10 — ‘Abd al-Rahmān ibn Bishr ibn al-Hakam narrated to us, saying: ‘Abd al-Razzāq narrated to us, saying: Ma‘mar narrated to us, from Hammām ibn Munabbih, who said: This is what Abū Hurayrah narrated to us from Muhammad, the Messenger of Allah, may Allah bless him and grant him peace. He then mentioned several hadiths and said: The Messenger of Allah, may Allah bless him and grant him peace, said:

“Allah created ⦗94⦘ Adam in his image, sixty cubits tall. When He created him, He said, ‘Go and greet that group’—a group of angels who were sitting—‘and listen to their reply, for this will be your greeting and the greeting of your descendants.’ So he went and said, ‘Peace be upon you.’ They replied, ‘Peace be upon you, and the mercy of Allah,’ adding ‘and the mercy of Allah.’ Everyone who enters Paradise will have Adam’s form, sixty cubits tall. People have continued to diminish in stature ever since.”

Abū Bakr said: Thus, Adam’s form was sixty cubits tall. This is the form in which the Prophet, may Allah bless him and grant him peace, stated that Adam, peace be upon him, was created. It is not as some who failed to pursue knowledge carefully imagined: they supposed that his words, “in his image,” referred to the image of the Most Merciful as an attribute of His essence. Exalted and High is He above being described in terms of lifeless matter and flesh. Allah has declared Himself free and holy above the attributes of created beings, saying:

“There is nothing like Him, and He is the All-Hearing, the All-Seeing.” [Al-Shūrā: 11]

He is as He has described Himself in His Book and through His Prophet—not like created beings, whether living or inanimate. He is not as the Jahmiyyah have portrayed the One they worship, likening Him to inanimate things, nor as the extremists among the Rāfidah have portrayed the One they worship, likening Him to the children of Adam. May Allah condemn both these statements and those who utter them.