Allah's Transcendence: Utterly Unlike Humanity

The next section of the creed is about Allah's transcendence, the beatific vision, and anthropomorphism. From here, after explaining Allah (swt) with what we have from the sources of Sharīʿah, and explaining His speech, and the Prophet (peace be upon him), Imam al-Ṭaḥāwī now begins to warn the ummah, through his work, on what to avoid. So after he establishes an understanding of Allah (swt) through the correct sources, he now tells us what to avoid. The transition there is plain to see. Imam al-Ṭaḥāwī says in point 38:

Article 38. Wa man waṣafa Allāha bi-maʿnan min maʿānī al-bashari fa-qad kafar. Fa-man abṣara hādhā iʿtabara, wa ʿan mithli qawli al-kuffāri inzajara, wa ʿalima annahu bi-ṣifātihi laysa ka-l-bashar. Whoever ascribes any human qualities to Allah has blasphemed. So whoever perceives this takes heed.

Whoever understands this point understands that it is blasphemy to attribute any human quality to Allah. Whoever understands this takes heed, and refrains from such statements of the disbelievers, and knows that Allah, the Sublime and Exalted, in all of His attributes is utterly unlike humanity.

This is the purity of understanding that we need to have in order to be true believers. And Imam al-Ṭaḥāwī continues on this; he goes on to explain this a lot more.

But this is extremely important, based on laysa ka-mithlihi shayʾ. That is a very, very important point. Obviously, whoever ascribes any human qualities to Allah has blasphemed, and thus has become a kāfir, and thus become entitled to the most serious of punishments.

Whoever understands this, and understands the danger of this, is going to take heed, iʿtabara, and is going to stay far away from what disbelievers say when they say strange things about Allah (swt). He knows that Allah (swt) is sublime and exalted in all of His attributes. He is utterly unlike humans. That point is taken up again a little later.

In the middle, Imam al-Ṭaḥāwī speaks about the beatific vision, which needs some clarification. There is also a question raised before, whose answer was held back until this point…^**