Chapter 4: The “Hands” Of Allah
The “Hands” Of Allah As Reported By The School Of The Caliphs
The scholars of the above school have reported in their books from Abu Huraira who reported from the Prophet (S) as below:“Adam and Musa had the following conversation:Musa said: ‘O Adam! Allah created you with His Own hands .... but you brought down men from the Garden because of your sin.’Adam replied: ‘O Musa! Allah indeed honoured you, and wrote Torah for you with His Own hands.’”In another tradition reported from Abu Huraira, we find:“Allah descends to the first heaven, and spreads His two hands and says ....”
The “Fingers”
There is no mention of the word “fingers” in the Qur’an in relation to Allah, therefore, Ibn Khuzaimah had to rely on the traditions alone in order to prove that Allah had fingers. These traditions can be found in the books of Tawhid by Ibn Khuzaimah, and in Sahih Bukhari, Sahih Muslim, Sunan of Tirmidhi, Sunan of Ibn Majah, Tafsirs of Tabari, Ibn Kathir and Suyuti. One of such tradition is: Abdullah narrates that a rabbi came to the Prophet (S) and said:“O Muhammad! We read in Torah that God keeps the heaven on one finger, the trees on one, the water on one, the earth on one and all the creatures on one! And then He says: ‘I am the King!’The Prophet (S) gave a grinning smile to confirm what the rabbi said, and in support of his statement, he recited the following verse:“They have not made just estimate of Allah, such as is due to Him. The whole of the earth, on the Day of Judgement, will be His handful, and the heavens will be rolled up to His right....” (Surah al-Zumar, 39:67).These reports from Abu Huraira and others persuaded the scholars from the school opposed to Ahl ul-Bayt (‘a) to adopt a literal meaning for the word “Yadullah” wherever it appears in the Qur’an. Ibn Khuzaimah has a chapter in his book on Tawhid, which says:“The proof that Allah, the Creator, the Most High, has a hand; Surely, Allah, the Most High has two hands, as we have learnt from the established verses of the Qur’an ....”1Then he goes to quote the following verses in corroboration of his claim:
- And the Jews said: “Allah’s hand is tied up. Their hands be tied up and they be cursed for what they uttered! No! His hands are both outstretched, He spends as He pleases ....” (Surah al-Ma’idah, 5:64).
- “So glory to Him in Whose hands is the dominion of all things, and unto Him you will be brought back.” (Surah Yasin, 36:83).
- “(O God!) You invest with honour whom You please, and You bring low whom You please. All good is in Your hand. Surely, You have power over all things.” (Surah Ale-Imran, 3:26).
Let us now explain what the School of Ahl ul-Bayt (‘a) has said.
The Answers From Ahl Ul-Bayt (‘A)
- Muhammad bin Muslim asked Imam Muhammad Al-Baqir (‘a) about the following verse:2
“.... O Iblis! What prevented you from prostrating yourself to one Whom I have created with My Own hands ....” (Surah Sad, 38:75).Imam Al-Baqir (‘a) replied:“Yad (hand), in Arabic language is used to mean power and bounty.”Then he went on giving further examples from the Qur’an and Arabic literature to demonstrate the figure of speech. We quote some of the examples he gave:“(O Prophet!) And remember Our servant Dawood (David), the man of hands ....” (Surah Sad, 38:17).Imam Al-Baqir (‘a) pointed out that in this verse, the reference to the hands is clearly metaphorical. What Allah wants to convey is that He had blessed Dawood with strength. He then enumerated examples of strength with which Dawood was blessed.“We constructed the firmament with hands ....” (Surah al-Dhariyat, 51:47)Imam Al-Baqir (‘a) said: “Here the hands mean power.”“And gave them hand with a spirit from Himself...” (Surah al-Mujadelah, 58:22).In this verse “hand” denotes strengthening or empowering.Quoting from the Arabic literature, Imam Al-Baqir (‘a) said:“They say: ‘So and so has many hands with me.’This means that I have a debt of gratitude to him because of his obligations.Again, Arabs have a saying: ‘He has a white hand upon me!’This means He has obliged me. The hand in this context means beneficence.”
- Muhammad bin Ubaidah referred the same verse of Sura-e-Sad, to Imam Ridha (‘a). The reply was:
“With My Own hands”, in this verse is purported to mean “with My potency and power.”3
- Suleiman bin Mahran says he asked Imam Ja‘far Al-Sadiq (‘a) the meaning of the verse in which Allah declares:
“The whole of the earth, on the Day of Judgement, will be His handful ....” (Surah al-Zumar, 39:67).Imam Al-Sadiq (‘a) replied:“It means the absolute control and authority - shared by none.”Muhammad bin Ubaidah then went on to ask about the remaining part of the verse:“.... And the heavens will be rolled up to His right....”Imam Al-Sadiq (‘a) explained:“Allah has used the word Yameen which denotes ‘hand,’ and ‘hand’ means His potency and power. The heavens will be rolled by His power.”The words “handful” or “to His right” do not mean a fist or a right hand. They do not refer to any limb as supposed by the School of the Caliphs. To imagine limbs and bodily existence for Allah is to indulge in shirk - and that was the reason why Imam Ja‘far Al-Sadiq (‘a) after answering the questions, insisted on completing the verse. He quoted4:“Glory to Allah! He is High and Above the partners they attribute to Him.” (Surah al-Zumar, 39:67).
Observations
The Ahl ul-Bayt (‘a) have based their arguments on the true meaning of Tawhid, at the same time, relying heavily on the common usage of the word among the Arabs and in their literature. Raghib Isfahani in his famous book Mufradatul Qur’an says:“Yad means ‘hand’ or ‘limb.’ But it has other meanings as well, like control, power and discretion.”Egyptian scholars have enumerated nine different meanings for the word Yad, other than a hand. For example, the following verse: “In Whose hands is the dominion of all things ....” (Surah Yasin, 36:83) is translated as: “In Whose absolute control is the dominion of all things.”The most intriguing thing is that these scholars who attributed hands and other limbs to Allah when interpreting the relevant verses, adopted a different attitude when the word was used for the Prophet (S)In the following verse, addressed to the Prophet (S) all translators and commentators agreed that it means:“And do not tie your hand to your neck in niggardliness.” (Surah Al- Isra, 17:29).No one among them has taken the word ‘hand’ literally. But when it came to the same word being applied for Allah, they have resorted to its literal sense, totally ignoring the metaphor.This conveys the enormous influence wielded by the Jewish and Christian notions, which were remorselessly strengthened by some of the unscrupulous Companions of the Prophet (S). The story does not end here. There is an interesting discussion yet to follow.