Translation: The Rafidi author said:
A group from “al-Hashwiyyah and al-Mushabbihah” said: Allah, Exalted is He, is a body that has length, width, and depth, and that it is possible to shake hands with Him, and that the righteous among the Muslims embrace Him in this world. Al-Ka’bi reported from some of them that they permitted seeing Him in this world and that He visits them and they visit Him.
It was reported from Dawud al-Ta’i (d. 165 AH) that he said: Spare me from questions about the private parts and the beard, and ask me about what is beyond that. He said: My deity is a body of flesh and blood, and He has limbs and organs such as a hand, a foot, a tongue, two eyes, and two ears. It was reported from him that he said: He is hollow from His upper part to His chest and solid beyond that, and He has curly hair. They even said: His eyes became sore, so the angels visited Him, and He wept over the flood of Nuh until His eyes became inflamed, and that the Throne exceeds Him on every side by four fingers.
Ibn Taymiyyah’s Response
This statement is addressed from several angles:
The first is to say: This very wording, that Allah is a body having length, width, and depth, the first known in Islam to have said it were the elders of the Imamiyyah such as Hisham ibn al-Hakam and Hisham ibn Salim, as has been previously mentioned. This is something agreed upon by those who transmitted the reports of sects in al-Milal wa al-Nihal from all the different groups, such as Abu Isa al-Warraq (d. 247 AH)
Footenote: Abu Isa Muhammad ibn Harun al-Warraq, who was among the leaders of the Mu’tazilah, then became a Rafidi, and concealed zandaqah and belief in dualism. Al-Khayyat said he was the teacher of Ibn al-Rawandi in that. He died in Baghdad in 247 AH. Al-Amili mentioned in A’yan al-Shi’ah his works, among them “Ikhtilaf al-Shi’ah wa al-Maqalat,” and said it was his most famous book in which he recorded the history of religions and sects and explained the views and beliefs of different groups. It is one of the oldest and most reliable books on the subject. Al-Mas’udi, Abu al-Hasan al-Ash’ari, al-Biruni, al-Shahrastani, Abd al-Qahir al-Baghdadi, and Ibn Abi al-Hadid all transmitted from it. See his biography in Lisan al-Mizan 5/204; A’yan al-Shi’ah 4/105–107; al-Rijal by al-Najashi p. 208; al-Intisar by al-Khayyat p. 73, 108, 110, 111; al-Fihrist by Ibn al-Nadim p. 473; Muruj al-Dhahab 4/104–105; al-Fihrist by al-Tusi p. 71; Ma’alim al-Ulama by Ibn Shahrashub p. 137; al-A’lam 7/351),
and Zurqan (d. 278 AH)
(Muhammad ibn Shaddad ibn Isa al-Masmayi, Abu Ya’la, said to have a book “al-Maqalat.” Abu al-Husayn al-Khayyat said: al-Adami told me that al-Wathiq brought Yahya ibn Kamil and ordered Zurqan to debate him, so he did until he cornered him with proof, then al-Wathiq debated him himself and cornered him. Al-Adami said: O Amir al-Mu’minin, the proof of Allah has been established against him; if he repents, then good, otherwise strike his neck. Ibn Hajar said in Lisan al-Mizan 5/199 that he narrated from Yahya al-Qattan and others, and Abu Bakr al-Shafi’i narrated from him, but al-Daraqutni said: His hadith is not to be written. Ibn Hajar said he died in 278 AH, and Ibn al-Athir in al-Lubab 3/139 said he died in 298 or 299 AH), and Ibn al-Nawbakhti (d. early 4th century AH) (Abu Muhammad al-Hasan ibn Musa ibn al-Hasan ibn Muhammad al-Nawbakhti, previously mentioned, author of “al-Ara’ wa al-Diyanat”),
and Abu al-Hasan al-Ash’ari (d. 324 AH), Ibn Hazm (d. 456 AH), al-Shahrastani (d. 548 AH), and others. What they reported from them is found in the books of the Mu’tazilah, the Shi’ah, the Karramiyyah, the Ash’ariyyah, the Ahl al-Hadith, and other sects.
They said: The first to say that Allah is a body was Hisham ibn al-Hakam.
The people have reported from the Rafidah such statements and worse.
They narrated what al-Ash’ari and others mentioned in the books of sects from Bayan ibn Sam’an al-Tamimi, to whom the Bayaniyyah from the extremists of the Shi’ah are ascribed, that he used to say: Allah is in the form of a human being and that He perishes entirely except for His face. Bayan claimed that he calls upon the planet Venus and it responds to him, and that he does this by the Greatest Name, so Khalid ibn Abd Allah al-Qasri killed him by burning in fire in the year 119 AH (This statement about the Bayaniyyah is also found in al-Ash’ari’s al-Maqalat 1/66–67 with slight differences in wording. Bayan ibn Sam’an al-Nahdi al-Tamimi appeared in Iraq after the year 100 AH, and Khalid ibn Abd Allah al-Qasri killed him by burning in fire in 119 AH. See his biography and that of his sect in Lisan al-Mizan 2/169; Tarikh al-Tabari 5/456–457; al-Maqalat by al-Ash’ari 1/195; al-Milal wa al-Nihal 1/136; al-Farq bayn al-Firaq p. 27, 138, 145–146, 163; al-Tabseer fi al-Din p. 19, 70, 72; Usul al-Din p. 71–73, 331; al-Fasl by Ibn Hazm 5/144; al-Khitat by al-Maqrizi 2/349, 352–353; Firaq al-Shi’ah by al-Nawbakhti p. 49, 50, 55; A’yan al-Shi’ah 14/173–174; al-Bada’ wa al-Tarikh by al-Maqdisi 5/130, Paris edition 1916).
They narrated from them that many of them affirm the prophethood of Bayan ibn Sam’an, and that many of them claim that Abu Hashim Abd Allah ibn Muhammad ibn al-Hanafiyyah (d. 98 AH) appointed Bayan ibn Sam’an as a prophet and made him an imam.
Minhaj As Sunnah Nabawiyyah By Shayk Al Islam (2/500-503)
