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5 - The Wahabi doctrine regarding
divine attributes
The Wahabi doctrine on Allah's attributes is the same as
that of al- Mujasima:* They claim that Allah
possesses actual organs such as a hand, a leg, an eye and
a face. They also describe him as literally siting,
moving, changing position, descending and ascending.8
This doctrine which they borrowed from Ibn Taimia
originated with the Hoshawia who lacked profound
knowledge of Islamic tenets and teachings. The Hashawia
endorsed the literal meanings of religious texts and
their tajseem is similar to that of some Jewish
denominations.
The Wahabis failed to support this belief with a
single testimony by any of the Companions or early
Muslims. But this did not deter them from claiming that
this belief represents the consensus of early Muslims. In
any case, their argument in defense of their belief
regarding divine attributes lacks logical substance and
hence it is unconvincing.
To justify their belief, however, the Wahabis relied
entirely on a statement by Ibn Taimia who claimed that
after reviewing all available commentaries by the
Companions and the traditions reported by them and
collected from several sources which amounted to more
than 100 commentaries he could not find a single evidence
from one Companion interpreting the attributes' verses in
variance with their literal meanings.9
This allegation repeated by Ibn Taimia is false and
was clearly refuted by the same sources whose
authenticity and reliability were confirmed by Ibn Taimia
himself. These sources include the commentaries of
al-Tabari, Ibn Atia and al-Bagawi.10
All of these sources reported that the Companions
interpreted the Quranic verses on Allah's attributes and
did not endorse their literal meanings. To illustrate, Ayat
al-Kursi or Chair verse was interpreted by Al-Tabari,
Ibn Atia and al-Bagawi by referring to Ibn Abbas' comment
that the chair means Allah's knowledge. Ibn Atia upheld
this and regarded any other interpretation to be of
Jewish or Hashawi origin which must be ignored.11
In the same fashion, Allah's 'face' is interpreted in
all verses in which mention of it is found as purpose,
recompense or other meanings depending on its context.
Anyone can check al-Bagawi's commentary which Ibn Taimia
praised as utterly reliable to find out for himself that
Ibn Taimia's claim is unfounded. In specific, al-Bagawi's
commentaries on the following verses may be consulted:
The Cow: 115, 255 and 272; Thunder: 22; The Narratives:
88; The Romans: 38, 39; The Man: 9; and the Night: 2.
From this evidence it can be concluded that the
companions did not support the Wahabi's doctrine on
divine attributes.
* Al-Mujasima or anthropomorphist believed
that Allah possessed physical attributes.
