Wahhabis Claim Allah (s.w.t.) has a Shadow

بِسۡمِ ٱللهِ ٱلرَّحۡمَـٰنِ ٱلرَّحِيمِ

The Wahhabi sect claims Allah (s.w.t.) has a Shadow.  ‘Abd al-‘Aziz ibn ‘Abdullah ibn Baz said, “In the hadits of the seven who will be shaded by Allah (s.w.t.) in His shadow on the day there is no shadow save His Shadow, is this attributing Allah (s.w.t.) with a shadow?  Yes, as is reported in the hadits and in some transmissions, ‘in the shadow of His Throne’.  But, in the Swahihayn, it is, ‘in His Shadow’ for He has a shadow that is befitting to Him, and we do not know its modality just like the rest of His attributes …” 

Dr. Jibril Fu’ad Haddad commented that even in the compilations usually adduced by the anthropomorphists, let alone the commentaries of the Ahl as-Sunnah, the ahadits mentioning the words, “in His Shade”, such as found in Swahih al-Bukhari, Swahih Muslim, and al-Muwaththa’, are understood in the context of the ahadits mentioning, “in the shade of His Throne”, such as found in Jami’ at-Tirmidzi, and Musnad Ahmad.  No Sunni scholar one has claimed such a Divine attribute as “the Shade” even among those who did their best to gather all the attributes from a literalist perspective such as Imam Abu Bakr Muhammad ibn Ishaq ibn Khuzaymah (r.a.), Imam Abu Isma’il ‘Abdullah ibn Muhammad al-Ansari al-Harawi (r.a.), and Qadhi Abu Ya’la Muhammad ibn al-Husayn ibn al-Farra (r.a.). 

Thus Imam Abu ‘Abdullah Muhammad ibn Ishaq ibn Mandah, in at-Tawhid wa-Ma’rifat Asma’ullah, has a chapter entitled, “Another Exposition Showing That the Shade of the Throne is Used to Shade Whomever Allah Wishes among His Servants, which he begins by mentioning the ahadits “in the Shade of His Throne”, then he follows it up with the ahadits, “in His Shade.” 

Similarly, Imam Abu Hatim Muhammad ibn Fayswal at-Tamimi ibn Hibban (r.a.), in his Swahih, has a section title mentioning “the shade of His Throne”, but the only ahadits in that section has the wording “His Shade.” 

Similarly, Qadhi Abu al-Fadhl ‘Iyadh ibn ‘Amr al-Yahsubi (r.a.), in Sharh Swahih Muslim, explained “His Shade” as milk, a possessive adjective of possession, and that what is meant here is the Shade of the Throne, to which Imam Shihab ad-Din Abu al-Fadhl Ahmad ibn ‘Ali ibn Hajr al-‘Asqalani (r.a.), in Fath al-Bari, added, “wa tashrif”, “and honour”; that he considers its explanation as, “the shade of His Throne” preponderant in light of the narration mentioning it explicitly. 

Imam Zayn ad-Din Abu al-Faraj ‘Abd ar-Rahman ibn Ahmad ibn Rajab al-Hanbali (r.a.), in his own Fath al-Bari, also wrote, “What is meant by ‘His Shade’ is the Shade of His Throne”, in light of the ahadits mentioning the latter explicitly. 

It is true, as ibn Baz said, that the ahadits mentioning “His Shade” are in the Swahihayn, contrary to the ahadits mentioning “the shade of His Throne.”  What he omitted, however, is that the latter as a whole are even more authentic since, as Imam Shams ad-Din Abu ‘Abdullah Muhammad ibn Ahmad adz-Dzahabi (r.a.) wrote, in al-‘Uluw, they are mutawatir, mass-transmitted.