What is the response to the statement: How do we believe in Allah when we do not see Him?
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Question:
The questioner asks: How do we believe in Allah without seeing Him with our eyes, and without touching Him with our hands? We ask Allah for well-being.
Answer:
This is part of faith in the unseen: [al-Baqarah:3], so you believe in Allah, and you have seen His signs; you are among His signs, you are a creation of His signs, the One who gave you hearing and sight, intellect and limbs, and who created water and these blessings for you. These are His signs pointing to Him: "In every thing there is a sign indicating that He is One." And you were not created in vain. The signs of Allah are innumerable: rivers, seas, mountains, the sky, the earth, and so on. And you are among His signs, as He (Glorified and Exalted is He) said : [al-Dhariyat:20, 21].
Furthermore, you believe in Paradise and the Fire, and you have not seen them either. You believe in the jinn, and you have not seen the jinn, for Allah has informed you about them. You believe in your intellect, and you do not see your intellect. That is to say, if you do not have an intellect, or if you do not see your intellect, then you are not a person of intellect. You do not see the intellect, so you are not a person of intellect in that case; you would be insane. And you have a heart, and you have not seen it, and you have other internal things that you have not seen.
The point is that knowledge is acquired through sight, through certain information, through touch, through smell, through observation, and through hearing. The means of knowledge are many; it is not only through touch. Touch is one of the means, and one of the greatest, but the greatest and broadest is knowledge through information. You know that there are countries in the world called America, and you have not visited them. You know them with certainty through news, broadcasts, and the like. You know that there were caliphs in the past, and that the Prophet Muhammad (peace and blessings be upon him) has passed away, and you were not present for that. You know this through evidence and reports. You know that there are specific rivers, specific animals, and specific seas in the world, through information, not through sight. You have not seen them. You know that there are many cities in the world that you have not seen, but you know them through information. This is something that does not end; it is innumerable.
The questioner asks: How do we believe in Allah without seeing Him with our eyes, and without touching Him with our hands? We ask Allah for well-being.
Answer:
This is part of faith in the unseen:
Who believe in the unseen
الَّذِينَ يُؤْمِنُونَ بِالْغَيْبِ(20) And on the earth are signs for the certain [in faith] (21) And in yourselves. Then will you not see?
وَفِي الْأَرْضِ آيَاتٌ لِلْمُوقِنِينَ وَفِي أَنْفُسِكُمْ أَفَلَا تُبْصِرُونَFurthermore, you believe in Paradise and the Fire, and you have not seen them either. You believe in the jinn, and you have not seen the jinn, for Allah has informed you about them. You believe in your intellect, and you do not see your intellect. That is to say, if you do not have an intellect, or if you do not see your intellect, then you are not a person of intellect. You do not see the intellect, so you are not a person of intellect in that case; you would be insane. And you have a heart, and you have not seen it, and you have other internal things that you have not seen.
The point is that knowledge is acquired through sight, through certain information, through touch, through smell, through observation, and through hearing. The means of knowledge are many; it is not only through touch. Touch is one of the means, and one of the greatest, but the greatest and broadest is knowledge through information. You know that there are countries in the world called America, and you have not visited them. You know them with certainty through news, broadcasts, and the like. You know that there were caliphs in the past, and that the Prophet Muhammad (peace and blessings be upon him) has passed away, and you were not present for that. You know this through evidence and reports. You know that there are specific rivers, specific animals, and specific seas in the world, through information, not through sight. You have not seen them. You know that there are many cities in the world that you have not seen, but you know them through information. This is something that does not end; it is innumerable.
Source
binbaz.org.sa
The Arabic text is copied verbatim from the original source, without any edits.