صفات
Ṣifāt
Topic
How Muslims understand verses that speak of God’s hand, face or throne, without making Him like His creatures.
What it means
The Quran says “there is nothing like Him, and He is the Hearing, the Seeing” (42:11). It also speaks of His face (55:27), His hands (38:75), and of His rising over the Throne (20:5). Muslim scholars have understood these in different ways. The earliest scholars affirmed the words as they came and left the manner unknown: Malik ibn Anas is reported to have said, “the rising is known; how is unknown; belief in it is obligatory; asking about it is an innovation.” The Ash’aris and others interpret them in a figurative sense.
Often misunderstood as
That the Quran’s language makes Islam’s God a man-like being, in contradiction of its own statement.
What the sources say
The two ideas are held together: affirming what scripture says, and denying likeness to creation. The Quran itself uses the human language of a hand or face as the Bible does, in order to speak of God to human beings.