What to say when asked where is Allah?

[Dr. Shabbir]

Hunpej writes:

Ash-Shaykh Muhammad ibn Saalih Al-'Uthaymeen (rahimahullaah) was asked about what o­ne should say when asked "Where is Allaah?"

The Shaykh was asked:

Concerning the statement of some of the people when they are asked, "Where is Allaah?", they reply, "Allaah is present everywhere." Or they say, "He is present." Is this type of reply correct in this general unrestricted sense?

Answer:

This answer is false and it is not correct unrestrictedly or restrictedly. If the person is asked, "Where is Allaah?" He should say, "Above the heavens", just as the woman answered the Prophet (Sallallaahu 'alayhi wa sallam) when he asked her, "Where is Allaah?" She said, "Above the heavens."

In reference to whoever says, "He is present", o­nly, then this is a type of evading the answer and dodging it. In reference to whoever says, "Verily, Allaah is everywhere", and he means that Allaah himself is actually everywhere, then this is disbelief (Kufr), because it is denying what is proven by the texts. Rather, it is even denying the recorded evidences, the intellectual evidences and even the natural nature, that guide us to believe that Allaah, exalted is He, is High above everything, and that He is above the heavens, and He has risen over His Throne.

Ash-Shaykh Muhammad ibn Saalih Al-'Uthaymeen

Source: Al-Fataawaa Ash-Shar'iyyah fil-Masaa'il il-'Asriyyah min Fataawaa 'Ulamaa' il-Baladil-Haraam, pp. 28-29.Translation: Aqeel Walker
-----------------------------------------------

Shabbir's rebuttal:

The Sheikh is talking nonsense. He is expressing the Biblical image of God. Anyone who upholds human thought above the Quran, is a Mushrik.

Hadith: The woman mentioned in Madinah was ignorant of Islam. A Sahabi asked her, "Where is Allah?" She raised her finger to the skies. The exalted prophet said, "She is closer to be a believer since she shuns the prevalent idols."

How many verses shall I quote that Allah is everywhere?

6:3 He is God in the heavens as well as on earth. He knows all that you keep secret as well as all that you do openly.

24:35 God is the Light of the heavens and earth. The example of His Light (the Quran) is that of a lamp that is placed inside a niche enclosed in glass that shines like a radiant star. This lamp is kindled from a blessed tree - olive -
neither of the East nor of the West. Its light issues forth in all directions. The oil glows by itself even though no fire has touched it. Light upon Light. God guides to His Light anyone who seeks guidance. And God sets forth allegories for mankind. God is Knower of all things. [God being Light = Life-giving, sustaining and guiding Power of the Universe. And Quran is the Light of God. 5]

58:7 Do you not realize that God knows all that is in the heavens and all that is on earth. There is no secret meeting of three but He is their fourth, nor of five but He is their sixth, nor of less than that or more but He is with them
wherever they may be. And ultimately, on the Day of Resurrection, He will make them understand what they really accomplished. God is Knower of all things and events.

56:85 And We are closer to him (the dying person) than you are, although you see not.

50:16 We have created man and We know the whispering that goes on within his mind (all the intricacies of his thought process), for, We are nearer to him than his Vena cava.

[Habl-il-wareed is usually translated as Jugular vein or neck-vein. But Habl = Rope = Cable = A thing that binds = Guarantee = Indispensable = Binding pledge = Holding from disintegration = Holding together. Wareed = Vein. So, my rendition of Habl-il-wareed to Vena cava, the great veins, superior and inferior. They ultimately return the blood from the brain and the body to the heart. The use of ‘vein’ in this verse, instead of ‘artery’, seems to allude to the superiority of mind over body. What is being carried from the brain to the heart is through veins]

-SA