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Between the God of the Prophets and the God of the Philosophers: Reflections of an Athari on the Divine Attributes
The apophatic god of negative theology is the areligious philosophers’ preferred god; a god which is remote, detached, and can hardly be an object of adoration or worship, even though it may be an object of wonderment. This is not God according to the Prophets. However, the depiction of God in the theistic traditions has been always charged with anthropomorphism. In this book, I attempt to respond to this charge and explain what Athari (scripturalist) Muslim theologians believe about the Divine attributes and why. Where Do We Get Our Belief From? Our Epistemological Position. The Role of Truthful Reports. The Role of Reason. The Place of Kalâ Reason as a Tool of Understanding and Armor for Defense. A Typology of Islamic Positions on the Attributes of God. What Do We Believe In?Why Do We Believe in Amodal Affirmation and Why? Do We Believe It Is Important? What Are the Counter Arguments? Reports from the Salaf; Conflict with Reason; The Perfect Does Not Change; The Composite god and Divisibility; Anthropomorphism and Assimilation. Ontologically, no extant being lacks quiddity and attributes. Noumenally, the apophatic god is nonexistent, and phenomenally, it cannot be felt or related to, let alone loved and worshiped. In conclusion of this work, here are my •To be deserving of Divine guidance, we need to purify our intentions by true devotion to Allah. We also need to constantly rehabilitate our fiṭrah and heal it from the ills of bias (hawa), ulterior motives (aghrâḍ), blind imitation (taqleed), habit (‘âdah), and conjecture (gharṣ). This can only be done through spiritual labor and immersion in the Revelation as understood and practiced by the first community. •We must not subject the Divine instruction to prevalent intellectual or social conventions or transplant xenografts and foreign discourses into our hermeneutical system. We must affirm our belief in the epistemic superiority and self-sufficiency of the Revelation as the ultimate source of truth about the unseen. This will never require us to impugn the office of reason or undercut its value in understanding the Revelation and defending its doctrines. •Our belief in Allah must be rooted in His exoneration from all deficiencies and His absolute incomparability (tanzeeh), and the amodal affirmation (ithbât) of His attributes by which He has described Himself and His Messenger described Him. In our affirmation of the Divine attributes, we should never accept the so-called “necessary concomitants.” Inferring from the world of shahâdah (seen) about the world of ghayb (unseen) is both irrational and perilous.•We must be respectful of the imams of this deen, regardless of our agreement or disagreement with them. When we have to disagree, we must continue to love those who spent their lives serving Allah and His cause, and show them the requisite respect. •The public should be spared the confusion of intra-Islamic polemics on creed and taught the basics of ‘aqeedah that will provide them with enough guardrails. People should then be uplifted spiritually to want to seek Allah and earn His pleasure. When it comes to the Divine attributes, teachers must prime their understanding with tanzeeh and let the rhetorical strength and richness of the Revelation flow to their hearts, unimpeded by intellectual objections.
184 pages, Kindle Edition
Published March 8, 2020
45 people are currently reading
172 people want to read
About the author
Hatem al-Haj
10 books41 followersDr. Hatem al-Haj is Dean of the Sharia Academy of America and a member of the Fatwa Committee of the Assembly of Muslim Jurists of America (AMJA). He holds a PhD in Comparative Fiqh and a Masters in Islamic Law. He is the author of many published articles on Islamic topics.
Dr. al-Haj’s website, www.drhatemalhaj.com, is a useful resource for information on Islam and topics of interest to new Muslims, young Muslims, and Muslims living in non-Muslim societies.
Dr. al-Haj’s website, www.drhatemalhaj.com, is a useful resource for information on Islam and topics of interest to new Muslims, young Muslims, and Muslims living in non-Muslim societies.
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Displaying 1 - 10 of 10 reviews
May 24, 2023
A much needed book that explains and defends Athari-Sunni (Traditionalist) Aqidah from the attack of it's detractors. Must read book for every Student of Islamic theology. 4.5/5
May 4, 2023
I should reread this book, a great modern book on athari theology.
September 13, 2022
Really informative
This book is really informative on the athari aqeedah. It refutes all the accusations of anthropomorphism from some asharis and shias against the athari aqeedah. It emphasizes the importance of nominalism and amodalism to explain the attributes of Allah. It also brings proofs from the salaf to support the athari aqeedah.
This book is really informative on the athari aqeedah. It refutes all the accusations of anthropomorphism from some asharis and shias against the athari aqeedah. It emphasizes the importance of nominalism and amodalism to explain the attributes of Allah. It also brings proofs from the salaf to support the athari aqeedah.
March 20, 2021
A solid book covering the polemics of philosophy within the Islamic frame-work.
The author references the classical scholars such Imam al-Ghazali, Ibn Taymiyaah and Ibn Rushd. Much of the book covers the discussion on Gods attributes and the position held by the various groups and scholars.
The author references the classical scholars such Imam al-Ghazali, Ibn Taymiyaah and Ibn Rushd. Much of the book covers the discussion on Gods attributes and the position held by the various groups and scholars.
May 10, 2020
Editing Dr. al-Haj's books is always a pleasure. His writing is eloquent and clear, his arguments lucid and compelling.
February 12, 2023
In his work Between the God of the Prophets and the God of the philosophers, Hatem al-Haj has compiled material on a topic that is not new in the fields of theology or philosophy either. Haj has written upon some concerns that the old and new philosophy has challenged the theology, namely the Islamic one, throughout the ages. Since the ancient Greek philosophers and up to modernity, the God of the Prophets seems to be a god that is very simple and does not seem to have much in control. Moreover, as part of this simplicity, anthropomorphism seems to have been the one description that the monotheistic religions fall into – an argument that theologians deny furiously. Islam did not escape such scrutiny either.
When it comes to Islam the challenge seems to stem from two camps. The first is the secular philosophers that accuse the Muslims of giving God too many human-like attributes – anthropomorphism. And the second, some Muslim theologians themselves, who by trying to escape this ‘trap’ set by philosophers, re-define what God is/means by employing the methods of philosophers. Whereas from the viewpoint of a believer, it is easier to draw borders with philosophy due to not belonging within the same purview – that of the belief, it becomes much harder to distinguish right and wrong when the one deriving axiom is the Muslims themselves.
Haj shows that nowadays it is almost impossible to avoid engaging in debates regarding the nature of God and that is mainly because of two reasons. One, the majority of debates have already occurred during the previous centuries of Islam. and two, whether we admit it or not, it has to do with the right understanding of God, a thing that we are certainly interested in achieving as believers. Hence, an approach that would keep us grounded in our faith by examining our previous opus of the scholarship is very much needed in the modern world. Haj manages to provide a short overview of that by making it clear that group partisanship is something that has hurt and will hurt the journey of Muslim scholarship.
Having established that it is almost impossible to avoid the debate, Haj maps down the epistemological and ontological understandings of different Islamic groups regarding the nature of Allah. Since the most rift has culminated in the attributes that God prescribes to Himself in the Qur’an Haj presents a spectrum typology of different understandings:
a) Absolute negationists
b) Relative negationist
c) Relative affirmations
d) Affirmationists
e) Extreme affirmationists
f) Assimilationists
Some Islamic scholars while trying to answer the challenge of the philosophers or answering the challenge posed by adopting ways of the philosophy, have re-iterated the ways Muslims viewed God. That for sure has not escaped without fierce debates and practical implications in Muslim scholarship. Nevertheless, a lot of scholars navigated close to the borders of this typology, and sometimes within the same school, you had scholars who belonged to the other typology. Moreover, you had scholars who shifted totally within the course of their life.
Al-Haj belongs to the Athari ( traditional) school of thought; thus, he makes a case for the athari (affirmations). The very name suggests that that is the way one is intended to believe. Borrowing from big names such as ibn Taymiyyah, Haj demonstrates that it is the language and models of knowledge that produce misunderstanding and polemics. Islam, he maintains, has its epistemology and ontology which is not inferior to other models of knowledge. The Muslims by educating themselves on the topic can then make analogies and harmonize with other models which stem from outside Islam, e.g. the Greek philosophy among others.
When it comes to Islam the challenge seems to stem from two camps. The first is the secular philosophers that accuse the Muslims of giving God too many human-like attributes – anthropomorphism. And the second, some Muslim theologians themselves, who by trying to escape this ‘trap’ set by philosophers, re-define what God is/means by employing the methods of philosophers. Whereas from the viewpoint of a believer, it is easier to draw borders with philosophy due to not belonging within the same purview – that of the belief, it becomes much harder to distinguish right and wrong when the one deriving axiom is the Muslims themselves.
Haj shows that nowadays it is almost impossible to avoid engaging in debates regarding the nature of God and that is mainly because of two reasons. One, the majority of debates have already occurred during the previous centuries of Islam. and two, whether we admit it or not, it has to do with the right understanding of God, a thing that we are certainly interested in achieving as believers. Hence, an approach that would keep us grounded in our faith by examining our previous opus of the scholarship is very much needed in the modern world. Haj manages to provide a short overview of that by making it clear that group partisanship is something that has hurt and will hurt the journey of Muslim scholarship.
Having established that it is almost impossible to avoid the debate, Haj maps down the epistemological and ontological understandings of different Islamic groups regarding the nature of Allah. Since the most rift has culminated in the attributes that God prescribes to Himself in the Qur’an Haj presents a spectrum typology of different understandings:
a) Absolute negationists
b) Relative negationist
c) Relative affirmations
d) Affirmationists
e) Extreme affirmationists
f) Assimilationists
Some Islamic scholars while trying to answer the challenge of the philosophers or answering the challenge posed by adopting ways of the philosophy, have re-iterated the ways Muslims viewed God. That for sure has not escaped without fierce debates and practical implications in Muslim scholarship. Nevertheless, a lot of scholars navigated close to the borders of this typology, and sometimes within the same school, you had scholars who belonged to the other typology. Moreover, you had scholars who shifted totally within the course of their life.
Al-Haj belongs to the Athari ( traditional) school of thought; thus, he makes a case for the athari (affirmations). The very name suggests that that is the way one is intended to believe. Borrowing from big names such as ibn Taymiyyah, Haj demonstrates that it is the language and models of knowledge that produce misunderstanding and polemics. Islam, he maintains, has its epistemology and ontology which is not inferior to other models of knowledge. The Muslims by educating themselves on the topic can then make analogies and harmonize with other models which stem from outside Islam, e.g. the Greek philosophy among others.
August 27, 2025
An excellent introduction into the Athari (affirmationalist) Aqidah while maintaining intellectual fairness to other creedal positions within Islam. While an overall brief work, the author manages to address some modern European philosophical thought on a surface level and discusses Athari creed within the context of nominalism.
The book suffers from some awkward typesetting, cut-off Arabic, and abbreviated religious honorifics like صلى الله عليه وسلم or رضي الله عنه abbreviated to (pbuh) or (rA) which could have been written in Arabic to be less of an eyesore. But this could be fixed in a second edition إن شاء الله
The book suffers from some awkward typesetting, cut-off Arabic, and abbreviated religious honorifics like صلى الله عليه وسلم or رضي الله عنه abbreviated to (pbuh) or (rA) which could have been written in Arabic to be less of an eyesore. But this could be fixed in a second edition إن شاء الله
December 13, 2022
Quite interesting and engaging, this work helps us to understand Islamic theology and much more.
December 26, 2022
Basically brought up a time in Islam when one particular school of thinking eased up on the matter of oneness and I’m not sure what it had to do with relatively more recent German metaphysics
July 9, 2022
Very accessible to read and establishes reasonable defense for the athari position. The creed of the salaf is explained and the safest opinions are expressed. A must read for a modern athari dealing with philosophical attacks. May Allah bless the shaykh for this much needed work.
Displaying 1 - 10 of 10 reviews