What is the ruling on attributing the attribute of movement to Allah (Glorified and Exalted is He)?

The questioner : You were kind enough to mention that our Lord does not have movement; I mean, the evidence?

The Shaykh : I did not say He has no movement. They say, when they interpret , they say: No, Allah does not come, He does not go and He does not come. Why? Because our Lord is not described with movement. But we say: We do not say our Lord moves, because the attribute of moving or not moving is not mentioned in the Qur'an or the Sunnah. However, it is explicitly mentioned that He came and that He descends. So if they interpret "came" as movement, we do not interpret it that way, but we do not deny the coming. We do not say: "Your Lord came" means "Your Lord's command came." We do not say: "Our Lord descends" means "His mercy descends." Do you understand? Perhaps the doubt entered you from our saying: We do not say our Lord moves.
Al-Halabi : And we affirm the coming.

The Shaykh : Yes, but in contrast, we affirm the coming. This is similar to another issue. Attributing movement to Allah has not come, neither in the negative nor the affirmative. Is that clear up to here? This is similar to another word related to the divine elevation. Is it permissible for us to say: Allah is in a direction? Ibn Taymiyyah has a sound statement on this issue. He said: We do not say that Allah is in a direction, and we do not say that He is not in a direction, because the word "direction" has not come, neither in the negative nor the affirmative. But if we are told, as we were told there in Mina, that when you say , meaning "He rose above," it means you placed Him in a direction, and describing Allah as being in a direction is not befitting Allah (Mighty and Majestic), because a direction is an attribute of created beings. Ibn Taymiyyah says: The one who affirms a direction or denies it, we ask him: What do you mean by this word? If he says: Allah is in a direction, meaning in the direction of elevation as He described Himself, we have no way to deny him, because the meaning he mentioned is correct, but the word is not established. And if the one who denies the direction of Allah, we say to him: What do you mean? Do you mean that Allah (Mighty and Majestic) is not above His creation? Yes, indeed; Allah is not described as being above, below, or to the right. We say: You have erred. He has now denied the direction in the meaning established by the Shari'ah, so he has erred twice. The first time, he brought a word that is not established, which is "direction." The second time, he denied the meaning established in the Shari'ah in the verses of istiwaa' (rising above the Throne) and elevation. Is it clear to you now?

The questioner : Clear... The evidence you mentioned requires that he moves...?

The Shaykh : We do not say, my dear, we do not say: He moves. We do not say, if we want to say that the meaning of "came" is "moved," that we are attributing to our Lord the attribute that we know for ourselves. And therefore we...

The questioner : ... .

The Shaykh : Listen, my brother, and therefore we brought the verse: , so He is All-Hearing and All-Seeing, but His hearing and seeing are not like our hearing and seeing.

The questioner : ... .

The Shaykh : Okay; now when we see something, does the eye move or not?

The questioner : It might move, it might not.

The Shaykh : No, it is not possible. Keep your eye still now, look, how long can you do that? [Everyone laughs!]

The questioner : We want the moment when he sees or does not see.

The Shaykh : It is every moment. You now, in the moments when you see, do you never move your eyelid?! Look at this philosophy, and this is what led people astray!

The questioner : The moment in which you look?

The Shaykh : Yes, in the moment in which you see, it is not possible.
Al-Halabi : I do not say: never. The word "never" means...

The Shaykh : No, no, allow me. The movement of the eyelid, my brother, it seems you understand it now like this, like this he does not see, but if it is like this he sees, meaning the movement now, when a person wants to stare at something... he tightens it a bit between his eyelids, so you think that everyone who wants to look must move their eyelids; this is a mistake.
The point of all this talk is that you now, when you want to look with your eye, the eyelid must move a little or a lot, but with that, I will bring you from a closer angle. When you look, you look with the pupil, the white, the eyelid, and so on. Do we describe our Lord with these attributes because He is All-Seeing? Why? Okay? Now, when you want to interpret the divine coming with the divine descent, you necessitate movement. Where are you taking this necessity from? From us, meaning we likened the Lord of the Worlds to us, and from here the Mu'tazilah and their like went astray. How? Allow me, you do not say anything, you just listen now!

The questioner : I want to clarify.

The Shaykh : No, I will clarify it for you now.

The questioner: Go ahead.

The Shaykh : May Allah guide you. State your point of view before, not during the listening of the answer. From here the Mu'tazilah and their like went astray. How? When they heard: , immediately it came to their minds that His hearing is like our hearing, and His seeing is like our seeing. , it came to their minds that the hand of Allah is like the hand of humans, and so on. and He descends, and so on. It came to their minds from these attributes that Allah described Himself with that they are the attributes that exist with us. Do you see how? Okay; these attributes mean Allah likened His state to His servants. Ah, likening is false by obvious reasoning. Therefore they said: Since there is likening of the Creator to the created in these verses, and likening is false, then we interpret the verses and do not say by their apparent meaning, so that we do not fall into what? Likening. Do you understand how?
Now regarding the issue of movement, they understood from the coming that it necessitates movement, and their understanding from the descent is the same. Movement is an attribute of the created. Therefore our Lord does not come and does not descend. We say: , we affirm the attribute with which He described Himself without likening and without what? Takyif (asking how an attribute is). Do you understand how? Therefore do not say: Why did you deny movement? We denied it because it has not come.

The questioner : ... .

The Shaykh : Movement, allow me a moment. Is a movement befitting His Majesty established, or is a coming befitting His Majesty the established one?

The questioner : We mean...

The Shaykh : Answer, may Allah guide you. Do you see how? You clarify your intention first, then the question comes, and you go back and say "I meant," and this does not end. Clarify what you meant from the beginning. I am telling you now: A movement befitting His Majesty, did this movement that is befitting His Majesty come?

The questioner : It is not...

The Shaykh : Answer, my dear, answer. Say: It came, or say: It did not come. Rest yourself and rest us.

The questioner : No, it did not come.

The Shaykh : Okay; then what is left for you? Why do you say something that has not come? It is like someone saying that our Lord has hair, but what? It is not like our hair!! No, my dear, this attribute, you are describing your Lord with an attribute. Has this attribute come in the Book and the Sunnah? No, it has not come. Rest yourself. We have nothing to do with these misguided people regarding the attributes that Allah affirmed for Himself, except that they also want to deny them, and we add a straw to a camel's load, and a note to the drum, and moisture to the clay, and we bring attributes from ourselves, and we add to them what? Be it befitting His Majesty! Do you see what the problem is? He did not understand the issue!

The questioner : I understood you.

The Shaykh : Then?

Another questioner : ... Our Shaykh.

The Shaykh : Yes, yes? How?

The questioner : The verse: , repeat it a thousand times, perhaps if...

Another questioner, meaning affirming the leg.

The Shaykh : Speak, my brother, what do you have?

The questioner, does it not indicate movement? This is what I mean; meaning, clarify to me the interpretation or meaning of this verse if possible?

The Shaykh : Why did you prolong it now? But the truth is not on you.

Another questioner : ... .

The Shaykh : Listen a bit. Now we were in the coming, right or not?

The questioner: Yes.

The Shaykh : Okay; now why did you move to ? Are we done with the first one?

The questioner : I want to cite evidence.

The Shaykh : Are we done with the first one? Are we done with the first one? Three times. Question: Is the world night or day? No answer. Is the world night or day? May Allah guide you. Do not waste our time. There are others who want to ask. There are others.

The questioner : ... .

The Shaykh : Be patient. If we do not be patient with people, these people would not gather!

The questioner: May Allah reward you with good, our Shaykh.

The Shaykh : Do you see how?

Another questioner : May Allah bless you, my professor.

The Shaykh : We were discussing the attribute of Coming, and we made it clear to you that we believe in the Coming as an attribute of Allah (Mighty and Majestic), but we do not add to it meanings we know from ourselves, such as movement. Necessarily, when we say, "So-and-so came to the house," what is implied? There is movement. Now, when we hear our Lord describing Himself as having Come and as descending, it is not permissible for us to add to this divine attribute an attribute that exists in us and is inseparable from human coming. So we add the attribute that exists in us to the divine Coming; this is likening Allah to creation. And so I thought we had concluded with you that we describe our Lord as He has described Himself. How did He describe Himself? He Came. Movement? We told you earlier: Did movement come as one of the attributes of Allah? You said: "Movement befitting His Majesty." I gave you an example: someone says to you, "Allah has hair, but hair befitting His Majesty!" We have gained nothing from all this talk. You jumped, with the help of your friend there, to !
My dear, when we finish the first inquiry, you will take the answer from yourself, from your understanding of the answer to the first inquiry, and you will be at ease with all the verses. Have we reached a conclusion with you regarding: , that there is no necessary connection between Coming and movement except in the human attribute, and , have we finished with that? If so, it is not permissible for the Muslim to say that Allah moves, nor is it permissible for him to say that He does not move; because neither of these has come in the texts. As we told you: Is Allah in a direction? We do not say He is in a direction, nor do we say He is not in a direction, but we ask for clarification: What does it mean that Allah is in a direction? It means that Allah is above the Throne, as befits His Majesty. We say to him: You have hit the mark in meaning, but you erred in wording; because you used a word that did not come in the Sunnah, which is "direction."
So now, we have gained something from you with this explanation regarding: and the examples we gave you, and you are fully convinced that we do not add anything to the Qur'anic or Prophetic attribute, and we stop at the divine or Prophetic expression. We agreed on this, or did we not? If we agreed, and praise be to Allah, I tell you: your question about: , the answer is the same as for and and so on. And if we did not agree, then rushing the matter and jumping in the inquiry is not good, moving to another verse, and a second, and a third, and a fourth. Did we agree, or is there still ambiguity in the matter?!

The questioner : We agree.

The Shaykh : Fine; what is the difference then between and ? is like ; we believe as it came; because the attributes of Allah must be believed in from the perspective of .

Another questioner: Allah is the Greatest!

The Shaykh : But, no asking how and no denial of the divine attributes.

The questioner : I do not ask how...

The Shaykh : When you say: "Movement," where did you get that from? Is this not asking how? You took movement from humans and attached it to the Lord of humans!

The questioner : ... .

The Shaykh : How?
Al-Halabi : ... in hearing.

The questioner : And sight is the same thing.

The Shaykh : So we did not agree! We gained nothing, we gained nothing, my dear. We told you: is established in the Qur'an, but "Your Lord moved" does not come in the Qur'an or the Sunnah!
In any case, you have to put up with us, and may Allah help you with us!
Al-Halabi : Our Shaykh, the issue of the debate of Imam Abu al-Hasan (may Allah have mercy on him) with the Mu'tazilah between the word "the Wise" and "the Intelligent"!

The Shaykh: Allah is the Greatest!
Al-Halabi : The word "the Wise" has the same meaning as "the Intelligent"; it is not permissible to affirm that Allah is Intelligent while affirming that Allah is the Wise; why? Because this is how it came in the Book and the Sunnah. And so is the meaning of Coming as we understand it as movement, but we do not affirm movement for Allah; because He did not affirm it for Himself. And we affirm for Him the Coming as He affirmed it for Himself. So Allah described Himself, and the Messenger described his Lord, so we believe in what Allah described Himself with and what the Messenger (peace and blessings be upon him) described his Lord with. And success is from Allah.