What does it mean when we say Allah has no body and form? I asked a friend, she said to me that for example joy, sadness, pain have no body but they still exist. Just like that Allah also exists. Is it wrong to apply the same analogy to Allah as joy etc are feelings and not living beings? Because I have been thinking of Allah as a Being, thinking of Allah in the previously stated analogy feels like Allah is non living Nauzubillah.
In the Name of Allah, the Most Gracious, the Most Merciful.
As-salāmu ‘alaykum wa-rahmatullāhi wa-barakātuh.
Your understanding of Allah as a real Being is correct. Allah is not just a feeling like the feelings of joy and happiness. It is possible your friend gave the example of joy and happiness merely to explain that one cannot see Allah like how one cannot see joy and happiness. Joy is a feeling. Likewise, we cannot see Allah but we feel the presence of Allah within us. However, Allah is a real being. We do not attribute a form to Allah as Allah is eternal and beyond bodily form. Body and form are creations and are confined to a place. Allah is not a creation. He is our Creator. Anything confined to a place is finite and restricted. Allah is unlimited and not restricted. He has power over everything and is eternal. Allah describes Himself in the quraan as follows:
{ هُوَ الْأَوَّلُ وَالْآخِرُ وَالظَّاهِرُ وَالْبَاطِنُ وَهُوَ بِكُلِّ شَيْءٍ عَلِيمٌ} [الحديد: 3]
“He is the First and the Last and the Ascendant over all and the Knower of hidden things, and He is cognizant of all things.”
We advise you to focus on the manifestations of the power of Allah through his creation as understood from the following narration of Ibn ‘Abbas Radiyallahu ‘Anhu[i]:
عَنِ ابْنِ عَبَّاسٍ رَضِيَ اللَّهُ عَنْهُمَا، قَالَ: تَفَكَّرُوا فِي كُلِّ شَيْءٍ، وَلَا تَفَكَّرُوا فِي اللَّهِ
“Ponder over anything but don’t ponder on the being of Allah”
And Allah Ta’āla Knows Best
Nadeem Moulana
Student Darul Iftaa
Kentucky, USA
Checked and Approved by,
Mufti Ebrahim Desai.
[i] العظمة لأبي الشيخ الأصبهاني (1/ 212)