Is it authentic to affirm that Allah the Exalted has two eyes based on a hadith from the Messenger of Allah (peace and blessings be upon him)?

The Shaykh : Something else.

The questioner : My question is regarding tawhid (the oneness of Allah).

The Shaykh : Regarding what? The brother says regarding tawhid (the oneness of Allah).

The questioner : Yes, regarding tawhid (the oneness of Allah), specifically affirming the names and attributes, regarding the attribute of the eye for Allah (Mighty and Majestic). Because there is no explicit text regarding it, the apparent meaning of the texts, the clear Quran and Sunnah, is "eye" and "eyes."

The Shaykh : What do you mean by the apparent meaning of the Sunnah?

The questioner : That Allah has an eye, and that Allah has eyes.

The Shaykh : What do you mean by the apparent meaning of the Sunnah? Which hadith?

The questioner : I mean the Quran.

The Shaykh : The Quran: This does not mean that there are more than two eyes; because when the plural is used, in many cases the minimum of the plural is two, so this does not mean that He has more than two eyes. But when you mentioned the Sunnah, I wanted to know; because the Sunnah is always, as is known, a complement to the Quran and a clarification. I believe this opinion is a later development, not from the opinion of the Salaf (the earliest generations); and what is transmitted in the books of tawhid (the oneness of Allah) and books of creed is that He has two eyes. Some of the early scholars argue with the hadith of the Dajjal (the false messiah) that he is one-eyed: We do not have an explicit text that He has more than two eyes, and what has been inherited from the creed of the Salaf (the earliest generations) is affirming the two eyes based on the apparent meaning of the hadith of the Dajjal (the false messiah), despite the many ways it is narrated. So what comes to mind from this hadith, and nothing else occurs to the mind, is that one of the Dajjal's (the false messiah's) eyes is sunken, and he is one-eyed, and "your Lord is not one-eyed," which means that Allah (Mighty and Majestic) is described as having two eyes, not three or more, because we do not have a text for more. And as we always say, matters of the unseen, especially what relates to the unseen of the unseen, which is the Lord of the worlds (Blessed and Exalted is He), should not be described by analogies and generalizations and the like, but only by what came to us from our righteous Salaf (the earliest generations) and what the hadiths brought. So I thought, when you mentioned the Quran and the Sunnah, that some of them mentioned a hadith explicitly stating that He has more than two eyes, and this is what we do not know. And so I hurried to find out about it, but we did not find anything. Please, go ahead.

The questioner : The statement of Ibn al-Qayyim and others, for example, he says about the sinner: "He has fallen from the eye of Allah." Is there anything to this?

The Shaykh : There is nothing wrong with this, because the previous verse is: It does not intend the meaning that might occur to some ignorant people, meaning "you are under our care and under our supervision," and this is not the intended meaning; so the word of Ibn al-Qayyim is of this nature.
Wafi: Is this said regarding the hands as well?

The Shaykh : What do you mean?
Wafi: I mean it is mentioned in the Quran...

The Shaykh : That it is more or less?
Wafi: Yes.

The Shaykh : Yes, nothing is added to it.
Al-Halabi : This is more explicit because the phrase "hands" is mentioned in the Quran.

The Shaykh: Yes.

The questioner : Shaykh, there is a rule regarding the names and attributes... For example, you say: "The hand of the man" or we say, for example: "He has a long hand." This means, even if this is a dialect, it is a metaphor or something like that, but there is a real hand for him. So likewise, when we say about Allah (Mighty and Majestic), for example: Even if this attribute is interpreted figuratively by some, it is also affirmed from this perspective.

The Shaykh : But you do not interpret it figuratively, in your expression?

The questioner : No, no, this is also interpreted figuratively.

The Shaykh : But you do not call it ta'wil (figurative interpretation); this is the interpretation. Ah, what you are saying is correct, but the question is whether this is a text that means more than two eyes, it is not a description of that; because the minimum of the plural is two.

The questioner : I mean, our Shaykh, from the perspective of the saying of Allah the Exalted: Okay, does mercy have two hands?

The Shaykh : Okay, what do you mean?

The questioner : This rule did not apply here.

The Shaykh : It applied elsewhere, how is the verse: Does this accept ta'wil (figurative interpretation)?

The questioner : No, absolutely not, it does not accept ta'wil (figurative interpretation).

The Shaykh : If this is the case, that is sufficient for us, and there are many, and very many, like it.

The questioner : Is this rule correct or invalid?

The Shaykh : No, it is correct, correct with respect to what is established for us, that the original principle that came contrary to it is established in other hadiths; in other texts. But when you brought up the case of the wind, and truth and the like, these are conceptual matters that have not been established for us previously that they have these organs that you mentioned in this context. So there is a difference between what is established for Allah (Mighty and Majestic) as an attribute, and then this attribute comes with a meaning they call metaphorical, and it is not metaphorical, but it is the intended meaning in that place, which is what they call ta'wil (figurative interpretation). And so I told you that "by Our eyes" is not ta'wil (figurative interpretation); the attribute of the eye is established for Allah, not just by this verse, but by other texts.

The questioner : No, I mean the rule, not the verse.

The Shaykh : I answered you regarding the rule and I will clarify the difference for you.

The questioner : You clarified to me in the rule that the reference for what is established, if we refer to the reference, we do not refer to the rule itself, we refer to what is established from Allah (Mighty and Majestic).

The Shaykh : But the rule applies in one place and not in another, the rule is for what is established, meaning for example, as you said, the prince's hand is long, we know beforehand that he has a hand, but the two examples you mentioned regarding the wind It is not established for us that mercy has two hands, so it applies where it should apply and does not apply when there is no established attribute for these meanings, so mercy is not an entity.

The questioner : The point, our Shaykh, is the establishment of this, meaning I know that the prince has a hand, and that the wind does not have a hand, or is it by religious law?

The Shaykh : No, regarding the human being, you know by reason and observation, and regarding the Lord of the worlds, you know by faith in the unseen, and nothing else.
Al-Halabi : Our professor, they call this rational metaphor, meaning it is fundamentally established that truth does not have a foot, and mercy does not have two hands, but here the reality has another answer mentioned by our Shaykh al-Shanqiti in *Adwa' al-Bayan*.

The Shaykh : And what is it?
Al-Halabi : In the saying of Allah the Exalted: The word "hands," he says: if the word "between" or the preposition "between" comes before it, it means "in front of." "Between the hands of the worshipper" means in front of him, "between the hands of His mercy" means in front of it, and so on; so it is not said that the hand here means a limb or something like that; and Allah knows best.

The Shaykh : Yes, good, yes.