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What is the correct understanding of the Hadith, "Allah created Adam in the image of the Most Merciful"?

1 min readAlso available in العربية

Regarding the Hadith: "Allah created Adam in His image," the wording "Indeed, the son of Adam was created in the image of the Most Merciful" is weak. The Hadith does not contradict the Almighty's saying: "There is nothing like unto Him," because we believe in both the verse and the Hadith without any interpretation, for both are true. The Hadith affirms that Allah has an image upon which He created Adam, but it does not necessarily mean that Adam's image is identical to Allah's image. The rule is that resemblance does not mean complete identity, as in the saying: "They will enter Paradise in the image of the moon," which refers to similarity in beauty and radiance, not exact conformity. So, Allah has a Face, an Eye, a Hand, and a Leg, but they are not like human limbs, and Allah's attributes are not like the attributes of creatures, without distortion, negation, anthropomorphism, or resemblance.

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

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