged similarity, they say: He is not Hearing and not Seeing!
Of course, they are not among those who openly declare atheism and heresy in the religion of Allah, Mighty and Majestic, to the extent that they dare to explicitly deny the verse. They do not say, for example: Allah did not say: . But they believe that it is not as Allah said: . So how do they reconcile this?
The answer is: reconciliation through the path of figurative interpretation, which we call denial of attributes. They say: Yes, Allah says: , but the meaning is not affirming hearing and sight. Rather, the meaning is that Allah, Mighty and Majestic, is All-Knowing, so "Hearing and Seeing" is a metaphor. Here, the danger of interpreting texts metaphorically becomes apparent. They say regarding His saying, Mighty and Majestic: , that the literal meaning of this verse is not intended. Rather, the intention is that it is a metaphor for the fact that Allah, Mighty and Majestic, is All-Knowing.
Well, my brothers, what is the reason for this figurative interpretation? To escape the likeness that Allah, Mighty and Majestic, warned about His transcendence from in the beginning of the verse: . So they were told by the scholars of the Salaf: If your intention is to escape likeness, you will not escape it by the method you mentioned ... likeness. Because the human being is also All-Knowing. So when you said: is a metaphor for being All-Knowing, the human being is also All-Knowing. So you have done nothing except deny a reality of the realities of the attributes of Allah, Mighty and Majestic, which is hearing and sight. If you say "Hearing and Seeing" means All-Knowing to escape likeness, and you claim that describing Allah with hearing and sight—even if it is said that His hearing is not like our hearing and His sight is not like our sight—even if it is said this way, it is not transcendence in your claim. Rather, you must deny the reality of this attribute to be transcendent. So then, you must also deny the reality of divine knowledge, because the human being also shares with Allah, Mighty and Majestic, even in name, in this attribute, which is knowledge. So what have you done when you said: is a metaphor for being All-Knowing? You cannot say that the human being who learns and reaches high degrees of knowledge—you cannot say that he is not All-Knowing! So here, too, there is a sharing between the human being described as All-Knowing and Allah, Mighty and Majestic, whom you have conceded is All-Knowing. And you interpreted His saying, the Exalted: with this statement. Therefore, they were perplexed and found no answer. Rather, they compelled themselves to what the scholars of the Salaf accuse them of: that they are deniers of attributes, that they deny the divine attributes. And the consequence of denying attributes is denying the Essence.
So Allah is not Hearing; why? Because the human being is Hearing. Allah is not Seeing; why? Because the human being is Seeing. So Allah is not All-Knowing; because the human being is All-Knowing. He is not Living; because the human being is Living. Any created being is Living, and so on. They could not answer this compulsion, so they remained in this state, having been informed.
As for the scholars of the Salaf, they combined the transcendence mentioned in the beginning of the verse with the affirmation mentioned in its entirety. They said: , meaning: in His attributes. And among His attributes is that He is Hearing and Seeing.
So, as we said yesterday—recently—: Allah, Mighty and Majestic, is Hearing and Seeing, and the human being is also. But the reality of the hearing and sight of Allah, Mighty and Majestic, differs completely from the reality of the hearing and sight of the human being. So likewise, it is said by analogy, without any hesitation, regarding all the attributes of Allah, Mighty and Majestic, in which creations or some creations may share with Him in name but not in reality. It is said: Allah possesses all these attributes with realities in which nothing of the creations shares with Him absolutely. And this is the example before you. Allah, Mighty and Majestic, said about the human being: , and He says about Himself, Allah, Mighty and Majestic: . So there is a sharing in the name, not in the reality of the attribute. The attribute of Allah is not like any of the attributes, but this sharing in name does not compel us to deny the reality of the divine attribute, which differs completely from the attribute of the human being with which it shares the name.

The questioner : ... Imagination does not reach Him.

The Shaykh : ... First of all, these are self-evident truths; or the meaning of the statement "imagination cannot reach it"; that is, it is not permissible for a Muslim to imagine his Lord (Mighty and Majestic) in His essence or His attributes with imaginings that are not found in the Book and the Sunnah. As a question came to us, and where was this question? I think it was in Aleppo; they say: "You say that Allah (Mighty and Majestic) speaks; does He have a mouth?" This is one of the imaginings and illusions that occur to a person's mind. If it occurs to his mind, he must turn it away from himself. Therefore, the scholars say: "Whatever comes to your mind, Allah (Mighty and Majestic) is the opposite of that." So this phrase does not really need much commentary.
And we said in the answer.
Yes?

The questioner : ... "Nor do intellects comprehend Him" means ...

The Shaykh : ... Yes, please, say what you have.

The questioner : ... My opinion ...

Eid Abbasi : ... I think what comes to my mind is something obvious, meaning.

The questioner : ... .

Eid Abbasi : ... meaning.

The questioner : ... No, not the eyes, not the intellects.

The Shaykh : ... The intellects and the imaginations.

The questioner : ... Your personal imagination, meaning like what ... on ...

Another questioner : ... May Allah guide you, personal imagination ...

The Shaykh : ... You have ...

The questioner : ... Meaning this is the knowledge, no, meaning even the believer who describes Allah, Mighty and Majestic, with what Allah, Blessed and Exalted is He, has described Himself with; this does not lead to ...