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Is believing in the literal meaning of the Hadith "The smell of the fasting person's breath is more pleasing to Allah than the scent of musk" without interpreting or explaining it through smell and the pleasing of scents, while affirming Allah's transcendence from such things, considered a sound belief that does not lead to disbelief or anthropomorphism?

1 min readAlso available in العربية

A distinction must be made between attributing the pleasantness of odors to Allah, established by authentic Sunnah, and attributing the characteristic of smell to Him, concerning which we withhold judgment due to the absence of explicit proof. The hadith "The smell from the mouth of a fasting person is more pleasant to Allah than the scent of musk" affirms Allah's appreciation for pleasant odors in a manner befitting Him, not resembling the appreciation of creatures, and is not an explicit text proving the characteristic of smell.

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

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