Interpreting the hadeeth: ...I found the coolness of His fingertips on my chest

13-12-2017 | IslamWeb

Question:

There is the hadith of Mu‘aadh, may Allaah be pleased with him, which says that the Prophet, sallallaahu 'alayhi wa sallam, had seen His Lord. It was also narrated via a number of Isnaads (chain of narrators) that he saw his Lord and that Allaah put His Hand between the Prophet’s shoulders so that he felt its coolness on his chest. (Sunan At-Tirmidhi volume 5, hadith 3235. Do we need to affirm the attributes mentioned in this hadith for Allaah (coolness of finger tips), or should we consider it as a dream? In a fatwa of Ibn Baaz, he does not mention anything about the attributes: http://www.alifta.net/fatawa/fatawaDetails.aspx?languagename=en&BookID=14&View=Page&PageNo=1&PageID=793
The Permanent Committee also did not specify anything about affirmation, so what is the view of Ahl Sunnah on this ?
Answer:

All perfect praise be to Allah, the Lord of the worlds. I testify that there is none worthy of worship except Allah and that Muhammad sallallaahu `alayhi wa sallam ( may Allaah exalt his mention ) is His slave and Messenger.

This hadeeth, like other ahaadeeth about the Attributes of Allah, is subject to the established rule by Ahlus-Sunnah wal Jamaa‘ah: “Let it be (leave it) as it is without asking how.”

Shaykh ‘Alawi As-Saqqaaf quoted the response of Shaykh Ibn Taymiyyah may Allaah have mercy upon him to Ar-Raazi when he (Ar-Raazi) interpreted this hadeeth metaphorically to mean that the Prophet sallallaahu `alayhi wa sallam ( may Allaah exalt his mention ) found the effect of Divine Care (in a way other than its literal meaning).

Shaykh 'Alawi, in his book The Attributes of Allah in the Quran and the Sunnah (pp. 524-526), said:

“Shaykh Ibn Taymiyyah said in Naqdh Asaas At-Taqdees about the statement of Ar-Raazi, ‘I found the coolness of his fingers, i.e. I found the effect of that (Divine) Care.’ As a response to him, we say: the effect of that Care was felt on his back, his heart, and his chest, so restricting the meaning to be the effect of Divine Care is not permissible… The statement: ‘He put his hand between my shoulders until I found the coolness of His Fingers between my breasts,’ does not allow the probability of interpreting it in other than its literal meaning by saying that it means mere care. This [interpreting it in this manner] is known to be invalid in the Arabic language.”

Allah knows best.

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