Meaning of “I become his hearing, sight, hand and foot”
“I become his hearing with which he hears, his sight with which he sees, his hand with which he strikes, and his foot with which he walks”
Ibn Uthaymeen says the meaning of this is that Allah guides these limbs and gives them firmness. The friend of Allah does not listen except to what pleases Allah, does not look except at what Allah loves, does not use his hand except for what pleases Allah, and does not walk except to what pleases Allah.
He only strives towards what contains good. The meaning is not that Allah Himself becomes the hearing, the sight, the hand or the foot, because these are parts of a created person and cannot be the Creator. (Sharh Riyad as Salihin 2/62 to 63)
Ibn Taymiyyah adds that the full wording of the hadith makes this clear, especially the phrase “Through Me he hears, through Me he sees, through Me he strikes, and through Me he walks.” This shows that Allah is the One who gives success and support, while the servant and his limbs remain separate from Him. (Majmu al Fatawa 18/130-132)
Status of the Friend of Allah and Acceptance of His Dua
The hadith shows that this wali (close servant of Allah) becomes a person whose dua is answered. The general wording “If he asks Me, I will surely give him” means that Allah answers his dua, but other reports explain that this is as long as he does not ask for sin or cutting family ties.
In reality, the friend of Allah is a believing, God fearing person, so he does not ask his Lord for sinful things. The words “If he seeks My protection, I will surely protect him” mean that if he seeks refuge with Allah from any harm, Allah will certainly protect him, so what he hopes for is reached and what he fears is removed. (Shaykh Ibn Uthaymeen, Sharh Riyad as Salihin 2/62-63)
Ibn Taymiyyah points out that the same wording shows clearly that the servant is not Allah and Allah is not the servant.
There is one who asks and one who is asked, one who seeks refuge and one who grants refuge, and one who is a believing servant and one who is the Lord who does not die.
If Allah were truly the servant or his hearing or his hand or his foot, these would die when the servant dies, which is impossible. (Majmu al Fatawa 18/130 to 132)
Explanation of Hesitation in Taking the Believers Soul
Shaykh Ibn Uthaymeen explains that it is not allowed to describe Allah with hesitation in an absolute sense.
Hesitation is only mentioned by Allah in this one matter: taking the soul of the believing servant. This hesitation is not because of doubt about what is best, nor doubt about ability. It is purely because of Allahs mercy for the believer.
The believer hates death, and Allah hates to harm him, yet death must happen. Human hesitation comes from doubt in outcome or doubt in ability, but the Lord is perfect in knowledge and power, so His hesitation is not of this kind. (Liqa al Bab al Maftuh 59/13)
Ibn Taymiyyah explains that when the servant reaches this high level by fulfilling obligations and nawafil, he becomes beloved to Allah and loves Allah. He loves what Allah loves and hates what Allah hates. Allah, in turn, hates to harm His believing servant, but He has already decreed death, and whatever He decrees He wills and it must occur.
So Allah wills the death of this servant from one angle, because of His decree, and dislikes it from another angle, because of His mercy for him.
This is the real meaning of hesitation in this hadith: One thing is willed from one angle and disliked from another, while the will for the decree ultimately outweighs.
His will for the death of the believer whom He loves is not like His will for the death of the disbeliever whom He hates. (Majmu al Fatawa 18/130 to 132)
Connection Between this Hadith and Allah’s Religious and Creational Will
Ibn Taymiyyah explains that the word will in the Quran has two main meanings. The first is the religious legislative will, which means love and approval. This appears in verses such as “Allah intends ease for you and does not intend hardship for you” (al Baqarah 2:185),
and “But He intends to purify you” (al Maidah 5:6),
and “Allah intends to make clear to you and to guide you to the ways of those before you, and to accept your repentance” (al Nisa 4:26),
and in His saying, “I did not create jinn and mankind except that they worship Me” (al Dhariyat 51:56).
These verses show what Allah wants from His servants in terms of religion and what He loves for them.
The second is the creational decreeing will. This is like His saying, “So whoever Allah wills to guide, He opens his chest to Islam, and whoever He wills to lead astray, He makes his chest tight and constricted as though he were ascending into the sky” (al Anam 6:125), and like the saying of the Muslims, “What Allah wills happens and what He does not will does not happen.” Everything that occurs in the universe, good or evil, liked or disliked, falls under this will and decree, and nothing at all escapes it. This creational will includes many things that the religious command does not include.
He explains that this same division applies to other words: command, words, judgment, decree, writing, sending forth and sending. The creational words are those from which neither the righteous nor the wicked can escape, such as Allahs saying,
“His command, when He intends a thing, is only that He says to it, Be, and it is” (Ya Sin 36:82), and the words mentioned in the dua, “I seek refuge in the perfect words of Allah which neither a righteous person nor a wicked person can pass beyond.” (Hisn Al Muslim 247)
These are words that bring things into existence and surround all creation.
The religious words are the revealed books. About them the Prophet ﷺ said, “Whoever fights so that the word of Allah is supreme, then he is in the path of Allah,”
and Allah said, “And she affirmed the words of her Lord and His books” (al Tahrim 66:12).
These are words of guidance, law and command.
In the same way, the religious command is like His saying, “Indeed Allah commands you to render trusts to their rightful owners” (al Nisa 4:58), while the creational command is again His saying, “His command, when He intends a thing is only that He says to it, Be, and it is” (Ya Sin 36:82).
The religious sending forth is like His saying, “He is the One who sent among the unlettered a Messenger from among them” (al Jumuah 62:2), while the creational sending forth is His saying, “We sent against you servants of Ours” (al Isra 17:5).
The religious sending is like His saying, “He is the One who sent His Messenger with guidance and the religion of truth” (al Tawbah 9:33), while the creational sending is like His saying about past nations, “We sent upon them,” as a form of punishment (al Aaraf 7:133).
Ibn Taymiyyah then applies this to sins and to what happens in the life of the believer. Whatever forbidden acts occur are willed by Allah with a creational will and are included in His words which no one can escape, but they are not willed with a religious will and they do not agree with His religious words. He does not approve disbelief for His servants and does not command immorality, so from this side He hates these acts and dislikes them.
He says that this is different from taking the soul of the believer, which is what is mentioned in the hadith. Taking the believers soul is disliked because it brings harm to him, but Allah still wills it because He has already decreed death for him and it must happen. His will for His believing servant is always good for him and a mercy for him.
Authentic reports show that Allah does not decree anything for the believer except that it is good for him. If ease comes to him he is grateful and that is good for him, and if hardship comes to him he is patient and that is good for him. This is unlike pure sins, which are evil for the one who does not repent from them.
He also says that sins can become a cause for good if they lead to sincere repentance, because repentance is a good deed and one of the most beloved deeds to Allah, and Allah rejoices at the repentance of His servant with great joy. But sins without repentance remain evil for the sinner.
Ibn Taymiyyah then reminds that Allah has decreed everything with wisdom, as in His saying, “The work of Allah, who perfected everything” (al Naml 27:88), and “He who perfected everything that He created” (al Sajdah 32:7). There is no created thing except that Allah has wisdom in it, but this is a very wide matter that he explains elsewhere in detail.
The point here is to show that a single matter can be loved from one angle and disliked from another. This is the true meaning of hesitation.
It can apply to actions and also to persons. In the hadith of the wali, Allah hates what hurts His believing servant, yet He wills the taking of his soul because He has decreed it and because in the end it is mercy and good for him. This is how this hadith connects to the two kinds of will that Ibn Taymiyyah explains. (Majmu al Fatawa 18/130-135)
Protection of the apparent wording of the hadith
Ibn Taymiyyah says that the full wording of this hadith is itself the best explanation of its meaning. The Prophet ﷺ clearly separated the Lord from the servant, described the servant as the friend of Allah, described the servant as the one who asks and seeks refuge, and described Allah as the One who gives, protects, wills and hesitates.
The apparent meaning is not that Allah dwells within creation, and that the wording does not carry any meaning of disbelief or impossibility. Allah has protected the words of revelation from having an apparent meaning that is false while hiding the true meaning.
He sent His Messenger with guidance and the religion of truth, so it cannot be that a hadith like this would mislead people if they took its clear wording as it is. (Bayan Talbis al Jahmiyyah 6/266- 269)
Side Note: Taking something upon the apparent, does not always mean it is upon its literal, through the context we can understand what the hadith means.
This means that Allah grants him guidance and firmness in these four limbs. As for hearing, He guides his hearing so that he does not listen except to what pleases Allah. Likewise his sight, so he does not look except at what Allah loves to be looked at, and he does not look at what is forbidden, nor does he look with a forbidden gaze.
As for his hand, he does not act with it except in what pleases Allah, because Allah grants him firmness. And likewise his foot, he does not walk except to what pleases Allah, because Allah grants him firmness.
He does not strive except toward what contains good. This is the meaning of His saying: “I become his hearing with which he hears, his sight with which he sees, his hand with which he strikes, and his foot with which he walks.”
The meaning is not that Allah becomes the hearing itself, or the sight itself, or the hand itself, or the foot itself. Far exalted is Allah above that. This is impossible, because these are limbs and parts of a created person, and it is impossible for them to be the Creator.
Also because Allah the Exalted affirmed in this hadith when He said: “If he asks Me, I will give him, and if he seeks My protection, I will protect him,” that there is one who asks and one who is asked, one who seeks protection and one who grants protection. This is one, and that is another. Rather, the meaning is that Allah grants the person firmness in his hearing, his sight, his actions, and his walking.
In His saying in this sacred hadith: “If he asks Me, I will give him,” there is evidence that this friend of Allah, who draws near to Allah through obligatory duties and then through voluntary acts, if he asks Allah, Allah gives him.
He becomes one whose supplication is answered. This general wording is restricted by other reports which show that the one who asks is given what he asks so long as he does not ask for sin or for cutting family ties. If he asks for sin, he is not answered.
But what is common is that the friend of Allah does not ask for sin, because the friend of Allah is the believing, God fearing person, and the believing, God fearing person does not ask for sin nor for cutting family ties.
“And if he seeks My protection, I will protect him” means that if he seeks refuge with Me and turns to Me for protection from every source of harm, I will surely protect him. Through being given what he asks for and being protected from what he seeks refuge from, what he desires is achieved and what he fears is removed.
Sharh Riyaad As Saliheen By Ibn Uthaymeen (2/62-63)
The shayk also says in this audio clip: Affirming hesitation for Allah the Exalted in an absolute sense is impermissible. Allah mentioned hesitation only in this specific matter: “I have never hesitated about anything I do as I hesitate about taking the soul of My believing servant.”
This hesitation is not due to doubt about what is best, nor due to doubt about the ability to carry out the action.
Rather, it is because of mercy toward this believing servant. For this reason, He said in the same hadith: “He dislikes death and I dislike harming him, yet it must happen.” This does not mean that Allah the Exalted is described with hesitation due to doubt in His ability or His knowledge.
This is unlike a human being. When a human wants to do something, he hesitates either because he doubts its outcome and benefit, or because he doubts his ability to carry it out, whether he can do it or not. As for the Lord, the Exalted, this is not the case.
Liqaʾ al Bab al Maftuḥ (59/13)
Ibn Taymiyyah said: The meaning of the hesitation mentioned in this hadith becomes clear. He said: “My servant continues to draw near to Me through voluntary acts until I love him.”
When a servant reaches this state, he becomes beloved to the Truth and loving toward Him. He first draws near through the obligatory duties, which he loves.
Then he strives in the voluntary acts that Allah loves and loves the one who performs them. He brings forth everything he is able to from what the Truth loves.
So the Truth loves him because he performs what He loves from both sides, with agreement of will, such that the servant loves what his Beloved loves and dislikes what his Beloved dislikes.
The Lord dislikes to harm His servant and beloved. From this, it follows that the servant dislikes death so that he may increase in what his Beloved loves.
Allah the Exalted has decreed death, and whatever He has decreed He wills, and it must occur. So the Lord wills his death because of what He has already decreed, yet at the same time He dislikes harming His servant, meaning the harm that reaches him through death. Thus death is willed by the Truth from one angle, and disliked by Him from another angle.
This is the true meaning of hesitation, which is that one single matter is willed from one angle and disliked from another, even though one side must ultimately outweigh the other.
The will for death outweighs, yet alongside it remains the dislike of harming His servant. His will for the death of the believing servant whom He loves and dislikes harming is not like His will for the death of the disbeliever whom He hates and whose harm He wills.
Then he said, after words mentioned earlier: From this same category is what occurs in existence of disbelief, immorality, and disobedience. Allah the Exalted hates this, is displeased with it, dislikes it, and forbids it.
Yet He has decreed it, determined it, and willed it by His creational will, even though He does not will it by a religious will. This is the decisive clarification in the matter over which people have disagreed, namely whether Allah commands what He does not will.
What is well known among the theologians of the people of affirmation, and those jurists who agreed with them, is that He commands what He does not will.
The Qadariyyah, the Muʿtazilah, and others said that He does not command except what He wills.
The correct view is that will in the Book of Allah is of two types: A religious legislative will, and a creational decreeing will.
The first is like His saying: “Allah intends ease for you and does not intend hardship for you,” (Quran 2:185)
and His saying: “But He intends to purify you,” (Quran 5:6)
and His saying: “Allah intends to make clear to you and to guide you to the ways of those before you,” until His saying: “And Allah intends to accept your repentance.” (Quran 4:26 to 4:27) Here, will means love and approval, and this is the religious will. To this also points His saying: “I did not create jinn and mankind except that they worship Me.” (Quran 51:56)
As for the creational decreeing will, it is like His saying, exalted is He: “So whoever Allah wills to guide, He opens his chest to Islam, and whoever He wills to lead astray, He makes his chest tight and constricted, as though he were ascending into the sky.” It is also like the saying of the Muslims: What Allah wills happens, and what He does not will does not happen. All things that occur fall under this will and decree. Nothing escapes it, neither good nor evil, neither what is approved nor what is rejected. This will and decree includes matters that the religious command does not include.
As for the religious will, it fully agrees with the religious command and does not differ from it. This division that applies to the term will also applies in the same way to the terms command and words, and to judgment and decree, and to writing and sending forth, and to sending and the like. All of these are divided into creational decreeing and religious legislative.
The creational words are those from which neither the righteous nor the wicked can escape. These are the words the Prophet ﷺ sought refuge in when he said: “I seek refuge in the perfect words of Allah, which neither a righteous person nor a wicked person can surpass.” Allah the Exalted said: “His command, when He intends a thing, is only that He says to it: Be, and it is.”
As for the religious words, they are the revealed books, regarding which the Prophet ﷺ said: “Whoever fights so that the word of Allah is supreme, then he is in the path of Allah.” And Allah the Exalted said: “And she affirmed the words of her Lord and His books.”
Likewise, the religious command is like His saying: “Indeed, Allah commands you to render trusts to their rightful owners,” and the creational command is His saying: “His command, when He intends a thing.”
The religious sending forth is like His saying: “He is the One who sent among the unlettered a Messenger from among them,” and the creational sending forth is His saying: “We sent against you servants of Ours.”
The religious sending is like His saying: “He is the One who sent His Messenger with guidance and the religion of truth,” and the creational sending is like His saying: “We sent upon them.”
This has been explained in detail elsewhere. What occurs in existence of forbidden matters is willed by Allah with a creational will and is included in His words which neither the righteous nor the wicked can surpass. Yet He did not will it with a religious will, nor does it agree with His religious words. He does not approve disbelief for His servants, and He does not command immorality. From this angle, it is disliked by Him.
However, this is not like the taking of the soul of the believer. That is disliked in the sense that it brings harm to the believer, yet He wills it because He has already decreed death for him, and it must occur. His will for His believing servant is good for him and a mercy to him. It has been established in the authentic reports that Allah the Exalted does not decree any matter for the believer except that it is good for him. If ease reaches him, he is grateful and it is good for him. If hardship reaches him, he is patient and it is good for him.
As for haram acts, Allah hates them and dislikes them. They have no praiseworthy outcome from this angle, except if a person repents from them and is shown mercy through repentance, even though repentance itself must be preceded by sin. For this reason, the decree of sins upon a believer is answered in two ways.
The first is that this hadith does not address sins, but rather addresses afflictions. The second is that if the person repents from them, then what follows them becomes good. Repentance is a good deed, and it is among the most beloved good deeds to Allah. Allah rejoices in the repentance of His servant when he turns back to Him with the greatest possible joy.
As for sins from which one does not repent, they are evil for the one who commits them. Allah the Exalted has decreed everything, and His decree in that contains wisdom, as He said: “The work of Allah, who perfected everything,” and He said: “He who perfected everything that He created.” There is no created thing except that Allah has wisdom in it.
But this is a vast subject which we have explained in detail in other places. What is intended here is to draw attention to the fact that a single matter may be loved from one angle and disliked from another, and that this is the true meaning of hesitation. Just as this applies to actions, it also applies to persons. And Allah knows best.
Majmu Fatawa (18/130-135)
Then Ar Razi said: “My servant does not draw near to Me with anything more loved to Me than what I have made obligatory on him.” This makes clear that the one drawing near is the servant, and the one being drawn near to is not the same as the one drawing near.
He said: “My servant continues to draw near to Me through voluntary acts until I love him.” All of this is clear and open. Allah is not the same as the servant, nor the servant’s limbs or abilities.
Ar Razi said: “When I love him, I become his hearing with which he hears, and his sight with which he sees, and his hand with which he strikes, and his foot with which he walks. Through Me he hears, and through Me he sees, and through Me he strikes, and through Me he walks. If he asks Me, I will surely give him.
If he seeks My protection, I will surely protect him. And I have never hesitated about anything I do the way I hesitate about taking the soul of My believing servant. He dislikes death and I dislike harming him, yet it must happen.”
Then Ar Razi clarified after saying “I become his hearing and his sight” and after saying “Through Me he hears and through Me he sees” that “If he asks Me, I will surely give him, and if he seeks My protection, I will surely protect him.” It is known that this clearly shows that the one asking and seeking protection is not the One who grants and protects.
Ar Razi said: “I have never hesitated about anything I do the way I hesitate about taking the soul of My believing servant.” This clearly shows that he is His servant, and that the Lord is not a part of him, nor a quality of him, and that the servant is taken in death.
It is known that Allah is alive and does not die, let alone being a part of someone who dies. If the apparent meaning were that Allah Himself is the very servant or his hearing or his hand or his foot, then these limbs would die when the person dies.
Ibn Taymiyyah says: All of this shows that the apparent meaning of the report is not that Allah is the seeing power itself. Its apparent meaning is what is already clear in it and what the Messenger explained. His wording is the best and most complete expression, and no one other than the Messenger can give clearer explanation about what he conveys from his Lord.
Allah has protected His words from having an apparent meaning that is disbelief, or misguidance, or falsehood, or impossibility.
He would not make the apparent meaning something other than its true meaning, nor would He throw the truth upon falsehood so that truth becomes hidden and falsehood becomes visible.
He has guaranteed that He will make His religion prevail, through the strength of knowledge and proof, and through ability and support. He informed that He sent him with guidance and the religion of truth. So how could his words mislead if their apparent meaning were misleading and he did not explain it.
Bayan Talbis Al Jahmiyyah (6/266-269)
