Allah has a very noble, handsome face.
We might wonder: with stretched arms, legs
feet, bared shin and protruding ears how will Allah look like. This is
also described in the holy Qur’an. Just like a handsome and dignified
person, Allah also has a majestic, bountiful and honourable face.
Let
us read verse 55:26–27.
055.026
YUSUFALI: All that is on earth will perish:
055.027
YUSUFALI: But will abide (for ever) the Face of thy Lord,- full of
Majesty, Bounty and Honour.
Let us
read another verse. This verse confirms that Allah holds His bounties in
His hand.
003.073
YUSUFALI: "And believe no one unless he follows your
religion." Say: "True guidance is the Guidance of Allah: (Fear
ye) Lest a revelation be sent to someone (else) Like unto that which was
sent unto you? or that those (Receiving such revelation) should engage you
in argument before your Lord?" Say: "All bounties are in the
hand of Allah: He granteth them to whom He pleaseth: And Allah careth for
all, and He knoweth all things."
Dr
Takiuddin al-Hilali and Dr Muhammad Muhsin Khan, the translators of The Noble Qur’an, commenting on this verse, write:
All that has
been revealed in Allah’s Book (the Qur’an) as regards the (Sifat) Qualities of Allah the Most high, like the face, eyes, hands,
Shins (Legs), his coming, His rising over His Throne (Istawa)
and others, or all that Allah’s Messenger qualified Him in the true
authentic Prophet’s Ahadith (narrations) as regards His Qualities like (Nuzul),
His descent or His laughing and others, the religious scholars of the
Qur’an and the Sunnah believe in these Qualities of Allah and they confirm that
these are really His Qualities, without Tawil
(interpreting their meanings into different) or Tashbih (giving resemblance) or similarity in any specific
creatures) or (Ta’til) (i.e.,
completely ignoring or denying them, i.e., there is no Face, or Eyes or
Hands, or Shins for Allah). These qualities befit or suit only for Allah
Alone, and He does not resemble any of (His) creatures. As Allah’s
Statement (in the Qur’an): (1) “There is nothing like him, and he is
the All-Hearer, the All- Seer.” (V.42:11).” (2) “There is none
comparable unto Him.” (V.112-4) (Hilali and Khan, 1996,
p. 91, foot notes 1 and 2).
I quoted
those few words from two impeccable Islamic scholars to be fair. If
anything we could conclude from the above comment it will be: the Qur’an
is a minefield of ambiguities, incoherence and contradictions. Those two
scholars have simply confirmed this truth. You will learn more of
Allah’s contradictions in another part of this essay.
Allah
shows His face only to the dead Muslims; the unbelievers will not see His
face.
To
confuse the faithful Muslims, Muhammad’s Allah simply avoids to show His
Handsome, Majestic Face to the unbelievers. Only the believers (i.e., the
Muslims) will see His face.
Let us
read verse 83:13–16:
083.013
YUSUFALI: When Our Signs are rehearsed to him, he says,
"Tales of the ancients!"
083.014
YUSUFALI: By no means! but on their hearts is the stain of the
(ill) which they do!
083.015
YUSUFALI: Verily, from (the Light of) their Lord, that Day, will
they be veiled.
083.016
YUSUFALI: Further, they will enter the Fire of Hell.
The
reason why Muhammad had to resort to this marvellous trick to entice
people to Islam is not difficult to fathom. This sura is an early Meccan
sura, the time when Muhammad was very weak and just had about a score or
so followers. The majority pagan Quraysh, when asked Muhammad to describe
his Allah, he failed. It was because the pagans already had a version of
Allah of their own (more on this in a separate part). They could not
accept Muhammad’s description of Allah. Angry and frustrated, Muhammad
simply rebuked the pagans for not accepting his Allah and he resorted to
cursing them with the denial of Allah’s blessings. Please note: in the
previous section, we noted that Allah will show His Shin to the infidels.
One might wonder why Allah has to hide His Face to the unbelievers when
they could easily view Allah’s naked Shin. This is, yet another enigma
of the Qur’an.
Allah speaks like a human.
If we believe what the previous two
impeccable Islamist scholars (Hilali and Khan) opined about the
anthropomorphic nature of Allah, then the Qur’an must be wrong. In
several verses of the Qur’an we read that Allah did talk like a human
being. He, as a fire, spoke with Moses (27:9). On a spoken command from
Allah, Moses’ stick turned into a snake. Frightened, Moses turned tail;
but Allah called back Moses (27:9–10, 28:31). How was it possible for
Moses to hear Allah’s voice if Allah did not use the same language as a
human would to communicate verbally with Moses? If this is not convincing
enough, there is more surprises. The holy Qur’an says that a fearful
Moses heard a voice from a tree: it was Allah. Allah called Moses in His
own voice. No angel or jinn was there to convey Allah’s messages to
Moses. Allah Himself spoke with Moses (28:30). On another occasion, the
holy Qur’an maintains, that Allah indeed called Moses in the
valley
of
Tuwa
(79:15–16).
Let us
read those verses from the Qur’an:
027.008
YUSUFALI: But when he came to the (fire), a voice was
heard: "Blessed are those in the fire and those around: and glory to
Allah, the Lord of the worlds.
027.009
YUSUFALI: "O Moses! verily, I am Allah, the exalted
in might, the wise!....
027.010
YUSUFALI: "Now do thou throw thy rod!" But when
he saw it moving (of its own accord)as if it had been a snake, he turned
back in retreat, and retraced not his steps: "O Moses!" (it was
said), "Fear not: truly, in My presence, those called as messengers
have no fear,-
028.030
YUSUFALI: But when he came to the (fire), a voice was
heard from the right bank of the valley, from a tree in hallowed ground:
"O Moses! Verily I am Allah, the Lord of the Worlds....
028.031
YUSUFALI: "Now do thou throw thy rod!" but when he saw it
moving (of its own accord) as if it had been a snake, he turned back in
retreat, and retraced not his steps: O Moses!" (It was said),
"Draw near, and fear not: for thou art of those who are secure.
079.015
YUSUFALI: Has the story of Moses reached thee?
079.016
YUSUFALI: Behold, thy Lord did call to him in the sacred
valley
of
Tuwa
:-
Here is a hadith
from Sunaan Abu Dawud, which tells us that Allah indeed spoke
directly with Moses without any messengers between them. The funny part
is: this was revealed by Adam to Moses when they were arguing in
Paradise
. Let us read this hilarious hadith:
Sunaan Abu Dawud, volume 3, hadith number 4685:
‘Umar b. al-Khattab
reported that Apostle of Allah (may peace be upon him) as saying: Moses
said: My Lord, show us Adam who caused us and himself to come out from
Paradise
. So Allah showed him Adam. He asked: Are you our father, Adam? Adam said
to him: Yes. He said: Are you the one into whom Allah breathed of His
spirit, taught you all the names, and commanded angels (to prostrate) and
they prostrated to you? He replied: Yes. He asked: Then what moved you to
cause us and yourself to come out from
Paradise
? Adam asked him: And who are you? He said: I am Moses. He said: You are
the Prophet of Banu Israi’l to whom Allah spoke from behind a screen,
appointing no messenger between you and Him. He said: Yes. He asked: Did
you not find that that was decreed in the Book (records) of Allah before I
was created? He replied: Yes. He asked: then why do you blame me about a
thing for which Divine had already passed before me? The apostle of Allah
(may peace be upon him) said: So Adam got the better of Moses in argument
(peace be upon them).
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