The Theological Issues Related To What Has Been Narrated From The Prophet (Peace Be Upon Him) Regarding The Affirmation Of Hearing, Sight, And The Eye For Allah, The Exalted, With Reference To What Is Perceived By The Senses - Collection And Study

Abstract

Knowledge of Allah through His names, attributes, and actions is the foundation and culmination of all knowledge. This is because knowing Him, the Creator, is the most honorable knowledge, and its companion is the best fruit, which is Monotheism and Faith, the ultimate goal of realizing servitude to Allah the Exalted.

The knowledge of anything, to the extent that it can be described, comes through three means: either by seeing it, by seeing its like, or by being described by someone who knows it. The third means applies to our Lord; we know Him by His names and attributes as described by those who know Him. No one knows Allah better than His messengers, to whom He revealed and taught them, and with whom He guided them upon the path of revelation regarding Allah's names and attributes.

Indeed, the Messenger of Allah (peace be upon him) was the most knowledgeable of people concerning the details and meanings of the names and attributes, and the most eloquent in expressing and clarifying them in every way. From this stemmed this research, titled: "Theological Issues Related to the Narration Reported from the Prophet (Peace Be Upon Him) Regarding the Affirmation of Allah's Attributes of Hearing, Sight, and the Eye with a Perceptible Reference - A Compilation and Study," which aims to clarify one of the Prophet's methods (peace be upon him) for explaining the attributes, understanding them with a sound theological understanding in light of the statements of the early righteous predecessors of the Ummah and its imams, and refuting the distortion by the disbelievers concerning them.

From here emerged the idea and problem of this research: studying the theological issues related to what was reported from the Prophet (peace be upon him) concerning the affirmation of Allah's attributes of Hearing, Sight, and the Eye with a perceptible reference - a compilation and study - by answering the following questions:

Is it permissible to make a sensory reference to the Eye and Hearing when speaking about Allah's attributes? Does this reference necessitate resemblance (Tashbih)? What are the different views on this issue?

In this research, I followed the inductive and critical analytical methodologies. The research comprises an introduction, three chapters, a conclusion, and indexes.

Perhaps among the most important findings of the research are the following:

The hadiths indicated the affirmation of Allah's attributes of Hearing, Sight, and the Eye, employing a perceptible mode of reference drawn from the realm of human attributes.

Affirming the attributes with a perceptible reference is a known prophetic method for clarifying their meaning and confirming their validity.

Affirming the attributes with a perceptible reference is a known method which establishes the reality of the attribute, eliminates the ambiguity of metaphor and possibility, refutes the positions of the deniers (Nufāt), the allegorists (Mu'awwilah), and those who consign the meaning (Mufawwidah), and does not constitute a path to anthropomorphism (Tamthīl).