Summary

Should Ḥarakah Be Affirmed or Denied?

The wording ḥarakah (movement) is not a simple word that can be affirmed or denied without detail. It is a mujmal term (ambiguous term), because different groups mean different things by it.

If ḥarakah means the movement of created bodies, where something leaves one place and occupies another, then this meaning is false for Allah. Allah is far above resembling His creation.

If ḥarakah means the occurrence of Allah’s fiʿl ikhtiyārī (voluntary action), such as coming, descending, being pleased, being angry, speaking by His will, and doing what He wills when He wills, then the meaning is affirmed because the Book and Sunnah affirm these actions.

So the safest and strongest way is not to begin with the word ḥarakah. Rather, affirm what Allah and His Messenger ﷺ affirmed, and reject any meaning that resembles the created beings.

Why the Word Ḥarakah Caused Disagreement

The disagreement arose because different groups used the word ḥarakah in different ways.

The people of kalām normally used it to mean spatial movement: a body moving from one ḥayyiz (spatial location) to another, where the first place becomes empty and the second becomes occupied. Because they thought this was the only meaning of ḥarakah, they denied texts about Allah’s descent, coming, nearness, and other actions.

But some who affirmed ḥarakah also understood it in this same created sense. They imagined descent like the descent of a human being from one place to another. This too is false, because it would imply that something from creation becomes above Allah, and that contradicts Allah being al Aʿlā (the Most High).

The Philosophers’ Broader Meaning of Ḥarakah

The philosophers used ḥarakah more widely. To them, it meant a transition from one state to another. They also described it as coming into actuality after being only potential, gradually and step by step.

They divided ḥarakah into several types:

Movement in quality, such as something becoming black, red, sweet, sour, hot, cold, or a person moving from ignorance to knowledge, hatred to love, sadness to joy.

Movement in quantity, such as an animal growing larger, or a tree extending its roots and branches.

Movement in position, such as a wheel or millstone rotating in the same place.

Movement in place, meaning spatial transfer from one location to another.

This shows that not everyone meant bodily transfer by ḥarakah. The word was broader among some people, and narrower among others. For this reason, Ibn Taymiyyah treats the wording with detail rather than giving a bare affirmation or bare denial.

The Usage of Language: Movement Is Not Only Bodily

In common language, ḥarakah is used for action and inner states, not only physical movement. People say, “love moved in him,” “anger moved in him,” and “his anger became still.”

Allah said:

وَلَمَّا سَكَتَ عَنْ مُوسَى الْغَضَبُ أَخَذَ الْأَلْوَاحَ

“And when anger became still from Mūsā عليه السلام, he took up the tablets.” (al Aʿrāf 154)

The verse describes anger as becoming still. This proves that movement and stillness can be used for inner states, not only for bodies moving from place to place.

The Soul Has Movement That Suits It

The movement of the soul is not like the movement of the body. A person’s body may be still while his heart is moving strongly with love, fear, longing, anger, or concern. A person’s body may also be moving while his heart is tranquil.

Allah said:

أَلَا بِذِكْرِ اللَّهِ تَطْمَئِنُّ الْقُلُوبُ

“Unquestionably, by the remembrance of Allah, hearts become tranquil.” (al Raʿd 28)

Allah also said:

يَا أَيَّتُهَا النَّفْسُ الْمُطْمَئِنَّةُ ۝ ارْجِعِي إِلَى رَبِّكِ رَاضِيَةً مَرْضِيَّةً

“O tranquil soul, return to your Lord, pleased and pleasing.” (al Fajr 27–28)

This shows that stillness, tranquillity, unrest, and movement can be meanings of the heart and soul. The movement of each thing is according to what suits it. Therefore, the existence of “movement” in one sense does not mean bodily movement.

The Meaning of Ḥawl and Quwwah

The phrase “Lā ḥawla wa lā quwwata illā billāh” is used to show that all transition, change, power, and ability in the upper and lower world are only by Allah.

The Prophet ﷺ said to Abū Mūsā: “Shall I not direct you to a treasure from the treasures of Paradise?”

He said, “Of course.” He said, “Lā ḥawla wa lā quwwata illā billāh.”

“There is no power and no strength except with Allah” (Sahih al Bukhari 6384; Sahih Muslim 2704)

Ḥawl means transition from one state to another. Quwwah means power and ability to carry out that transition. The best explanation is the general one: no movement, no change, no transition, and no ability exists except by Allah. It is not restricted only to leaving sin or performing obedience, even though that meaning is included.

The Three Main Views Concerning Ḥarakah

The First View: Absolute Denial

The first view denies ḥarakah completely and denies that any fiʿl ikhtiyārī (voluntary action) can subsist in Allah.

According to this view, Allah does not become pleased after not being pleased, does not become angry after not being angry, does not rejoice after repentance occurs, and does not speak by His will and power if that speech subsists in His Self.

This view first became known from the Jahmiyyah and Muʿtazilah, then passed to groups from the Kullābiyyah, Ashʿarīyyah, Sālimiyyah, and some followers of the four Imams.

The Second View: Affirmation

The second view affirms ḥarakah. Some groups openly used the wording itself, such as the Hishāmiyyah and Karrāmiyyah.

Others affirmed the meaning without necessarily making the wording central. This means they affirmed that Allah acts by His will, and that voluntary actions subsist in Him in a manner befitting Him.

ʿUthmān ibn Saʿīd al Dārimī affirmed the wording ḥarakah while refuting Bishr al Marīsī, and supported it as the statement of Ahl al Sunnah and the people of hadith. Ḥarb ibn Ismāʿīl al Kirmānī also mentioned this when presenting the creed of Ahl al Sunnah and the people of reports, mentioning those he met upon that, including Aḥmad ibn Ḥanbal, Isḥāq ibn Rāhawayh, ʿAbd Allah ibn al Zubayr al Ḥumaydī, and Saʿīd ibn Manṣūr.

The Third View: Withholding From the Wording

The third view is to withhold from both affirming and denying the wording ḥarakah. This was chosen by many from the people of hadith, jurists, and Sufis, such as Ibn Baṭṭah.

This view does not reject what is in the Book and Sunnah. Rather, it avoids using an ambiguous wording that has not come in the texts. Many of the people of hadith and Sunnah said: the meaning is correct, but the word itself should not be used because no report came with it.

The Famous Way of the Salaf

The famous way of the Salaf and the people of hadith is to affirm what the Book and Sunnah affirm.

Allah comes on the Day of Resurrection as He wills. Allah descends every night to the lowest heaven as the authentic reports state. Allah is pleased, angry, loves, speaks, acts, and does what He wills, when He wills, in a manner befitting His Majesty.

Abū ʿAmr al Ṭalamankī said: “They agreed, meaning Ahl al Sunnah wa al Jamāʿah, that Allah will come on the Day of Resurrection, and the angels in rows upon rows, for the reckoning of the nations and their presentation, as He wills and how He wills.”

Allah said:

هَلْ يَنْظُرُونَ إِلَّا أَنْ يَأْتِيَهُمُ اللَّهُ فِي ظُلَلٍ مِنَ الْغَمَامِ وَالْمَلَائِكَةُ وَقُضِيَ الْأَمْرُ

“Do they await anything except that Allah should come to them in canopies of cloud, and the angels, and the matter be concluded?” (al Baqarah 210)

Allah also said:

وَجَاءَ رَبُّكَ وَالْمَلَكُ صَفًّا صَفًّا

“And your Lord will come, and the angels, row upon row.” (al Fajr 22)

He also said: “They agreed that Allah descends every night to the lowest heaven according to what the reports have come with, however He wills. They do not set any limit in that.” (Sahih al Bukhari 1145; Sahih Muslim 758)

Muḥammad ibn Waḍḍāḥ asked Yaḥyā ibn Maʿīn about the descent, and he said: “Yes. I affirm it, and I do not set any limit concerning it.”

What Must Be Rejected

It is obligatory to reject any meaning that makes Allah resemble creation.

Whoever says that Allah descends like a human being descending from a roof to the lower part of a house has spoken falsely. Whoever says that the Throne becomes empty of Allah, so that His descent means leaving one place and occupying another, has also spoken falsely.

This is not the descent affirmed by Ahl al Sunnah. Allah’s descent is affirmed as it came in the texts, without takyīf (asking how), without tamthīl (likening Allah to creation), and without imagining bodily transfer.

Balanced View

The correct balance is built on two matters.

First: Allah is nothing like His creation in anything He describes Himself with. This principle must never be left.

Second: the texts are affirmed as they came. Allah’s coming, descent, rising over the Throne, nearness, pleasure, anger, joy, speech, and actions are not denied simply because some people fear the word ḥarakah.

Allah said:

سَبِّحِ اسْمَ رَبِّكَ الْأَعْلَى

“Glorify the name of your Lord, the Most High.” (al Aʿlā 1)

If Allah’s ʿulūw (highness) did not mean that He is above the Throne, then descent and similar texts would have no clear meaning and would have to be interpreted away. But if His ʿulūw means that He is above the Throne, as the texts indicate, then His descent is affirmed in a manner that does not contradict His being the Most High above everything.

The Best View

The best view is to avoid unrestricted speech about the wording ḥarakah. It should not be affirmed absolutely, and it should not be denied absolutely.

If someone means by ḥarakah the movement of created bodies, transfer from one place to another, or the emptying of one location and occupying another, then this is rejected.

If someone means by it Allah’s fiʿl ikhtiyārī (voluntary action), meaning that Allah acts by His will, comes as He wills, descends as He wills, speaks as He wills, is pleased as He wills, and does what He wills in a manner befitting Him, then this meaning is true.

The wording itself remains ambiguous. The Qur’an verses and authentic reports should be used instead. Therefore, the soundest wording is:

Allah is affirmed with what He affirmed for Himself and what His Messenger ﷺ affirmed for Him, without taḥrīf (distortion), without taʿṭīl (negation), without takyīf (asking how), and without tamthīl (likening Allah to creation). (Kitāb Majmūʿ al Fatāwā by Ibn Taymiyyah, 5/565–579)

End of Summary.

Majmu Fatawa Section On Ḥarakah (Movement) Translated

The Wording of Ḥarakah

Part of completing the second foundation is the wording of ḥarakah (movement): is Allah to be described with it, or is it obligatory to negate it from Him?

Muslims and others from the people of religious communities, as well as those outside religious communities, among the people of hadith, the people of kalām (speculative theology), the people of philosophy, and others, differed over this according to three views.

These three views are found among the followers of the four Imams, including the followers of Imam Aḥmad ibn Ḥanbal (d. 241 AH) and others. Al Qāḍī Abū Yaʿlā (d. 458 AH) mentioned the three views from the followers of Imam Aḥmad ibn Ḥanbal in al Riwāyatayn wa al Wajhayn and other books.

Before that, it should be known that the wording of ḥarakah (movement), intiqāl (transfer), taghayyur (change), taḥawwul (transition), and similar expressions are mujmal (general and ambiguous) terms. The people of kalām only use the word ḥarakah for spatial movement, meaning the transfer of a body from one place to another, such that the first ḥayyiz (spatial location) becomes empty and the second becomes occupied. This is like the movement of our bodies from one spatial location to another, and the movement of air, water, soil, and clouds from one spatial location to another, so that the first becomes empty and the second becomes occupied.

Most of the people of kalām know no meaning for ḥarakah except this. From here, they negated what the revealed texts came with of the various forms that belong to the general category of ḥarakah, because they assumed that all of them only indicate this meaning. Likewise, some of those who affirmed it understood all of it in this same sense, such as those who understood His descent to the lowest heaven to mean that some of His creation remains above Him. According to this understanding, He would not be the Manifest, above whom there is nothing, nor would He be the Most High, the Highest. It would also follow for them that He would not be established above the Throne in any way, as has already been mentioned.

The Philosophers’ Use of the Word Ḥarakah

The philosophers use the word ḥarakah for everything in which there is a transition from one state to another. They also say, “The reality of ḥarakah is occurrence, or becoming actual, and going out from potentiality into actuality, little by little and gradually.”

They said, “These expressions indicate the meaning of ḥarakah.” They may also define ḥarakah by them.

They disagreed concerning the Lord, Most High: can the general category of ḥarakah subsist in Him? They held two views over that. The followers of Aristotle made ḥarakah specific to bodies, yet they describe the soul with a kind of ḥarakah, even though, according to them, the soul is not a body. So they contradict themselves.

Among them, ḥarakah was of three types. Then Ibn Sīnā (d. 428 AH) added a fourth category, so it became four. They make ḥarakah a general category beneath which there are types: movement in quality, movement in quantity, movement in position, and movement in place.

Movement in quality is the transition of a thing from one attribute to another, such as its becoming black, red, green, or yellow, and such as its becoming sweet or sour, and such as the change of its smell. The same applies to souls, such as a person’s knowledge after his ignorance, his love after hatred, his faith after disbelief, his joy after sadness, and his pleasure after anger. All these states of the soul are movement in quality. This is among the things used as evidence by those of them who permitted the affirmation of ḥarakah, because His will to bring something into existence, according to them, is a ḥarakah.

Movement in quantity is like the extension of a thing, such as an animal becoming large after being small, or tall after being short, and like the extension of trees and plants, and the extension of their roots in the earth and their branches in the air. This is movement in measure and quantity, just as the first was movement in attributes and qualities.

As for movement in position, it is like the rotation of a thing in one place, such as the rotation of the celestial sphere, and the manjanūn, which is called the wheel, and like the movement of a millstone and other things. It does not transfer from one spatial location to another. Rather, its spatial location is one, but its positions differ. So one part of it is, at one time, facing the upper direction, then it becomes facing the lower direction, or it is facing the right direction, then it becomes facing the left direction. They say that Ibn Sīnā added this type.

The fourth is movement in place, which is spatial movement, meaning its transfer from one spatial location to another.

The Usage of the People of Language

As for the general people of language, they use the word ḥarakah for the general category of action. So anyone who performs an action has moved according to them. They also call states of the soul ḥarakah. They say, “Love moved within him,” “protective zeal moved within him,” and “his anger moved.” These states are described with movement and stillness. So it is said, “His anger became still.”

Allah, Most High, said:

وَلَمَّا سَكَتَ عَنْ مُوسَى الْغَضَبُ أَخَذَ الْأَلْوَاحَ

“And when anger became still from Mūsā, he took up the tablets.” (al Aʿrāf 154)

So He described anger with becoming silent. In the reading of Ibn Masʿūd (d. 32 AH), Muʿāwiyah ibn Qurrah (d. 113 AH), and ʿIkrimah (d. 105 AH), it is read with the meaning “became still”, with the n sound. According to the well known reading, with the t sound, the mufassirūn (scholars of Qur’an explanation) said, “The anger became silent,” meaning, “it became still.” The people of language also said the same, including al Zajjāj (d. 311 AH) and others.

Al Jawharī (d. 393 AH) said, “Anger became silent is like saying it became still. Stillness is more specific. Every silent thing is still, but not every still thing is silent.”

When something is described with stillness, that indicates that it had been moving. This is a description of inward states with movement and stillness.

Al Ashʿarī (d. 324 AH) used as evidence that ḥarakah and its types are not specific to bodies the fact that they used such wording concerning accidents. He said, “They say: fever came, cold came, wellbeing came, winter came, heat came,” and similar expressions, where accidents are described with coming and arrival. The coming of these accidents is occurrence, change, and transition from one state to another.

If it is said, “What is described with movement and stillness among these accidents is only due to the movement of the subject that carries that accident. Otherwise, the accident does not subsist by itself and does not depart from its subject. Fever, heat, and cold subsist in the air that carries heat and cold. Likewise, anger is the boiling of the blood of the heart in seeking revenge, and this is the movement of the blood. So when the boiling of the blood becomes still, anger becomes still.”

It is said in response: the matter is not like that. Rather, this wording is used for what occurs of accidents in the subject little by little, even when there is no body transferring along with it, as has already been mentioned regarding movement in qualities and attributes. When water becomes hot, heat occurs in it and heats the vessel in which the water is found, without a hot body transferring to it. When heated water is placed in a cold place, it becomes cold, without a cold body transferring to it. Likewise, fever is heat or cold that subsists in the body, without a hot or cold body transferring to every part of the body.

Anger, even if some people say it is the boiling of the blood of the heart, is an attribute that subsists in the soul of the angry person, other than the boiling of the blood of the heart. That boiling is only its effect. The heat of anger heats the blood until it boils. The beginning of anger is from the soul, which is first described with it, then that passes into the body. The same applies to sadness, joy, and all other inward states.

Sadness causes the blood to move inward. For this reason, the colour of the sad person becomes yellow. It is one of the inward states. But the sad person senses inability to repel the disliked matter that struck him, and he despairs of that, so his blood withdraws inward. The angry person senses his ability to repel or punish, so his blood expands outward.

The movement, stillness, and tranquillity with which the soul is described are not like what the body is described with. Allah, Most High, said:

أَلَا بِذِكْرِ اللَّهِ تَطْمَئِنُّ الْقُلُوبُ

“Unquestionably, by the remembrance of Allah, hearts become tranquil.” (al Raʿd 28)

Iṭmiʾnān (tranquillity) means stillness. Al Jawharī said, “A man became tranquil, meaning, he became still.”

Allah, Most High, said:

يَا أَيَّتُهَا النَّفْسُ الْمُطْمَئِنَّةُ ۝ ارْجِعِي إِلَى رَبِّكِ رَاضِيَةً مَرْضِيَّةً

“O tranquil soul, return to your Lord, pleased and pleasing.” (al Fajr 27–28)

Likewise, hearts have a sakīnah (calmness) that suits them. Allah, Most High, said:

هُوَ الَّذِي أَنْزَلَ السَّكِينَةَ فِي قُلُوبِ الْمُؤْمِنِينَ لِيَزْدَادُوا إِيمَانًا مَعَ إِيمَانِهِمْ

“He is the One who sent down calmness into the hearts of the believers, so that they would increase in faith along with their faith.” (al Fatḥ 4)

Likewise, rayb (doubt and unrest) is the movement of the soul due to doubt. From this is the hadith that the Prophet ﷺ passed by a crouching gazelle and said, “No one should disturb it.” Meaning, no one should agitate it. (Muwatta Malik 1281; Sunan an Nasāʾī 2818) 

It is said, “A doubt disturbed me concerning him.” Also, “Leave what causes you doubt for what does not cause you doubt.” And he said, “Lying is doubt, and truthfulness is tranquillity.” So he made tranquillity the opposite of doubt. Likewise, certainty is the opposite of doubt. Certainty includes the meaning of tranquillity and stillness. From this is the expression “still water.” Likewise, it is said, “He became unsettled,” and “it unsettled him, so he became unsettled,” meaning, it made him anxious. This is said of someone whose soul becomes anxious, and of someone who becomes anxious in both his soul and body until he leaves his place. Likewise, it is said, “His soul became anxious,” and “his soul became disturbed,” and similar expressions from the types of ḥarakah. (Jāmiʿ at Tirmidhī 2518)

What the human kind is familiar with and loves is called sakan (a source of rest), because he becomes settled with it. It is said, “So and so becomes settled with so and so and becomes tranquil with him.” It is also said, “The heart becomes settled with so and so and becomes tranquil with him,” when he is trustworthy and known for truthfulness, because truthfulness brings about tranquillity and stillness.

The wife has been called sakan. Allah, Most High, said:

خَلَقَ لَكُمْ مِنْ أَنْفُسِكُمْ أَزْوَاجًا لِتَسْكُنُوا إِلَيْهَا وَجَعَلَ بَيْنَكُمْ مَوَدَّةً وَرَحْمَةً

“He created for you spouses from yourselves so that you may find rest with them, and He placed between you affection and mercy.” (al Rūm 21)

And He said:

وَجَعَلَ مِنْهَا زَوْجَهَا لِيَسْكُنَ إِلَيْهَا

“And He made from it its spouse, so that he may find rest with her.” (al Aʿrāf 189)

So the man becomes settled with the woman in his heart and his body together.

A person’s body may be still while his soul is moving with a strong movement. In reverse, his heart may be still while his body is moving.

The one who loves something and longs for it is described as moving towards it. For this reason, it is said, “Passionate love is the movement of an empty soul.” Hearts move towards Allah, Most High, through love, turning back, directing themselves to Him, and other actions of the hearts, even if the body does not move upward.

The Prophet ﷺ said, “The closest that a servant is to his Lord is while he is prostrating.” Along with this, his body is at its lowest state. (Sahih Muslim 482)

It should therefore be known that ḥarakah is a general category beneath which there are types that differ according to the things described with it. Whatever the human soul is described with of will, love, dislike, inclination, and similar meanings, all of these contain the transition of the soul from one state to another, and an action of the soul. That is a movement for it according to what suits it.

For this reason, these meanings are expressed with words of movement. It is said, “So and so inclines swiftly towards so and so,” as was said:

“Towards al Bān, from my heart, its impulses incline swiftly,
yet it is not al Bān that I seek, but the place of al Bān.”

This wording is used for the movement of something light with speed, as it is said, “The bird moved swiftly with its wing,” meaning, it flapped and flew, and, “The thing moved swiftly through the air,” when it passed like a piece of wool and the like. (Shaykh Nāṣir ibn Ḥamad al Fahd said, p. 54: “This is a scribal error. The correct wording is: ‘The bird moved swiftly with its wing,’ and ‘The thing moved swiftly in the air.’ The wording before and after it is all about this expression.”)

It is also said, “The gazelle passed, moving swiftly,” meaning, leaping. From this, a slip is called a hafwah, just as it is called a zallah. A zallah is a light movement, and so is a hafwah.

Likewise, the loving and longing person whose love has become stronger than attachment is called ṣabā, and his state is ṣabābah, which is the delicacy and heat of longing. The ṣabb is the loving and longing person, due to the flowing of his heart towards the beloved, just as flowing water pours down. Water pours down from a mountain, meaning, it descends. Since, in its descent, it moves with a movement that nothing turns back, the movement of the ṣabb was called ṣabābah. This is used for praiseworthy love and blameworthy love.

From this is the hadith that when the Prophet ﷺ sent Abū ʿUbaydah (d. 18 AH) in a detachment, he wept from ṣabābah and longing for the Prophet ﷺ. (Musnad Abī Yaʿlā 1534) (Islamic Book)

Ṣabābah and ṣabb are connected in the wider derivational connection. The Arabs alternate between the weak letter and the doubled letter, just as they say, “The falcon descended,” with two related wordings. Ṣabā means to incline, and the child is called ṣabī because of how quickly he inclines.

Al Jawharī said, “Ṣabā is also from longing. From it is said, ‘he acted youthfully,’ and, ‘he inclined,’ meaning, he inclined towards ignorance and youthfulness, and the girl made him incline.”

This may also be used for a praiseworthy inclination, according to the reading of the one who reads the statement of Allah:

إِنَّ الَّذِينَ آمَنُوا وَالَّذِينَ هَادُوا وَالنَّصَارَى وَالصَّابِئِينَ

“Indeed, those who believed, those who were Jews, the Christians, and the Sabians.” (al Baqarah 62)

Without the hamzah, in the reading of Nāfiʿ (d. 169 AH), for he does not pronounce the hamzah in “the Sabians” anywhere in the Qur’an. Some of them were praised by Allah, Most High.

Likewise, it is said, “He longed for him with yearning.” From this, in the wider derivational connection, is the wording meaning to bend mercifully towards him. Al Jawharī said, “I inclined towards him with tenderness, meaning, I showed compassion to him.” The same meaning is found in the intensified form, as the poet said:

“The soul bends towards you from the burning pain of desire,
so how can you make it bend while you humiliate it?”

He also said, “Ḥanīn is longing and the soul’s yearning. It is said, ‘He longed for him,’ so he is one who longs. Ḥanān is mercy. It is said, ‘He showed mercy to him.’”

From this is the statement of Allah, Most High:

وَحَنَانًا مِنْ لَدُنَّا وَزَكَاةً

“And tenderness from Us, and purity.” (Maryam 13)

Al Ḥannān, with emphasis, means the One possessing mercy. “He showed tenderness towards him” means “he showed mercy to him.” The Arabs say, “Your mercy, my Lord,” and “Your tenderness,” with one meaning, namely, “Your mercy.” This is the wording of al Jawharī.

In the report concerning the explanation of “al Ḥannān, al Mannān”, it is said that al Ḥannān is the One who turns towards whoever turned away from Him, and al Mannān is the One who begins with gifts before being asked. This is a broad subject.

The point here is that all of this belongs to the types of the general category of ḥarakah. General ḥarakah is transition from one state to another. From this is our saying, “There is no ḥawl and no quwwah except by Allah.”

In the two authentic collections, from the Prophet ﷺ, he said to Abū Mūsā (d. 44 AH), “Shall I not direct you to a treasure from the treasures of Paradise?” He said, “Of course.” He said, “There is no ḥawl and no quwwah except by Allah.” (Sahih al Bukhari 6384; Sahih Muslim 2704)

In Sahih Muslim and elsewhere, from the Prophet ﷺ, he said, “When the caller to prayer says, ‘Allah is greater,’ and the man says, ‘Allah is greater,’ then he says, ‘I testify that none has the right to be worshipped except Allah,’ and he says, ‘I testify that none has the right to be worshipped except Allah,’ then he says, ‘I testify that Muhammad is the Messenger of Allah,’ and he says, ‘I testify that Muhammad is the Messenger of Allah,’ then he says, ‘Come to the prayer,’ and he says, ‘There is no ḥawl and no quwwah except by Allah,’ then he says, ‘Come to success,’ and he says, ‘There is no ḥawl and no quwwah except by Allah,’ then he says, ‘Allah is greater, Allah is greater,’ and he says, ‘Allah is greater, Allah is greater.’” (Sahih Muslim 385)

The wording ḥawl includes every transition from one state to another, and quwwah is the ability to perform that transition. So this great word indicates that the upper and lower world has no movement, no transition from one state to another, and no ability to do that except by Allah.

Some people explain this with a specific meaning. They say, “There is no ḥawl away from disobedience except by His protection, and no quwwah to perform His obedience except by His help.” The correct meaning, which the majority are upon, is the first explanation, and that is what the wording indicates. Ḥawl is not specific to turning away from disobedience. Likewise, quwwah is not specific to strength upon obedience. Rather, the wording ḥawl includes every transition.

From it is the wording ḥīlah. Its pattern is fiʿlah with a kasrah, and it is the specific type of ḥawl, just as it is said of a sitting, a sitting posture, a way of dressing, a way of eating, a way of lying down, and similar expressions. With kasrah, it is the specific type, while with fatḥah it is one single occurrence.

So the original of ḥīlah is ḥūlah. But when the silent wāw came after a kasrah, it was changed to yāʾ, as in the word mīzān, mīqāt, and mīʿād. Its pattern is mifʿāl, and according to analogy it would have been mawzān and mawqāt. But when the silent wāw came after a kasrah, it was changed to yāʾ.

Allah, Most High, said:

إِلَّا الْمُسْتَضْعَفِينَ مِنَ الرِّجَالِ وَالنِّسَاءِ وَالْوِلْدَانِ لَا يَسْتَطِيعُونَ حِيلَةً

“Except the oppressed among men, women, and children, who are unable to devise a way.” (al Nisāʾ 98)

Meaning, from the various ways. It is indefinite in the context of negation, so it includes all types of ways.

Likewise is the wording quwwah. Allah, Most High, said:

اللَّهُ الَّذِي خَلَقَكُمْ مِنْ ضَعْفٍ ثُمَّ جَعَلَ مِنْ بَعْدِ ضَعْفٍ قُوَّةً ثُمَّ جَعَلَ مِنْ بَعْدِ قُوَّةٍ ضَعْفًا وَشَيْبَةً

“Allah is the One who created you from weakness, then made after weakness strength, then made after strength weakness and old age.” (al Rūm 54)

The wording quwwah may mean what is more complete in ability than something else, so it is a stronger ability than another, or complete ability. The wording quwwah may also include the force found in lifeless objects, unlike the word ability. For this reason, what is negated by the wording quwwah is broader and more complete. So if there is no quwwah except by Him, then there is no ability except by Him with even greater reason. This is a broad subject.

The Dispute Over the General Category of Ḥarakah

The point here is that people disagreed over the general category of ḥarakah, which includes the voluntary matters that subsist in the very being of the one described, such as anger, pleasure, joy, nearness, closeness, rising over, and descent. Rather, it also includes transitive actions, such as creating, doing good, and other things. They held three views.

The first view is the view of those who negate that absolutely and in every meaning. According to them, it is not permissible for anything of the voluntary matters to subsist in the Lord. So He is not pleased with anyone after not having been pleased with him, He is not angry with anyone after not having been angry with him, He does not rejoice at repentance after repentance occurs, and He does not speak by His will and power, if it is said that this subsists in His Self.

The first people known for this statement were the Jahmiyyah and the Muʿtazilah. Then it passed from them to the Kullābiyyah, the Ashʿarīyyah, the Sālimiyyah, and those who agreed with them from the followers of the four Imams. This includes Abū al Ḥasan al Tamīmī (d. 371 AH), his son Abū al Faḍl (d. 410 AH), and his grandson Rizq Allah (d. 488 AH); al Qāḍī Abū Yaʿlā, Ibn ʿAqīl (d. 513 AH), Abū al Ḥasan ibn al Zāghūnī (d. 527 AH), Abū al Faraj ibn al Jawzī (d. 597 AH), and others from the followers of Aḥmad, even though the speech of one of these may contradict itself.

It also includes Abū al Maʿālī al Juwaynī (d. 478 AH) and those like him from the followers of al Shāfiʿī (d. 204 AH), Abū al Walīd al Bājī (d. 474 AH) and a group from the followers of Mālik (d. 179 AH), and Abū al Ḥasan al Karkhī (d. 340 AH) and a group from the followers of Abū Ḥanīfah (d. 150 AH).

The second view is affirming that. This is the saying of the Hishāmiyyah, the Karrāmiyyah, and others from the groups of the people of kalām who clearly used the wording ḥarakah. As for those who affirm it by the general meaning, so that the subsistence of voluntary matters and actions in His Self enters into that, this is the saying of groups other than those. This includes Abū al Ḥusayn al Baṣrī (d. 436 AH), and it is the choice of Abū ʿAbd Allah ibn al Khaṭīb al Rāzī (d. 606 AH) and others among the speculative thinkers.

A group mentioned that this view is a necessary implication for all groups.

ʿUthmān ibn Saʿīd al Dārimī (d. 280 AH) mentioned affirmation of the wording ḥarakah in a book in which he refuted Bishr al Marīsī (d. 218 AH), and he supported it as being the saying of Ahl al Sunnah and the people of hadith.

Ḥarb ibn Ismāʿīl al Kirmānī (d. 280 AH) also mentioned it when he stated the madhhab (way) of Ahl al Sunnah and the people of reports from all of Ahl al Sunnah and the people of hadith, and he mentioned among those whom he met upon that: Aḥmad ibn Ḥanbal, Isḥāq ibn Rāhawayh (d. 238 AH), ʿAbd Allah ibn al Zubayr al Ḥumaydī (d. 219 AH), and Saʿīd ibn Manṣūr (d. 227 AH).

It is also the saying of Abū ʿAbd Allah ibn Ḥāmid (d. 403 AH) and others.

Many of the people of hadith and Sunnah say: the meaning is correct, but this wording is not to be used because no report has come with it, as Abū ʿUmar ibn ʿAbd al Barr (d. 463 AH) and others mentioned in their speech concerning the hadith of the descent.

The famous view from the Salaf among Ahl al Sunnah and the people of hadith is affirming what the Book and the Sunnah have come with: that He comes, descends, and other such intransitive actions.

Abū ʿAmr al Ṭalamankī (d. 429 AH) said, “They agreed, meaning Ahl al Sunnah wa al Jamāʿah, that Allah will come on the Day of Resurrection, and the angels in rows upon rows, for the reckoning of the nations and their presentation, as He wills and how He wills.”

Allah, Most High, said:

هَلْ يَنْظُرُونَ إِلَّا أَنْ يَأْتِيَهُمُ اللَّهُ فِي ظُلَلٍ مِنَ الْغَمَامِ وَالْمَلَائِكَةُ وَقُضِيَ الْأَمْرُ

“Do they await anything except that Allah should come to them in canopies of cloud, and the angels, and the matter be concluded?” (al Baqarah 210)

And Allah, Most High, said:

وَجَاءَ رَبُّكَ وَالْمَلَكُ صَفًّا صَفًّا

“And your Lord will come, and the angels, row upon row.” (al Fajr 22)

He said, “They agreed that Allah descends every night to the lowest heaven according to what the reports have come with, however He wills. They do not set any limit in that.” (Sahih al Bukhari 1145; Sahih Muslim 758)

Then he narrated with his chain from Muḥammad ibn Waḍḍāḥ (d. 286 AH), who said, “I asked Yaḥyā ibn Maʿīn (d. 233 AH) about the descent. He said, ‘Yes. I affirm it, and I do not set any limit concerning it.’”

The third view is to withhold from negation and affirmation. This is the choice of many of the people of hadith, jurists, and Sufis, such as Ibn Baṭṭah (d. 387 AH) and others. Among them are those whose hearts turn away from determining either of the two matters, and among them are those whose hearts incline to one of them, but they do not speak with either negation or affirmation.

What must be affirmed with certainty is that there is nothing like Allah in anything with which He describes Himself. Whoever describes Him with anything like the attributes of created beings is certainly mistaken. This is like the one who says that He descends, so He moves and transfers as a human descends from the roof to the lower part of the house, such as the statement of one who says that the Throne becomes empty of Him, so His descent is the emptying of one place and the occupying of another. This is false, and the Lord must be declared far above it, as has already been mentioned.

This is what the revealed and rational proofs establish the negation of and the declaring of the Lord far above. Allah, Exalted is He, informed that He is the Most High, and He said:

سَبِّحِ اسْمَ رَبِّكَ الْأَعْلَى

“Glorify the name of your Lord, the Most High.” (al Aʿlā 1)

If the wording of ʿulūw (highness) does not require the highness of His Essence above the Throne, then it would not necessarily follow that He is above the Throne. In that case, the wording of descent and similar matters would definitely be interpreted away, because there would be nothing from which descent could be understood.

But if the wording of ʿulūw requires the highness of His Essence above the Throne, then He, Exalted is He, is the Most High above everything, just as He is greater than everything. If He were to become beneath anything from the world, some of His created things would be higher than Him, and He would not be the Most High. This is contrary to what He described Himself with.

Also, He informed that He created the heavens and the earth in six days, then rose over the Throne. If His rising over the Throne did not include that He is above the Throne, then the rising over would not be known, and it would then be possible that nothing is above the Throne. In that case, interpretation of descent and other matters would necessarily follow.

But if it includes that He is above the Throne, then His rising over the Throne is necessary. He informed that He rose over it when He created the heavens and the earth in six days, and He informed of that when the Qur’an was sent down upon Muhammad ﷺ thousands of years after that, and it indicated..

Kitāb Majmūʿ al Fatāwā by Ibn Taymiyyah 5/565–579