Azami 8325

It was narrated by Abdullah bin Ahmad in his Sunnah (498), Ibn Abu Asim in his Sunnah (517), Ibn Khuzayma in Tawhid (44), Daraqutni in Sifat (640), and Ajurri in Shariah (1153/3), all of them through Jareer bin Abdul-Hameed, from Amash, from Habib bin Abu Thabit, from Ata bin Abu Rabah, from Ibn Umar, and he narrated it. Its chain is sahih, except that Ibn Khuzayma found fault with it on three grounds. The first is that Thawri differed with Amash in his chain, making it a mursal narration and not saying "from Ibn Umar." He means what he narrated in Tawhid (45) from Abu Musa Muhammad bin Muthanna, who said, Abdul-Rahman bin Mahdi narrated to us, Sufyan narrated to us, from Habib bin Abu Thabit, from Ata, who said, the Messenger of Allah ﷺ said, "The face should not be struck, for the son of Adam was created in the image of the Rahman."The second fault is that Amash was a mudallis and it was not established that he heard it directly from Habib bin Abu Thabit. The third fault is that Habib bin Abu Thabit was also a mudallis and it is not known that he heard it directly from Ata.These faults have been answered with scholarly responses. One is that Amash was a leading authority (imam), and his addition to the chain is accepted. Another is that Amash's tadlis does not undermine the chain, for the leading scholars tolerated his tadlis, and the compilers of the sahih collections included his narrations in their books, among them Ibn Khuzayma himself. Another is that Habib bin Abu Thabit was a trustworthy, precise, and knowledgeable jurist, and his hearing from Ibn Umar is established. Had he practiced tadlis in this instance, he would have omitted Ata, so the fact that he mentioned Ata indicates that he did not practice tadlis here.As for Ibn Khuzayma's grading, most scholars rejected it. Sheikh Islam bin Taymiya, may Allah have mercy on him, quoted from Abu Hasan Muhammad bin Abdul-Malik Karaji, who said regarding this interpretation, "As for an interpretation that no other leading scholars followed him on, it is not accepted, even if that interpretation came from a known and recognized authority, such as what has been attributed to Abu Bakr Muhammad bin Ishaq bin Khuzayma."Qawwam Sunnah Isfahani said, "Muhammad bin Ishaq bin Khuzayma erred regarding the hadith of the Image, and he should not be criticized for that, but rather this particular matter simply should not be taken from him." He also said, may Allah have mercy on him, "What should be said about this is that among the early generations of the first three centuries there was no dispute that the pronoun refers to Allah, for it is well established through numerous chains from a number of companions, and the wording of all these hadiths indicates that."Among those who held the hadith "in the image of the Rahman" to be sahih was Hafiz Dhahabi, who said in Mizan (2/418-419), in the biography of Abdullah bin Zakwan Abu Zinad, "Yahya bin Main said that Malik said, Abu Zinad was a scribe for these people, meaning Banu Umaya, and he was not pleased with him for that reason." Ibn Adi said, "Abu Zinad, as Yahya said, was trustworthy and authoritative, and I have not cited any hadith of his because all of them are sound." Uqayli said in his biography, "Miqdam bin Dawud narrated to us, Harith bin Miskeen and Ibn Abu Ghamr narrated to us, both saying, Ibn Qasim narrated to us, who said, I asked Malik about someone who narrates the hadith in which they say that Allah created Adam in His image, and Malik denounced that severely and forbade anyone from narrating it. It was said to him, some people of knowledge do narrate it. He said, who are they? It was said, Ibn Ajlan, from Abu Zinad. He said, Ibn Ajlan did not have knowledge of these matters, and he was not a scholar, and Abu Zinad remained an official for these people until he died, and he was a man who followed after officials."I, meaning Dhahabi, say, the hadith that Allah created Adam in His image was not narrated solely by Ibn Ajlan, for Hammam narrated it from Qatada, from Abu Musa Ayub, from Abu Hurairah. Shuayb and Ibn Uyayna narrated it from Abu Zinad, from Araj, from Abu Hurairah. Mamar narrated it from Hammam, from Abu Hurairah. A group, such as Layth bin Saad and others, narrated it from Ibn Ajlan, from Maqburi, from Abu Hurairah. Shuayb also, and others, narrated it from Abu Zinad, from Musa bin Abu Uthman, from Abu Hurairah. A group narrated it from Ibn Lahia, from Araj and Abu Yunus, from Abu Hurairah. Jareer narrated it from Amash, from Habib bin Abu Thabit, from Ibn Umar, from the Prophet ﷺ. And it has other chains as well.Harb said, I heard Ishaq bin Rahawayh say, it is established as sahih from the Messenger of Allah ﷺ that Adam was created in the image of the Rahman. Kawsaj said, I heard Ahmad bin Hanbal say, this hadith is sahih.I say, meaning Dhahabi, it is found in the sahih collections. Abu Zinad is a pillar in matters of religion, and Ibn Ajlan is truthful and one of the scholars and notables of Madinah and its mufti, though others are more precise than him. As for the meaning of the hadith of the Image, we refer its knowledge to Allah and His Messenger and remain silent as the early generations remained silent, while being certain that nothing is like unto Allah.Here ends Dhahabi's statement.Ibn Qutayba said, "If the narration of Ibn Umar from the Prophet ﷺ with this wording is established as sahih, then it is as the Messenger of Allah ﷺ said, and there is neither interpretation nor dispute about it... What I hold, and Allah the Exalted knows best, is that the Image is no more astonishing than the two hands, the fingers, and the eye, but familiarity came to be attached to those because they occur in the Quran, while a sense of strangeness arose regarding this because it does not occur in the Quran, and we believe in all of it without specifying any particular manner or defining limit for any of it." Tawil Mukhtalif Hadith (220-221).Ajurri said, "Chapter on believing that Allah created Adam in His image, without specifying how." He then mentioned the hadith of Abu Hurairah through several chains, and the hadith of Ibn Umar, all with their chains of transmission, then said, "This is among the matters that Muslims are obligated to believe in, and one should not ask about it, how or why, but rather it should be met with submission and affirmation, and the abandonment of speculative reasoning, as was said by the earlier leading scholars of the Muslims." Shariah (3/1115).As for Ibn Khuzayma and others who held the hadith of Ibn Umar to be daif, they, despite being among the leading scholars of the people of the Sunnah and the community, hold the same creed regarding the divine attributes as the people of the Sunnah, without interpretation, without denial, and without likening the attributes to created things. However, this hadith presented a difficulty for them, and they thought it implied an anthropomorphic comparison, while Allah says nothing is like unto Him. The truth is that it contains neither anthropomorphic comparison nor equivalence, for just as all of Allah's attributes are not equivalent to the attributes of created beings, so too the Image, the resemblance is only in the naming, not in the manner or nature of it.