What is the ruling on one who says, “Allah was, and there was no place”?

The Shaykh : So whoever has a question, raise your finger; until we move to the second person next to him, and so on; the rightmost, then the rightmost; this is the legal rule.
And now we open the session with the sermon of need, even in its abbreviated form; so we say:
Indeed, praise is for Allah; we praise Him, seek His help, and seek His forgiveness. We seek refuge in Allah from the evils of our souls and from the badness of our deeds. Whom Allah guides, no one can mislead, and whom He misleads, no one can guide. And I bear witness that there is no god but Allah alone, with no partner, and I bear witness that Muhammad is His servant and His Messenger. As for what follows:
Indeed, the best of speech is the speech of Allah, and the best of guidance is the guidance of Muhammad (peace and blessings be upon him and his family), and the worst of matters are their innovations, and every innovation is a religious innovation, and every religious innovation is misguidance, and every misguidance is in the Fire. And before I listen to the questions, I ask for two things in these questions: The first is that the questions be realistic, from the core of life, and not theoretical, which may or may not occur. And the second—and perhaps the last—is that each one of you asks about what concerns him, and not about what concerns others; because the Islamic principle says: Start with yourself; then with those you support. And now, who has a question from here? Please.

The questioner : What is the legal ruling on one who says: “Allah was, and there was no place”?

The Shaykh : The answer: This kind of negation is often heard on the tongues of the theologians from the scholars of kalam, whether in negation or affirmation; so negating place is like affirming it, and likewise negating direction with regard to Allah (Mighty and Majestic) is like affirming it, and there are many examples of this. And the correct answer is: It is not permissible to deny any of these terms or affirm them until we clarify the meaning intended by the one who affirms these terms or denies them. So we return, after this introduction and this brief preamble, to answering the question directly; so we say, based on this preamble: If the one who says, “Allah was, and there was no place,” means to establish that Allah (Mighty and Majestic) is the First, and that He is eternal and everlasting, with no beginning, and that He is as it came in the authentic hadith: . So his saying (peace and blessings be upon him) in this hadith: ; meaning: from the created things. And it is certain that place only came into existence with creation; that is, by His saying (Blessed and Exalted is He): ; as He said in the Noble Qur'an: . So if Allah was and nothing was with Him; then He said to the Throne: Be; and it was; then indeed Allah was and there was no place; because place is derived from creation. But if the one who negates this meaning of place means what contradicts the Shari'ah in his assumption from some of the definitive legal texts whose existence and indication are certain, that they mean affirming place for Allah (Mighty and Majestic); and we have known that place was after it was not, and that Allah is rich in respect of the worlds; but when some definitive texts, whose existence and indication are certain, came, and all these evidences revolve around affirming the Highness of the Most High, the Most Forgiving; then at that time, some people may assume that if we say what these definitive texts indicate in existence and indication, that we have affirmed place for Allah. And based on this assumption; that is, some people assume from affirming the attribute of Highness for Allah (Mighty and Majestic) over all created things, they assume from this affirmation that it necessitates placing Allah (Mighty and Majestic) in a place. So they say: “Allah was, and there was no place.” Here we say: The negation is invalid, but the previous affirmation is correct, and there is a great difference between the first meaning: the meaning of affirmation, and the meaning of negation; because the meaning of negation denies definitive indications, and the meaning of affirming place affirms definitive indications; which are: that Allah (Mighty and Majestic) was and nothing was with Him, so when He created the creation, place came into existence; but Allah (Mighty and Majestic) is rich in respect of place, and rich in respect of time, and it is absolutely not necessary that Allah (Mighty and Majestic) be in a place; when all the people of the Sunnah affirm for Allah (Mighty and Majestic) the attribute of Highness, which we witness in every prostration we prostrate; so we say in it: “Glory be to my Lord, the Most High.” So it is established by this explanation, and by this answer to that question: that it is not permissible to deny or affirm a meaning for a term that did not come from Allah and His Messenger; rather, it is a convention among people, so in this case we look at the intent of the speaker; if his intent agrees with the Shari'ah; we say: Allah has a place in this meaning. And if he means what contradicts the Shari'ah; we say: No, Allah does not have a place in this meaning. Likewise it is said: with regard to direction, with regard to the direction that may be attributed or may be denied, attributed to Allah, or denied from Him, likewise we say the same thing; we say to the one who says: Allah does not have a direction, what do you mean by this negation? Do you mean contradicting the saying of Allah (Blessed and Exalted is He): ? ? ? ? And the texts are definitive in this as well. If the answer is: Yes, I mean denying these indications that these texts indicated; we say to him: You are invalidating when you deny direction in the meaning that the Shari'ah affirmed in the verses and in the hadiths.
And if he means by that when someone says: “Allah has a direction,” that he means: that Allah is not in every created place, as those who say in the unity of existence from the extremists of the Sufis and the Mu'tazilah and their like say; they say: “Allah exists in every place”; this speech—in that case—is invalid; because Allah (Mighty and Majestic) has made it clear to us by definitive texts from the evidences of the Book and the Sunnah that He has the attribute of Highness. So if we affirm the attribute of Highness, and they named this attribute as a direction for Allah; we say: There is no harm; but whoever denies that Allah has this attribute, in him is all harm. But we, nevertheless, whether in what concerns place in affirmation and negation, or what concerns direction in affirmation and negation, or what concerns—and you see this in some books of the science of kalam in affirmation and negation as well—which is: affirming the limit for Allah the Exalted or denying it; all these three terms of place, direction, and limit, we do not use them absolutely, neither in the meaning of affirmation, nor in the meaning of negation. We do not use them; because that did not come in the Book nor in the Sunnah; except that we are cautious with the people who may use a term from these three terms, we do not hasten to deny him initially; rather, we ask him: What do you mean? If he meant a meaning that the Shari'ah affirmed; we say: You hit the mark in the meaning, and you erred in the term. And if he intended by that term a meaning that contradicts the Shari'ah; we say to him: You erred twice: the first time—and it is the more dangerous—is that you meant by this term a meaning that the Shari'ah affirmed and you denied it. And the second thing is that you innovated a term that you used in denying it from Allah (Mighty and Majestic), and that necessitates denying what He affirmed in the Book and in the Sunnah.
This is the answer to that question, and it is perhaps clear, if Allah wills.

The questioner : In something in the core of the subject, meaning.

The Shaykh : Please.

The questioner : They say: “Allah was, and there was no place, and He is now as He was,” and they cite a word in that meaning which they attribute to Abu Bakr al-Siddiq (may Allah be pleased with him).

The Shaykh : The answer to this question is exactly as stated previously. If they say—and this is Sufi speech we have known for a long time—“Allah was, and there was nothing with Him, and He is now as He was,” if they mean that He is now, as He was, free from the created cosmic space, we say to them: You have hit the mark. But if they mean by this phrase—and this is what these people intend—that Allah (Mighty and Majestic) does not possess the attribute of rising above the Throne, which came in the Noble Qur'an in the wording: . If they intend to deny this rising above the Throne which is explicitly stated in the Qur'an, we say: You have invalidated it twice. The first time: you intended a meaning that contradicts the Shari'ah. The second meaning: you appended to the hadith a sentence that has no basis. Because the hadith we mentioned earlier in Sahih al-Bukhari is: . It ends there, with a very strong full stop; the hadith ends here. Then they added to it an addition that is invalid in chain and in meaning. As for the chain, because it does not exist in any of the books of hadith at all, an addition that is invalid in chain and also invalid in meaning in the negative sense. Someone else.