Commentary on Tafsir al-Jalalayn: “There is nothing like Him.” The letter kaf is superfluous because the Exalted has no likeness. “And He is the All-Hearing” of what is said, “the All-Seeing.”

He said: The All-Hearing of what is said, the All-Seeing of what is done (Exalted and Majestic is He). He said: “

There is nothing like Him

ليس كمثله

The letter kaf is superfluous because the Exalted has no likeness”. The letter kaf is superfluous, and the addition of the kaf is not strange; it always comes as superfluous. For this reason, Ibn Malik (may Allah have mercy on him) said in the Alfiyyah, which a student of grammar should not neglect memorizing: “Like the kaf”. This is a simile. “And with it, causation may be intended”, meaning that causation may be intended by it. “And superfluous for emphasis and response”, meaning that it may come as superfluous. In this verse, the kaf is superfluous in the sense that if it were removed, the speech would still be correct. If one said, “There is nothing like Him,” would the speech be correct or not? It is correct, without a doubt. But why did the kaf come? The kaf came for emphasis, as if the likeness was denied twice: “There is nothing like Him” and “There is nothing like Him.” So the addition here carries an addition of meaning, as if the likeness was denied twice, once through the kaf and once through the word “like” (mithl). Some say that the superfluous element is “like” (mithl), and that the intended meaning is: “There is nothing like Him.” But this is a weak opinion, because when the matter revolves around whether the addition is a particle or a noun, the addition must be a particle, because the addition of nouns has not occurred in the Arabic language, and because a particle’s meaning is in other words, so its coming as superfluous is not strange, whereas a noun indicates a meaning in itself, so its coming as superfluous is far-fetched. So we have two opinions:
The first is that the kaf is superfluous, and this is easy and has occurred in the Arabic language, and the addition here is for emphasis. Some said that the superfluous element is “like” (mithl), and this is a weak opinion. Some say that “like” (mithl) here means “attribute,” meaning: “There is nothing like His attribute.” And “like” (mithl) comes to mean “attribute,” such as His saying, the Exalted: , meaning its attribute. And this is also weak, because we say that there is nothing like Allah, neither in His essence nor in His attributes. Some say that this is by way of exaggeration, meaning that if there were no likeness to His likeness, then a fortiori there is no likeness to Him, and that this is what occurred on the tongues of the Arabs for exaggeration in the description of exaggeration. And they cited for this: “There is no one like the young man Zuhayr”, which is an exaggeration, meaning that he has no parallel at all. This last opinion and the first are the closest opinions in parsing this sentence. But in terms of meaning and belief, we believe that there is nothing like Allah the Exalted, neither in His essence nor in His attributes nor in His actions. There is nothing like Him in anything. It is obligatory for us to believe in this. So His essence is different from all essences. We see that essences are different; the human being is composed of bone, flesh, nerves, and blood, and there are things composed of other substances. The Lord, Mighty and Majestic, is distinct from everything that exists in the universe in His essence. Do not say, for example, that He is like gold, like silver, or the like. No. For this reason, when the polytheists said to the Messenger: “O Muhammad, is your Lord made of gold or silver or such and such?” Allah the Exalted revealed His saying, the Exalted: . So do not ever imagine the essence of the Lord, Mighty and Majestic, because whatever you imagine, what would you imagine it to be like? There is no parallel to Him and no likeness to Him. Likewise, in His attributes, there is no parallel to Him, no likeness to Him in any of His attributes.
And let us take knowledge. Knowledge is among the attributes of Allah, Mighty and Majestic. Does it have a parallel in this attribute? It has no parallel in this attribute at all. The knowledge of every knower is limited; the knowledge of the most knowledgeable person is limited, is it not? Allah, Mighty and Majestic, said: . You yourself do not know what you will earn tomorrow. You may estimate that you will do such and such, but you do not do it, either because your drive is diverted or because of an external obstacle. We all estimate that tomorrow we will do such and such, but we do not do it, and we do not know what will be. Perhaps Allah diverts our drive from this action, or external obstacles arise, such as illness or travel, or something prevents us from our intention, and we do not know about it. Also, your knowledge is limited by observation. Do not think that you have knowledge of the unseen, even in the observed, your knowledge is incomplete. A person does not know what his child is doing in his house, nor what his family is doing in his house. And more than this, and weaker in knowledge, is that you do not know about yourself—Glory be to Allah—your soul, by which you have life, and it is in your body, yet you do not know about it. When they asked the Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him) about the soul, Allah the Exalted revealed: . Then He rebuked them for this question, saying: [Al-Isra: 85]. As if He, Glorified and Exalted is He, is saying: You ask about the soul, and you have not comprehended things; you have not known of things except a little; it remained for you only the knowledge of the soul until you asked about it. If the human being does not know his soul that is between his two sides and by which he has life, that is proof of the deficiency of knowledge. The knowledge of Allah, Mighty and Majestic, listen to what He says: . Every person, every living creature, so Allah, Mighty and Majestic, knows what is in their selves. Is it clear? Is the knowledge of the created like this?
As for power, no one, rather, if all the creation gathered with their power, they would not equal anything of the power of Allah. For Allah, Mighty and Majestic, is Able to do all things. Listen, Allah, Mighty and Majestic, said: . Meaning the resurrection is a single shout; Allah shouts to them: . All of them, in the corners of the world, even if in the forests, caves, and depths of the seas, all of them come at the same time. . Can this power be compared to or equal to any power? It is absolutely impossible. Therefore, we say: There is nothing like Allah.