Allah is a Man (It is what it is)

March 2, 2012 at 2:20pm

By Wesley Muhammad, PhD

"The ignorant belief of the Orthodox Muslims that Allah (God) is some formless so
mething and yet He has an Interest in our affairs, can be condemned in no limit
of time. I would not give two cents for that kind of God in which they believe."
God is a man and we justcannotmake Himother than a man, lest wemake Himan inferior on
e. The Hon. Elijah Muhammad

Those Muslims who take issue with the Honorable Elijah Muhammad on this point us
ually cite the first verse of Surat al-Nisa [4] which reads:

O People (Y ayyuha al-ns)! Reverence your Lord Who created you from a single Person
/Soul (nafs) and created, of like nature, his mate and from these two scattered
many men (rijlan) and women.

It is apparently assumed that this verse is a proof that Allah is not a man becaus
e here it is affirmed that Allah created rijlan (men) and ns (people). This is a v
ery shallow engagement of the Quran that takes no account of its philological con
text.

These Muslim nay-sayers of the Hon. Elijah Muhammad are apparently unaware of th
e distinct connotations of the different words in Arabic for man. To illustrate th
e relevance of this philological fact to our subject, allow me to cite the Bibli
cal Hebrew example. Hebrew has five words (plus their derivatives) for man: sh, ge
ber, dhm, en and mt. The last two terms (en and mt) connote human frailty and weakn
as such are never applied to God. It is a different story, however, with sh and g
eber. These two terms connote strength, kingship, and spirituality and the Hebre
w Bible declares that God is this sort of man: Yahweh is an sh and geber or rather
gibbr, mighty man. The Book of Exodus states emphatically YHWH sh milhmh, Yahweh is a
man (sh) of war (15:3).

We find the same linguistic circumstance with Arabic. There are several terms fo
r man or human, each with distinct connotations. The general term for mankind or human
being is bashar. This term derives from the verb bashara which means to peal, scra
p, shave off; to grate, shred. It also means peal the hide or skin off. The noun ba
shara means external skin closest to the flesh (epidermis). It is thus a cognate
of the Hebrew word bsr flesh. The Arabic term bashar thus indicates that human bein
gs are fleshy and it associates them with scrapes. It also hints at humans as sexual
beings: Form III of the verb means to touch; to have sex with. We can understand
why this term is never associated with God. In the Hebrew, God is a kingly, spir
itual man (sh/ gibbr) but He is emphatically disassociated from bsr flesh.

For related reasons the common term for man, rajul, would be disassociated from
Allah, the Most High as well. The lexicons tell us that a rajul is specifically
an adult male from among bashar or human beings (See Lane s.v.). The lowness of th
is designation is inherent, as it is related to feet. The verb rajala means to go o
n foot and rijl is foot or (lower) leg. Those familiar with Arabic culture and th
e taboo associated with feet therein understand immediately why this term would
be inappropriate as a designation for God. The term ns may be derived from nsa, ya
nsu, to hang down; to be in a state of commotion. Like rajul, the term ns is applied
to both humans and jinn, which alone makes them inapplicable to Allah. That ns i
mplies creaturely weakness is indicated by its derivative, insn, human, man, perso
n. In the same Surat al-Nisa [4]: 28 it is written: Allah wishes to lighten your (d
ifficulties), for He created man (al-insn) weak (daif).

So these Muslims are right on this point: It is inappropriate to call Allah a ra

jul or insn: He is not that type of man. What type of man is He then?

The Quran does not explicitly affirm or deny that Allah is man. Such clarificatio
n was left to Allahs Prophet, Muhammad ibn Abd Allah, who did just that.

According to hadith al-shbb which was authenticated by Imam Ahmad and many others
(see my book, Take Another Look), Allah appeared to Muhammad as a shbb, which is a
young man between the ages of sixteen and thirty-two. But the term has more con
notations. The verb shabba means he was raised or elevated, thus connoting height
and elevation. Shabba means also to kindle a burning fire and to appear bright and
beautiful. All of these are appropriate for God and consistent with what we other
wise know of Allah.

Al-Bukhari and Muslim report a hadith from the Prophet on the authority of the C
ompanion Al-Mughira b. Shuba:

No shakh is more jealous (aghyar) than Allah; no shakh is more pleased to grant par
don than He; no shakh loves praiseworthy conduct more than He.[1]

Bukhari

A shakh is a corporeal person, a man.[2] The term connotes the bodily or corporeal
form or figure or substance (suwd) of a man, or something possessing height (irtif)
and visibility (uhr), Ibn Manzr informs us in his Lisn al- Arab (7, 45, 4-11)..[3] Ibn
al-Jawz, in his Kitb Akhbr al-Sift 53-4 (Ar.), admits as well that

the term shakh implies the existence of a body (jism) composed of parts, for one t
erms something a shakh because it possesses corporeality (shukhs) and height.

A shakhs is literally a man with a body and height. It too implies elevation, wh
ich is fitting for the Most High. The verb shakhasa means He rose or became eleva
ted. The Arabic syntax of this hadith suggests that God is a man/person with a ph
ysical body, but an elevated man.

This is a sentence with a superlative (e.g. aghyar). In such a sentence, attenti

on is drawn to one from a whole that is greatest at something that is characteri
stic of the whole. The noun described by the superlative (i.e. Allah) is one, th
ough a remarkable one, of the whole or genus (i.e. shakh). The sentence could thu
s be re-written: Allah is the most jealous shakh. This is because the apparent mean
ing (hir) of the text presents us with an istithn al-muttail or joined exception, i.e.
an exception from among likes. The excepted noun is joined to or of the same kin
d as the genus from which it is excepted.

Genus =
shakh
Excepted Noun = Allah

Allah is thus an exceptional shakh. However, those with an anti-anthropomorphist

theology like Ibn al-Jawzi chose to read this as an example of istithn al-munqai# o
r the severed exception, in which the excepted noun (i.e. Allah) is severed from o
r of a wholly different kind than the genus.[4] But Ibn al-Jawzi confirms that t
he Traditionalist Sunni (Hanbal) scholars against whom he was writing that is to
say the orthodox Hanbals - read the hadith according to its apparent meaning with
an istithn al-muttail, thus acknowledging Allah as a man.[5] He says of them:

These anthropomorphists are persons who describe the Divine Attributes in terms r
equired by sense experienceand they represent Him as a physical man (shakh) whose
beauty exceeds all beauty[6]


No less of an authority than the leading orthodox Hanbal, al-Qadi Abu Yala, affirms
this in his Kitab al-Mutamad fi Usul al-Din.

If it is said, He is a person (shakh) or form (ra), it (should be) said: The report fr
om different routes on the night of the miraj mentioned, I saw my Lord in the most
beautiful formAnd the application of that is not to be refused. Just as soul (nafs)
not like souls and essence (dht) not like essences werent denied Him. Likewise form
unlike forms, for the sharia (uses it in this manner).[7]

It was thus well within Sunni orthodoxy as represented and championed by the Han
bals, the school of the paradigmatic black sheep himself Imam Ahmad, to refer to
Allah as a man (shakh) because according to the apparent meaning of a prophetic h
adith the Prophet himself referred to Allah as man.

Thus, contra what many Muslims claim, Surat al-Nisa [4]:1 in no way proves that All
ah is not a man: it only suggests that He is not a rajul or insane. According to
the Prophet, Allah is a shakh and shbb.

Endnotes

[1] Bukhari, Sahih, tawhid, 20:512; Muslim, Sahih, lian, 17; Ibn Hanbal, Musnad I
V:248; Nisai, al-Sunan, nikah, 37, 3.

[2] Al-Mawrid, 664

[3] See also Lane, Arabic Lexicon, 2:1517.

[4] Ibn al-Jawz, Kitb Akhbr al-Sift, 190-191 (Eng.). On istithn al-muttasil and istith
n al-munqai# see W. Wright, A Grammar of the Arabic Language 2vols. (3rd edition; B
eirut: Librairie du Liban, 1996 [1974]) II, 335D-336A.

[5] Ibn al-Jawz, Kitb Akhbr al-Sift, 189-191 (Eng.)

[6] Talbis Iblis, 87.

[7] al-Qadi Abu Yala, Kitb al-M#tammad fi usul al-din. 58. Cf. 85.