Allah's Attribute Of Speech

Imam Bukhari’s view on Allah’s Voice

Posted on January 30, 2013 by Shaykh Gibril Fouad Haddad

Question:

al-salam ‘alaikum shaykh Gibril,

Shaykh can you kindly explain how we interpret Imam Bukhari’s stance as quoted by Ibn Hajar al-Asqalani:

قوله يسمعه من بعد إشارة إلى انه ليس من المخلوقات لأنه لم يعهد مثل هذا فيهم وبأن الملائكة إذا سمعوه صعقوا كما سيأتي في الكلام على الحديث الذي بعده وإذا سمع بعضهم بعضا لم يصعقوا قالفعلى هذا فصوته صفة من صفات ذاته لا تشبه صوت غيره إذ ليس يوجد شيء من صفاته من صفات المخلوقين هكذا قرره المصنف في كتاب خلق أفعال العباد

His saying, ‘He is heard from far…’, indicates that the voice is not from His creation, for the creation is not known for something like this; and also the angels would unconscious upon hearing the voice, as we will see when discussing the next hadeeth, whereas, if the angels were to hear each other, they would not fall unconscious. Based on this, His voice is an attribute from the attribute of His Essence, which does not resemble any other voice, since none of His attributes are to be found in the attributes of the creation. This is what the author (i.e. al-Bukhari) states in K. Khalq af’al al-‘ibad.

Is such a stance an acceptable belief according to the Ash’aris?

JazakAllah khayr.
was-salam

Answer:

Alaykum Salam,

Imam al-`Izz b. `Abd al-Salam said in al-Mulha fi I`tiqad Ahl al-Haqq:

Allah is living (hayy), willing (murid), hearing (sami`), seeing (basir), knowing (`alim), mighty (qadir), and speaking (mutakallim) with a beginningless (qadim) pre-existent (azali) speech consisting neither in letter (harf) nor voice (sawt).

His contemporary Shaykh Jamal al-Din al-Hasiri al-Hanafi said of the Mulha:

"All that is in there is correct, and whoever contravenes it and goes to the beliefs of the opponents concerning the affirmation of the letter and the voice — he is a donkey.”

Imam al-Haytami said in his Fatawa Hadithiyya (p. 209):

The madhhab of Ahl al-Sunna is that Allah Most High created for him [Musa, upon him peace] understanding in his heart and hearing in his ears and the rest of his body by which he heard the Speech of Allah without voice nor letter and without intermediary (min ghayri sawtin wa-la harfin bi-ghayri wasita).”

Hajj Gibril Haddad