Allāh Is Clear Of Being Attributed With A Limit
A gem in the Islamic Creed:
The people of truth (Ahlus-sunnah) said: The universe consists of particles or characteristics. The particle is that which has a size and it is of two categories: one category is so small that it cannot be divided and another category that can be divided and it is called a body. The first (which cannot be divided) is called the smallest indivisible particle and it is the particle that can no longer be divided. As for the characteristic is that which is the attribute of the particle like the movement of a body and its stillness and its dwelling in a location (the location is the place and the direction). As for Allāh The Exalted, He is not like any of that (He is not a particle nor a body nor an attribute of a body). It is impossible that Allāh be the smallest indivisible particle or a composition of particles to the extent that they become a body. This is the meaning of the saying of some scholars “Certainly Allāh is clear from being attributed with size and a volume. There is nothing other than Allāh like that. As for the saying of the philosophers that the so called primordial matter (which does not exist in reality) is that which has no volume and no how is an invalid statement.
The saying of the people of truth is “Certainly Allāh is clear of being attributed with a limit.” This means that had Allāh been a smallest indivisible particle then the smallest indivisible particles would have been a similar to Him (and this is blasphemy). And had He been more than that to the extent of being the biggest of bodies and that is the throne or bigger than that to an amount that finished or to an amount that is assumed it does not finish it would constitute that He, The Exalted, would be composed and made up of parts, and whatever is composed is in need of the one who composed it, and the one who is need of others is created without a doubt and Allāh is clear from being attributed with being in need and being composed, therefore He is clear from being attributed with having a body, having a how, and a place.
This is the saying of ^Aliyy the son of Abī Tālib may Allāh raise his rank: “Whoever claims that our God is limited then he is certainly ignorant of the Creator who is worshipped rightfully.” Narrated by Abū Nu^aym. Also, the saying of ^Aliyy the son of Al-Husayn the son of ^Aliyy the son of Abī Tālib may Allāh raise his rank Zaynul ^ābidīn: “Certainly, Allāh is not attributed with a limit.” Narrated with the connected chain to the Imām the Hāfidh the linguist Muhammad Murtadā Az-zabīdiyy in Ithāf As-sādah Al-Muttaqīn. Also, the saying of Ahmad the son of Muhammad the son of Salāmah At–tahāwiyy: “Allāh is exalted from being attributed with limits,” and this is why it is impossible for Allāh to be connected to the universe or disconnected from it by a distance, and this is the truth that other than it is invalid. This is so because the creations are either connected to some or disconnected from each other. Both aspects are impossible to be attributed to Allāh, this is because it would constitute attributing a similar to Allāh and Allāh negated all similarity to His Self. Allāh revealed that absolutely nothing resembles Him in any way.
Hence, if the anthropomorphists those who claim that Allāh has a limit (, that is, a volume a size and this is the saying of the followers of the misguided Ibn Taymiyah) say: “This is negating the existence of Allāh.” It is said to them: You have based your creed on what can be reached through imagination and there is no weight given to the imagination when it comes to the creed, rather the weight is given to the religious proof and the sound mind. This is what we have established and this is what the textual and intellectual proofs constitute. Therefore if you anthropomorphists say “We dont believe in something that we cant imagine.” We reply to you “You have certainly negated a creation that you cannot imagine yet the Qur’ān confirms it like the creation of the darkness and the light. The light and the darkness are two creations that have a beginning as is evidenced by the verses of the Qur’ān. So are you able to imagine a time without light and no darkness although that has been confirmed in the verse that says that Allāh is The Creator of the darkness and the light after they had not existed, He brought them into existence after they had been nothing, this is not something we can imagine nor something that you can imagine.
We say: Who is able to imagine a time without light nor darkness? And despite that it is an obligation to believe that there was a time- a creation- in which there was no light and no darkness because it was after the creation of the original water and the throne that Allāh created light and darkness. The first thing that Allāh created is the original water then the throne, therefore, light and darkness did not exist except after water and the throne.
Let it also be known that what is possible to enter and exit is a creation of Allāh the one who does not resemble anything. We do not say Allāh is inside the universe and we do not say Allāh is outside the universe because attributing a distance to Allāh is blasphemy for whoever believes it. Az-zabīdiyy said it in Al-Ithāf.