Page 19 - Tafsir of surat at tawba repentance

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“Allaah’s hand is above their hands.”

They interpreted it as being Allaah’s help and support for the simple reason that,
as they put it, Allaah could not possibly have a hand. This ‘ta’weel’ was based on
the false premise that the attribution of a hand to Allaah automatically implied
concep-tualizing Him in human form. However, in the same way that referring to
Allaah as a living being (al-Hayy) does not in any way make Him humanlike,
because His life is in no way like our life, referring to Allaah’s hand as a real hand
does not make Him humanlike, for his hand is in no way like our hands. It should
be noted, however, that the affirmation by Ahl as-Sunnah wa al-Jamaa‘ah that
Allaah has a real hand does not mean that they understand His hand to be a body
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part.

The Method of Tafseer

The Qur’aan is the last book of divine revelation sent to man, and Allaah has
promised to protect it from any distortion or loss. He said in the Qur’aan:

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“Verily, I have revealed the Reminder (Qur’aan) and verily I will
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preserve it.”

Its written and recited forms have been preserved without even the slightest
change for over fourteen hundred years, as has been mentioned in previous

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Soorah al-Fat-h (48):10.
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See Sharh al‘Aqeedah at-Tahaaweeyah, by Abul-‘Izz al-Hanafee, p. 220: “However, it may not
be said about these attributes [i.e., the hands, eyes and face of Allaah] that they are organs, limbs,
instruments or essential components, because Allaah is the Unique, the One Who needs no one but
is needed by all. He can not be conceived of as being composed of components, whereas ‘limbs’
and ‘organs’ carry the connotation of divisibility.”
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Soorah al-Hijr (15):9.

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