The Wahhabis Deny Allah (s.w.t.) is Beyond Limits

بِسۡمِ ٱللهِ ٱلرَّحۡمَـٰنِ ٱلرَّحِيمِ 

Article 38 of Imam Abu Ja’far Ahmad ibn Muhammad ath-Thahawi’s (r.a.) ‘Aqidah ath-Thahawiyyah states, “He is beyond having limits placed on Him, or being restricted, or having parts or limbs.  Nor is He contained by the six directions as all Created entities are.” 

However, in his footnote to Article 38, the Wahhabi, ‘Abd al-‘Aziz ibn ‘Abdullah ibn Baz asserted, “Allah is beyond limits that we know but has limits He knows.”  This is clear misguidance, and an innovated phrase, as stated by Imam Shams ad-Din Abu ‘Abdullah Muhammad ibn Ahmad adz-Dzahabi (r.a.) and others.  It is  unsupported by the Qur’an, the sunnah, and ijma’.  It violated the practice of the true Salaf, who refrained from indulging in speculations of modality whenever they mentioned the Divine Attributes. 

The Wahhabi, ‘Abdullah al-Hashidi, in his edition of Imam Abu Bakr Ahmad ibn Husayn al-Bayhaqi’s (r.a.) al-Asma’ wa asw-Swifat, stated, “As for us, we affirm a form for Allah unlike forms.” 

Muhammad Naswir ad-Din al-Albani, in his Sharh approvingly quoted Muhammad ibn Mani’s remonstration of Imam ath-Thahawi (r.a.) for this particular article and his pretense that the imam, perhaps, did not write it in the first place, saying, “The imam and author was in no need at all for these invented, wrongly suggestive words, and if someone were to say that they are interpolated and not his own words, I would not think it improbable, so as to keep a good opinion of him.”  Muhammad ibn Mani’ was quoted by al-Albani, in the latter’s commentary, in al-‘Aqidah ath-Thahawiyyah, Sharh wa Ta’liq al-Albani. 

Thus, not only do the Wahhabis claim that Allah (s.w.t.) has a form, they also falsely claim that this is what the pious predecessors meant.