Being.11 For, He is plainly stated to be above all material conceptions: “Vision comprehends Him not and He comprehends all vision” (6:103). And He is not only above all material limitations but even above the limitation of metaphor: “Nothing is like Him” (42:11). To indicate His love, power, knowledge and other attributes, the same words had to be used as are in ordinary use for human beings, but the conception is not quite the same. Even the “hands” of God are spoken of in the Holy Qur’ān (5:64), but it is simply to give expression to His unlimited power in bestowing His favours on whom He will. The word yad which means hand is also used metaphorically to indicate favour (ni‘ma) or protection (ḥifāza) (R.). Thus in 2:237 occur the words “in whose hand (yad) is the marriage tie,” where the word yad is used in a metaphorical sense. In the Nihāya, the word yad is explained as meaning ḥifz (protection) and difā‘ (defence) and in support of this is quoted the ḥadīth which speaks of Gog and Magog in the words la-yadāni li-aḥad-in bi-qitālihim, which signify that no one shall have the power (yadān, lit., two hands) to fight with them. Hence the hands of God in 5:64 stand for His favours according to the Arabic idiom.
Another, and a greater, misunderstanding exists as to the meaning of the expression commonly translated as “uncovering of the leg” (kashf‘ani-l-sāq). Here is nothing but gross ignorance of Arabic idiom that has led some to translate it as such. The expression is used twice in the Holy Qur’ān, once with regard to the queen of Sheba (27:44) and once passively without indicating the subject (68:42). It has never been used in relation to God. The word sāq, which means shank, is used in the expression kashf ‘ani-l-sāq in quite a different sense, for sāq also means difficulty or distress, and the expression under discussion means either to prepare oneself to meet a difficulty or the disclosure of distress (TA., LL.).
God’s ‘Arsh or Throne is spoken of, yet does not signify any place, rather representing His control of things as a monarch’s throne is a symbol of his power to rule: “The ‘Arsh of Allāh is one of the things which mankind knows not in reality but only in name, and it is not as the imaginations of the vulgar hold it to be … And it is taken as
11 The anthropomorphic view which likens God to man has never found favour among the Muslims. A very insignificant sect known as the Karrāmiyah (after the founder, Muḥammad Karrām) or the Mujassimah (from jism meaning body, after the doctrine advocated by them) held the view that God was corporeal, but this has always been rejected by the learned among the Muslims. In one ḥadīth it is no doubt stated that the Holy Prophet, in a vision, felt a touch of the Divine hand between his shoulders, but it is unreasonable to take for reality what was seen in a vision. Ash‘arī says: “The Ahl Sunnah and the followers of Ḥadīth hold that God is not a jism (corporeal) and He is not like anything else and that He is on the ‘Arsh … and that the nature of His istiwā is not known (bi-lā kaif), and that He is Light” (MI. P. 211). He also says that He has hands the nature of which is not known (bi-lā kaif) and eyes the nature of which is not known (bi-lā kaif) and so on. It is also laid down as a basic principle regarding the Divine attributes that “He does not resemble His creatures in anything, nor does any of His creatures resemble Him” (FA. p. 14). And further that the attributes of the Divine Being are to be taken as referring to the ultimate end (Bai). Shāh Walī Allāh is more express and says in clear words that the basṭ al-yad in His case means only being bountiful (Hj. Ip. 63); while regarding Divine attributes in general, he writes in the same strain as Baidzāwī, saying that “their use is only in the sense of the ultimate end of those words,” adding that His raḥmah for instance only means the bestowal of good things, not an actual inclining of the Heart (Hj.).