Salm ibn Junādah narrated to us, saying: Abū Muʿāwiyah narrated to us, saying: ʿĀsim narrated to us, from Abū ʿUthmān, from Abū Mūsā. He related the hadith and said: The Messenger of Allah, may Allah bless him and grant him peace, said:
“O people, you are not calling upon one who is deaf or absent. You are calling upon One who hears and is near.”
⦗114⦘ I have recorded the chains of transmission of this report in the Book of Remembrance and Glorification.
Abū Bakr said: Listen, people of understanding, to what we say concerning this subject, as we describe the Jahmiyyah’s slander, falsehoods, and lies against the scholars of transmitted reports. They accuse the finest of creation after the prophets of something from which Allah has declared them free and innocent, falsely alleging that our scholars liken Allah to His creation. Listen to what I say and explain concerning our scholars’ positions, so that, with our Creator’s guidance, you may know with certainty that these deniers of the divine attributes slander the scholars and accuse them of what Allah has declared them free of.
We say: Our Lord, the Creator, has two eyes with which He sees whatever lies beneath the soil and beneath the seventh, lowest earth, whatever is in the highest heavens, and everything between them, small or great. Nothing hidden in the seven heavens or the seven earths, between them, above them, or beneath them is concealed from our Creator. None of this escapes His sight. He sees what lies within the seas and their depths just as He sees His Throne, over which He has risen.
Although the children of Adam have eyes with which they see, they see only what is near their sight, with no barrier or covering between their eyes and what they see, and what is farther away if it may, in some circumstances, still be described as near. For the Arabs, in whose language we have been addressed, may say, “Such-and-such a village is near us,” “Such-and-such a town is near us and our town,” or “So-and-so’s home is near us,” ⦗115⦘ even though the two towns, villages, or homes are separated by several parasangs. Yet a sighted human being cannot make out another person when they are two parasangs or more apart.
Likewise, no human being can see what lies beneath the earth when the object is covered by a fingertip’s thickness of earth and soil, or even less—just enough to cover and conceal it. Nor can his sight perceive it when a barrier stands between them, whether a wall, a thick cloth, or anything else that conceals an object from the observer’s eye. How, then, people of understanding, can someone be likening Allah to His creation when he describes Allah’s eye as we have described it, and human eyes as we have described them?
To explain and clarify further, we say: The eye of Allah, Mighty and Majestic, has no beginning. It has always endured and will forever be affirmed as enduring, free of destruction and extinction. Human eyes, however, are originated and created. They were nonexistent, not yet formed; then Allah brought them into being and created them through His speech, which is one of the attributes of His Essence. Allah has decreed and ordained that human eyes will soon decay. We ask Allah for good in that final outcome.
Allah may blind the eyes of many human beings, taking away their sight before death overtakes them. And perhaps many human eyes—He takes away their sight before death overtakes them—and perhaps many human eyes have been subjected by our Creator to the worms of the earth, which consume and destroy them after death has overtaken their owners. Then Allah brings them into being again, and they undergo what we have already mentioned in the discussion of the face. What likeness, then, people of understanding, is there between Allah’s eye, described as we have stated, and the human eyes we subsequently described?
⦗116⦘ Suppose a sighted man has no impairment of vision, no disease or defect in his eyes. Rather, he has large eyes, naturally dark rims, black pupils, brilliantly white eyes, and long eyelashes. I do not think that, if someone told him, “Your eye is like the eye of so-and-so,” referring to a man with small, blue eyes, whose whites are reddened and whose eyelashes have fallen out and been lost—or whose eyes are weak and blue, whose whites are reddened and whose eyelashes have fallen out and been lost, or whose eyes are weak and blue, with reddened white tissue—he would do anything but become angry and take offence. The first man can see a person from far away, while the second cannot see such a person from even a tenth of that distance because of impaired vision or a defect in his eye. He might even go so far as to subject the person who said this to offensive insults and harm.
Nor do I think that any rational person who hears someone likening the eyes of one of these men to those of the other would fail to declare that comparison false and accuse its maker of feeblemindedness, derangement, and madness. He would say to him: “If you were sane and accountable for your actions, you would not liken the eyes of one to those of the other, even though both are called sighted, since neither is blind, and each is said to have two eyes with which he sees.”
What, then, if he were told, “Your eye is like the eye of a pig, a monkey, a bear, a dog, or some other beast of prey, creeping creature, or animal”? Reflect, people of understanding: Is the difference between the two eyes of our Creator—the Beginningless, Everlasting, Enduring One, who has always existed and always will—and the two eyes of a human being greater, or the difference between human eyes and the eyes of the creatures we have mentioned?
⦗117⦘ You will then know with certainty that anyone who calls our scholars people who liken Allah to His creation has no knowledge of the Arabic language and does not understand religious knowledge. For it is not valid to liken human eyes to those of other created beings—beasts of prey, animals, and creeping creatures—even though they all have eyes with which they see. All their eyes are originated and created: Allah created them after they had been nonexistent, and all will perish and decay. Yet it is not valid to deny any of them the designation of eyes or sight.
How, then, could it be lawful for a Muslim—if the Jahmiyyah were Muslims—to accuse those who affirm an eye for Allah of likening Him to His creation? If everything bearing a particular name were necessarily like everything else bearing that name, it would not be permissible to recite Allah’s Book. Every verse between its two covers mentioning Allah’s Self, His eye, or His hand would have to be erased. It would be necessary to reject everything in the Book of Allah, Mighty and Majestic, that mentions the Lord’s attributes, just as it is necessary to reject likening the Creator to creation.
But these people are ignorant: they do not understand religious knowledge and have no command of the Arabic language. Thus they go astray and lead others astray. We ask Allah for protection, guidance, and sound judgment in everything we say and call others to.