Continuation of the explanation of al-Tahawi's statement: "… Imagination cannot reach Him, and understanding cannot grasp Him. He does not resemble creation. He is the Living who does not die, the Self-Sustaining who does not sleep. …"

The Shaykh : "Imagination cannot reach Him, and understanding cannot grasp Him." By this, he refers to the saying of Allah the Exalted: Then he said: "He does not resemble creation", and this refers to the verse that is often repeated on such an occasion, namely the saying of Allah the Exalted: .
Here, the scholars of the Salaf speak in commentary on this verse, responding first 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 entirety of the verse: . Rather, it intends 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 He affirmed in His Book or about which His Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him) spoke 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) with hearing and sight. If their argument can be called an argument, it is that if Allah (Mighty and Majestic) is described as Hearing, we have likened Him to the human being 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.
No, by God, 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, that Allah did not say: , but they believe that it is not as Allah said: . So how do they reconcile this?
Answer: The reconciliation is through the path of ta'wil (figurative interpretation), which we call ta'til (denial of the divine 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 the saying of the Exalted: , that the literal meaning of this verse is not intended; rather, it is a metaphor for the fact that Allah (Mighty and Majestic) is All-Knowing.
Well, my brothers, what is the reason for this ta'wil (figurative interpretation)? To escape the tashbih (likening Allah to creation) about which Allah (Mighty and Majestic) warned regarding His transcendence from such likeness in the beginning of the verse: . So it was said to them by the ... scholars of the Salaf: If your intention is to escape tashbih (likening Allah to creation), you will not escape it by your method. This is ... from tashbih (likening Allah to creation).
Because the human being is also All-Knowing. So when you said: , as a metaphor for being All-Knowing, the human being is also All-Knowing. So what have you done other than denying a reality among 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 tashbih (likening Allah to creation), 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, 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. Also, you must deny the reality of divine knowledge, because the human being also shares with Allah (Mighty and Majestic), even in name, this attribute, which is knowledge. So what have you done when you said: , as a metaphor for being All-Knowing? You cannot say that the human being who learns and reaches high degrees of knowledge 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 interpreted His saying: , with this statement. Therefore, they were perplexed and found no answer. Rather, they bound themselves to what the scholars of the Salaf accuse them of: that they are those who deny attributes, and that denying the divine attributes leads to 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 were unable to answer this compulsion, so they remained thus, defeated.
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, in the recent past, 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 it is said, without any hesitation, regarding every attribute of Allah (Mighty and Majestic) in which creations or some creations share with Him in name but not in reality: Allah is described with all these attributes with realities in which nothing from 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: . 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 in name.

The questioner : ... .

The Shaykh : .
Al-'A'id al-'Abassi: Meaning ...

The Shaykh : First, these are self-evident truths, or I have no words. "Imagination cannot reach Him" means it is not permissible for the Muslim to imagine his Lord (Mighty and Majestic) in His Essence or His attributes in imaginations that are not mentioned in the Book and the Sunnah. As a question came to us, and where was this question? I think in Aleppo, you say that Allah (Mighty and Majestic) speaks, so does He have a mouth? This is among the imaginations and illusions that occur to the mind of a person. If it occurs to his mind, he must turn it away from himself. Therefore, the scholars say: Whatever occurs to your mind, Allah (Mighty and Majestic) is other than that. So this phrase does not need much ... commentary. And we said in the answer, yes?

The questioner :"Understanding cannot grasp Him" means ...

The Shaykh : Please, say what you have.

The questioner : Opinion ...
Al-'A'id al-'Abassi: I think nothing comes to my mind but self-evident truths.

The questioner : Meaning ... whatever ...
Al-'A'id al-'Abassi: meaning.

The questioner : No, other than the eyes, other than ...

The Shaykh : The understandings and the imaginations.
Al-'A'id al-'Abassi: Your personal imagination, meaning like what ... on ...

The Shaykh : That is an imagination ... you have ... please ...

The questioner : Meaning, this is the knowledge. It does not mean that 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.