Which is more appropriate: to express it as likening Allah to creation, or to express it as comparing Allah to creation?
Machine translationRead the Arabic original
The Shaykh : Well, we hear a lot in the books we read where they say likening Allah to creation, expressing it as likening, while they mean comparing Allah to creation. So which is more appropriate, to express it as likening or to express it as comparing? We say: comparing is more appropriate. Expressing it as comparing is more appropriate. Why?
First: because the Qur'an expressed it thus:[Ash-Shuraa 42:11] [Al-Baqarah 2:22] and so on. And whatever the Qur'an expressed is more appropriate than anything else, because we do not find anything more eloquent than the Qur'an, nor anything more indicative of the intended meaning than the Qur'an. And Allah knows best what He intends by His speech, so conforming to the Qur'an is the correct path. So we express it as the negation of comparing Allah to creation.
Second: likening Allah to creation has come to mean, for some people, affirming the attributes. For this reason, they call the people of the Sunnah those who liken Allah to creation. If we say "without likening," and this man understands by likening only the affirmation of the attributes, it becomes as if we are saying to him: "without affirming the attributes." So the negation of likening suggests a false meaning to us, since some people believe that the mere affirmation of the attributes is likening. Complete it? Likening. And if we address him and say: "Affirm the attributes for Allah without likening," he says: "How is this a contradiction? What does 'without likening' mean? Without affirming? And you say: affirm the attributes. This does not make sense. Therefore, moving away from it is more appropriate.
Third: the absolute negation of likening is not correct, because there are no two things among entities or among attributes except that there is a resemblance between them in some respects, or if you wish, say a sharing, a sharing, except that there is a sharing between them in some respects. There are no two existing things among entities or attributes except that there is a sharing between them in some respects. And sharing is a type of confusion or a type of resemblance. So if you negate likening absolutely, it means you negate everything in which the Creator and the created share in something.
And we know that the brother Khalil started to feel sleepy. Yes, you can go perform the ablution.
First: because the Qur'an expressed it thus:
There is nothing like unto Him
لَيْسَ كَمِثْلِهِ شَيْءٌSo do not attribute to Allah equals
فَلا تَجْعَلُوا لِلَّهِ أَنْدَاداًSecond: likening Allah to creation has come to mean, for some people, affirming the attributes. For this reason, they call the people of the Sunnah those who liken Allah to creation. If we say "without likening," and this man understands by likening only the affirmation of the attributes, it becomes as if we are saying to him: "without affirming the attributes." So the negation of likening suggests a false meaning to us, since some people believe that the mere affirmation of the attributes is likening. Complete it? Likening. And if we address him and say: "Affirm the attributes for Allah without likening," he says: "How is this a contradiction? What does 'without likening' mean? Without affirming? And you say: affirm the attributes. This does not make sense. Therefore, moving away from it is more appropriate.
Third: the absolute negation of likening is not correct, because there are no two things among entities or among attributes except that there is a resemblance between them in some respects, or if you wish, say a sharing, a sharing, except that there is a sharing between them in some respects. There are no two existing things among entities or attributes except that there is a sharing between them in some respects. And sharing is a type of confusion or a type of resemblance. So if you negate likening absolutely, it means you negate everything in which the Creator and the created share in something.
And we know that the brother Khalil started to feel sleepy. Yes, you can go perform the ablution.
