Imam at-Tabari’s Aqeedah on Sifat

Brother Maher Ameer wrote an excellent four-part series demonstrating the “Salafi aqeedah” of Imam at-Tabari (1, 2, 3, 4). The first two parts focused on the topic of Sifat, and it is these two parts I will be summarizing.

- At-Tabari states that the meaning of istiwa is to elevate (علا عليهن وارتفع). He accuses those of denying this of “running away” from the truth.

- At-Tabari affirms Allah has two hands, fingers, a face, a foot, laughs, descends, etc. He does so clearly without making tafweedh since he states that we ought to affirm them in the way that we know how (أن نثبت حقائقها على ما نعرف من جهة الإثبات). He also uses a synonym for Allah’s descent (يهبط) rather than the standard wording of the hadith (ينزل), which again demonstrates he knows the meaning he is alluding to. Yes, at-Tabari denies that Allah’s hands are organs, but even those against tafweedh do not affirm they are organs; thus, it’s irrelevant.  

- At-Tabari rejects the ta’weel of Allah’s coming by saying His command comes instead of Himself. In fact, in refuting his opponents, at-Tabari clearly states that Allah’s coming to a particular point entails that He’s present there (ويكون معنى ذلك: وجوده هناك).

- At-Tabari is quite explicit that he is not a Mufawwidh because he says that the meaning of these texts is the apparent reading (معنى ذلك ما دل عليه ظاهر الخبر).

- At-Tabari affirms that Allah wills temporal effects repeatedly (إذا أراد تكوينه موجودا بقوله "كن" في حال إرادته إياه مكونا، لا يتقدم وجود الذي أراد إيجاده وتكوينه، إرادته إياه، ولا أمره بالكون والوجود، ولا يتأخر عنه) and that their effects are not delayed. This is a disastrous blow to divine timelessness affirmed by the Mutakallimun, who only affirm a pre-eternal will for all the temporal effects of the world.

- At-Tabari affirms literal Mercy for Allah.

- At-Tabari affirmed that the Qur’an is uncreated, even in letters and sounds (in opposition to the Ash’arite understanding of Kalam Nafsi).

- At-Tabari affirms anger for Allah and says we know what it means (الغضب منه معنى مفهوم).

And so on.  

Brother Maher’s articles have plenty of references proving all of the above. Those who can read Arabic are encouraged to check them out.

The fact is that Imam at-Tabari was clearly a proto-Salafi in his aqeedah on Sifat. The evidence is overwhelming, and any counter-evidence is underwhelming and ambiguous at best.[1]

Recommended Reading:

Allah's Divine Attributes Discourse

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[1] One example is how some appeal to a statement by Imam at-Tabari where he denies hawadith for Allah, but as I explained in one of the sections of my article here, this word was used differently by scholars. Some intended it to refer to creation, while others used it more broadly to refer to temporal origination without creation necessarily. Thus, at-Tabari’s statement would have to be understood in line with his other statements, and it has already been demonstrated in this article that he opposed divine timelessness.