Addressing Detailed matters of Faith

16-7-2018 | IslamWeb

Question:

1)Is Allah a Physical entity? Does he "occupy space"? Scholars say we should neither affirm nor deny if he occupies space or if he's a physical entity. yet we know he created space and time so he couldn't occupy something he created. So shouldn't our position be that he doesn't occupy space?2)If someone asks if Allah has a body made of organs should we say "No he doesn't" or "I don't know". I have heard of a scholar who said that anyone who believes Allah has organs is a disbeliever. But other scholars just say we should neither affirm nor deny. The Quran says Allah has hands,eyes and other attributes. Eyes and hands are organs so how can someone believe he has organs and be a disbeliever if it's mentioned in the Quran?3)what did ibn taymiyah mean by the saying: whoever accepts partition,separation and division for Allah is a disbeliever. Again we know he has hands and eyes so what does he mean?4)Doesn't the Quran say 1 day for Allah is 50000 years? so why do we say he is not bound by time.i know i have asked a lot of questions on something we shouldn't talk about. I became confused when I read a few articles on this regard. i don't know what is correct and what is disbelief. I hope you can also answer if scholars say Allah has a limit because I heard that someone said Allah may have a limit only he knows. But doesn't that go against being All powerful if he has a limit?

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.

A Muslim is required to know the principles of faith. As for the innovated details, such as the things you mentioned in your question, then the scholars from the righteous predecessors during the era of the companions and the generation who came after them never addressed them. If a Muslim dies without knowing such details, his faith would not be affected in any way.

The later scholars who addressed such details, only did so in response to the misconceptions of those who were upon incorrect belief.

Therefore, we advise you not to busy yourself with these details, because possessing knowledge about such matters is not something praised in all times. Rather, it is only praised when there is a need for it.

Finally, we praise Allah that we are fully capable of addressing this issue and answering it. However, in addition what we mentioned above, the thing that prevents us from addressing such issues is the fact that conveying the accurate meaning of the technical Arabic terms used by the early scholars who addressed these issues into any foreign language is a very difficult task. This is because they are sensitive terms and are deep in meaning and we fear that an error may happen when conveying them because no other language is rich enough to have the depth to convey some of the classical Arabic terms.

Allah knows best.

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