“Is it permissible for a Muslim to believe that Allah is in the sky in literal sense?”, that: “In this connection, a hadith has been related by Malik in his Muwatta and by Muslim in his Sahih, that Muawiya ibn al-Hakam came to the Prophet (Allah bless him and give him peace) and told him, I am very newly from the Jahiliyya, and now Allah has brought Islam, and he proceeded to ask about various Jahiliyya practices, until at last he said that he had slapped his slave girl, and asked if he should free her, as was obligatory if she was a believer. The Prophet (Allah bless him and give him peace) requested that she be brought, and then asked her, Where is Allah? and she said, In the sky (Fi al-sama); whereupon he asked her, Who am I? and she said, You are the Messenger of Allah; at which he said, Free her, for she is a believer (Sahih Muslim)” translation “in the sky” is incorrect “This condition (authenticity) is not met by this particular hadith for a number of reasons. First, the story described in the hadith has come to us in a number of other well-authenticated versions that vary a great deal from the Where is Allah?--In the sky version. One of these is related by Ibn Hibban in his Sahih with a well-authenticated (hasan) chain of transmission, in which the Prophet (Allah bless him and give him peace) asked the slave girl, Who is your Lord? and she said, Allah; whereupon he asked her, Who am I? and she said, You are the Messenger of Allah; at which he said, Free her, for she is a believer (al-Ihsan fi taqrib Sahih Ibn Hibban, 18 vols. Beirut: Muassasa al-Risala, 1408/1988, 1.419: 189). In another version, related by Abd al-Razzaq with a rigorously authenticated (sahih) chain of transmission, the Prophet (Allah bless him and give him peace) said to her, Do you testify that there is no god but Allah? and she said yes. He said, Do you testify that I am the Messenger of Allah? and she said yes. He said, Do you believe in resurrection after death? and she said yes. He said, Free her (al-Musannaf, 11 vols. Beirut: al-Majlis al-Ilmi, 1390/1970, 9.175: 16814). In other versions, the slave girl cannot speak, but merely points to the sky in answer. Ibn Hajar al-Asqalani has said of the various versions of this hadith, There is great contradiction in the wording (Talkhis al-habir, 4 vols. in 2. Cairo: Maktaba al-Kulliyat al-Azhariyya, 1399/1979, 3.250). When a hadith has numerous conflicting versions, there is a strong possibility that it has been related merely in terms of what one or more narrators understood (riwaya bi al-mana), and hence one of the versions is not adequate to establish a point of `aqida. ”
Posted on: Thu, 20 Mar 2014 05:39:28 +0000
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