What is your statement regarding the presence of Allah (Mighty and Majestic)? And did you say that Allah is with His creation by His essence and is established above His Throne?
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The Shaykh : Yes?
The questioner : May Allah preserve you, O distinguished Shaykh. A student asked about an issue that was issued and attributed to you regarding the presence: the presence of the Creator with the created. He says: You say that Allah (Exalted and Majestic is He) is established above His Throne and is with His creation by His essence. Is this statement correct?
The Shaykh : Never. We say: Allah is with us, and He is established above His Throne, as it came in the Noble Qur'an, as the Exalted said:[Al-Hadid 57:4]. So we affirm for Allah what He affirmed for Himself, but we say: any person who says that Allah is with us by His essence in our places is a disbeliever, because he is denying the evidence of the Highness, and it necessitates from his statement that Allah the Exalted is in the places of filth and stench, and it necessitates from his statement that Allah either becomes multiple or becomes divided. But some people understand from the speech something else other than what is intended, so they convey it from what they understood and build upon their wrong understanding.
The questioner : He argues with the verse:[Al-Baqarah 2:115].
The Shaykh : No, no, we say:[Al-Baqarah 2:115] there are two statements from the Salaf:
The first statement: "there is the Face of Allah" is a reality, and this is like his saying (peace and blessings be upon him) regarding the one praying that Allah accepted his face.
And the second statement regarding the verse: that the intended meaning of "Face" is the direction, meaning there is the direction of Allah, because Allah (Glorified and Exalted is He) is greater than everything, encompassing everything. But we argue with the verse we recited first: it is Himself, but it does not mean that His essence is in the earth; this is something no one who knows Allah with true knowledge says.
And the Shaykh of Islam (may Allah have mercy on him) gave an example in *Al-'Aqidah al-Wasitiyyah* when he mentioned that He is with us in reality, to clarify the matter. He said:
"This moon is in the sky, and we say: it is with us in reality". The traveler says, "I traveled with the moon," or "the star is with me," and it is in the sky. So if this is the case with the created, what do you say about the Creator? It is correct for us to say: He is with us in reality, and He is on His Throne in reality, just as we say He descends to the lower sky in the last third of the night in reality, and He is on the Throne in reality. Yes.
The questioner : May Allah preserve you, O distinguished Shaykh. A student asked about an issue that was issued and attributed to you regarding the presence: the presence of the Creator with the created. He says: You say that Allah (Exalted and Majestic is He) is established above His Throne and is with His creation by His essence. Is this statement correct?
The Shaykh : Never. We say: Allah is with us, and He is established above His Throne, as it came in the Noble Qur'an, as the Exalted said:
It is He who created the heavens and earth in six days and then established Himself above the Throne. He knows what penetrates into the earth and what emerges from it and what descends from the heaven and what ascends therein; and He is with you wherever you are
الله الذي خلق السّماوات والأرض في ستّة أيّام ثمّ استوى على العرش يعلم ما يلج في الأرض وما يخرج منها وما ينزل من السّماء وما يعرج فيها وهو معكم أينما كنتمThe questioner : He argues with the verse:
So wherever you [might] turn, there is the Face of Allah
فأينما تولّوا فثمّ وجه اللهThe Shaykh : No, no, we say:
So wherever you [might] turn, there is the Face of Allah
فأينما تولّوا فثمّ وجه اللهThe first statement: "there is the Face of Allah" is a reality, and this is like his saying (peace and blessings be upon him) regarding the one praying that Allah accepted his face.
And the second statement regarding the verse: that the intended meaning of "Face" is the direction, meaning there is the direction of Allah, because Allah (Glorified and Exalted is He) is greater than everything, encompassing everything. But we argue with the verse we recited first:
And He is with you
وهو معكمAnd the Shaykh of Islam (may Allah have mercy on him) gave an example in *Al-'Aqidah al-Wasitiyyah* when he mentioned that He is with us in reality, to clarify the matter. He said:
"This moon is in the sky, and we say: it is with us in reality". The traveler says, "I traveled with the moon," or "the star is with me," and it is in the sky. So if this is the case with the created, what do you say about the Creator? It is correct for us to say: He is with us in reality, and He is on His Throne in reality, just as we say He descends to the lower sky in the last third of the night in reality, and He is on the Throne in reality. Yes.