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Does describing Allah as All-Hearing, without a sense organ or instrument, constitute anthropomorphism (tashbeeh) or denial of attributes (ta'teel)?

1 min readAlso available in العربية

One must affirm the attributes that Allah has affirmed for Himself, or that His Messenger, peace and blessings be upon him, has affirmed for Him, without distortion, negation, or anthropomorphism. Hearing (al-Sam'a) is affirmed by the Qur'an and Sunnah. There is no mention of "the ear" in negation or affirmation, and the correct approach is to withhold judgment regarding it, because there is no evidence for either its affirmation or its negation. The People of the Sunnah do not describe Allah's attributes as instruments, tools, or senses. Nor do they elaborate in negation by saying "it is not like this" or "it is not like that," because this method is not from the methodology of the Salaf but rather from the methodology of the people of innovation, and it may lead to the negation of the attribute.

Summarized from the full answer at Ftawy · reviewed Sep 2, 2026

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