Ar-Razi brings this hadith—reported in Sahih Muslim—as further evidence for his claim that some texts must be interpreted away from their surface meaning. His reasoning is simple: he says we know by necessary, obvious experience that the believers do not have two fingers inside their chests and between their hearts.
Ibn Taymiyyah’s Response:
Ibn Taymiyyah’s first reply is that Ar-Razi has misunderstood or misrepresented the hadith’s wording. The hadith does not say that Allah’s fingers are inside people’s chests. It simply says: “The hearts of the servants are between two fingers of the Most Merciful. He turns them as He wills.” There is no mention of touching, no claim that Allah’s intrinsic fingers are present in the body, and no suggestion that the fingers are inserted between people’s ribs.
He points out that the phrase “between two fingers” does not imply contact or physical insertion. The word “between” in Arabic—like in English—can mean many things and often refers to position or relation without touch.
Ibn Taymiyyah gives clear examples from the Qur’an to show this: Allah said about Paradise and Hell: “And between them is a barrier” (al-A‘raf: 46), and elsewhere: “I wish there were between me and you the distance of the two easts” (az-Zukhruf: 38). In both cases, “between” means separation and distance—not contact or entanglement.
So, the very premise of ar-Razi’s argument—that the hadith implies physical fingers inside the chest—is flawed.
Shaytan Interacts With Us in Hidden Ways — And We Accept It
To support this, Ibn Taymiyyah gives examples from authentic hadiths. The Prophet ﷺ said Shaytan touches every newborn child except for Maryam and her son. He also said Shaytan sleeps on people’s nostrils when they sleep and ties knots at the back of their heads.
Now, no one sees Shaytan doing this. No one senses it happening. But believers accept these reports as true because they come from the Prophet ﷺ, and the unseen is not judged by what we feel or observe.
So if people believe in Shaytan’s interaction with human bodies without seeing it, why should they deny Allah’s interaction with the heart, just because it isn’t visible?
Thus, Ibn Taymiyyah argues that even if someone were to take the hadith literally, it would not contradict any necessary, experiential knowledge—because it speaks about the unseen.
The Real Problem: Misunderstanding the Apparent Meaning
Ibn Taymiyyah’s main point is that Ar-Razi has misunderstood what the apparent meaning actually is. The hadith, taken as it is, says nothing absurd or impossible. It does not claim that Allah’s fingers are inside people’s chests in a literal, human-like way. Nor does it make any physical claim that contradicts reality.
Rather, it speaks of Allah’s control over the hearts—using language that affirms His power and will—while mentioning His “fingers” in a way that affirms an attribute without delving into how.
So Ar-Razi’s argument—that this hadith must be interpreted because it contradicts reason or experience—falls apart. The contradiction only arises from his own interpretation of the hadith’s wording, not from the hadith itself.
Translation: Ar-Razi said: “Seventh proof that Ta’weel Is Necessary: The Prophet ﷺ said: ‘The heart of the believer is between two fingers from the fingers of the Most Merciful.’ This definitely must be interpreted, because we know by necessity that there are not two fingers between our hearts in our chests.” (Asas at-Taqdis, p. 108)
Ibn Taymiyyah responded: The response has several parts:
The first: The apparent meaning of the hadith is not that the fingers of the Lord are inside people’s chests. He only said: “The hearts are between two fingers of the Most Merciful; He turns them however He wills.” He did not say the fingers are inside the people’s chests. Nor did he say the hearts are physically attached to the fingers or touching them.
Rather, he said they are “between” two fingers. And saying that something is “between” two things does not imply contact or physical attachment—just like Allah said about Paradise and Hell: “And between them is a barrier” (al-A‘raf: 46),
and He said: “I wish there were between me and you the distance of the two easts” (az-Zukhruf: 38).
The second: Even if it were claimed that something from the unseen is in the hearts of people, this would not be ruled out by what is known by necessity. That is because necessary knowledge prevents us only from affirming that the visible, tangible fingers like those of humans are inside our hearts—but not from unseen matters.
For example, the Quran and Sunnah tell us of angels descending upon the hearts or shayateen whispering to people, or angels writing on our mouths and shoulders—and all of these are unseen matters. If we are informed of such things, we cannot deny them based on our physical experience.
So when someone says, “We know by necessity that there are no fingers between our hearts,” we say: what is known by necessity is that fingers like those of humans are not in our hearts. But if someone claimed that the fingers of angels or jinn are there, we cannot deny that based on sense-perception.
In Sahih al-Bukhari and Muslim, the Prophet ﷺ said: “Every newborn is touched by Shaytan at birth and cries because of Shaytan’s touch—except Maryam and her son.” Abu Hurayrah then recited: “And I seek refuge in You for her and her offspring from the accursed Shaytan” (Al ‘Imran: 36).
And in both Sahihs: “When one of you wakes up, let him sniff water into his nose, for Shaytan sleeps on his nostrils.”
And also: “Shaytan ties three knots at the back of the head of one of you when he sleeps…” and continues with the rest of the hadith. Yet we do not see Shaytan touching the newborn, or sleeping on our noses, or tying knots—and still, we affirm what the Prophet ﷺ said.
So this hadith, even if it were to be taken literally, is not refuted by what Ar-Razi claimed as “known by necessity.”
Bayan Talbis Al Jahmiyyah (6/244-247)
