There are “sound” hadiths where Muhammad claimed that Allah appeared to him as a beautiful man, in which his deity then placed his palm between his shoulders, where he then felt the coolness of Allah’s fingers on his chest:
Al-Tirmidhi Hadith – 237
Narrated AbdurRahman ibn A’ish
Allah’s Messenger said: I saw my Lord, the Exalted and Glorious, IN THE MOST BEAUTIFUL FORM. He said: What do the Angels in the presence of Allah contend about? I said: Thou art the most aware of it. He then placed HIS PALM between my shoulders, and I felt its coldness in my chest, and I came to know what was in the Heavens and the Earth. He recited: `Thus did we show Ibrahim the kingdom of the Heavens and the Earth, and it was so that he might have certainty.’ (6:75)
Darimi reported it in a mursal form, and Tirmidhi also reported. (Alim.org http://www.alim.org/library/hadith/TIR/237; capital and underline emphasis mine)
And:
Al-Tirmidhi Hadith – 245
Narrated Mu’adh ibn Jabal
Allah’s Messenger was detained one morning from observing the dawn prayer (in congregation) along with us till the sun had almost appeared on the horizon. He then came out hurriedly, and Iqamah for prayer was observed, and he conducted it (prayer) in brief form. When he had concluded the prayer by saying As-salamu alaykum wa Rahmatullah, he called out to us saying: Remain in your places as you were. Then turning to us, he said: I am going to tell you what detained me from you (on account of which I could not join you in the prayer) in the morning. I got up in the night and performed ablution and observed the prayer as had been ordained for me. I dozed in my prayer till I was overcome by (sleep) and lo, I found myself in the presence of my Lord, the Blessed and the Glorious, IN THE BEST FORM. He said: Muhammad! I said: At Thy service, my Lord. He said: What do these highest angels contend about? I said: I do not know. He repeated it thrice. He said: Then I saw Him put HIS PALMS between my shoulder blades till I felt the coldness of HIS FINGERS between the two sides of my chest. Then everything was illuminated for me, and I could recognize everything. He said: Muhammad! I said: At Thy service, my Lord. He said: What do these high angels contend about? I said: In regard to expiations. He said: What are these? I said: Going on foot to join congregational prayers, sitting in the mosques after the prayers, performing ablution well despite difficulties. He again said: Then what do they contend? I said: In regard to the ranks. He said: What are these? I said: Providing of food, speaking gently, observing the prayer when the people are asleep. He again said to me: Beg (Your Lord) and say: O Allah, I beg of Thee (power) to do good deeds, and abandon abominable deeds, to love the poor, that Thou forgive me and show mercy to me and when Thou intendst to put people to trial Thou causes me to die unblemished and I beg of Thee Thy love and the love of one who loves Thee and the love for the deed which brings me near to Thy love. Allah’s Messenger said: It is a truth, so learn it and teach it.
Transmitted by Ahmad, Tirmidhi, who said: This is a HASAN SAHIH hadith, and I asked Muhammad ibn Isma’il about this hadith, and he said: It is a SAHIH hadith. (Alim.org http://www.alim.org/library/hadith/TIR/245; capital and underline emphasis mine)
Here’s another version of the foregoing narrative:
Jami` at-Tirmidhi
Chapters on Tafsir
Narrated Mu’adh bin Jabal:
“One morning, the Messenger of Allah was prevented from coming to us for Salat As-Subh, until we were just about to look for the eye of the sun (meaning sunrise). Then he came out quickly, had the Salat prepared for. The Messenger of Allah performed the Salat, and he performed his Salat in a relatively quick manner. When he said the Salam, he called aloud with his voice saying to us: ‘Stay in your rows as you are.’ Then he turned coming near to us, then he said: ‘I am going to narrate to you what kept me from you this morning: I got up during the night, I performed Wudu and prayed as much as I was able to, and I dozed off during my Salat, and fell deep asleep. Then I SAW MY LORD, Blessed and Most High, IN THE BEST OF APPEARANCES. He said: ‘O Muhammad!’ I said: ‘My Lord here I am my Lord!’ He said: ‘What is it that the most exalted group busy themselves with?’ I said: ‘I do not know Lord.’ And He said it three times.” He said: “So I saw Him place HIS PALM between my shoulders, and I sensed the coolness of HIS FINGERTIPS between my breast. Then everything was disclosed for me, and I became aware. So He said: ‘O Muhammad!’ I said: ‘Here I am my Lord!’ He said: ‘What is it that the most exalted group busy themselves with?’ I said: ‘In the acts that atone.’ He said: ‘And what are they?’ I said: ‘The footsteps to the congregation, the gatherings in the Masajid after the Salat, Isbagh Al-Wudu during difficulties.’ He said: ‘Then what else?’ I said: ‘Feeding others, being lenient in speech, and Salat during the night while the people are sleeping.’ He said: ‘Ask.’ I said: ‘O Allah! I ask of you the do of good deeds, avoid the evil deeds, loving the poor, and that You forgive me, and have mercy upon me. And when You have willed Fitnah in the people, then take me without the Fitnah. And I ask You for Your love, the love of whomever You love, and the of the deeds that bring one nearer to Your love.’” The Messenger of Allah said: “Indeed it is true, so study it and learn it.”
Grade: Hasan (Darussalam)
English reference: Vol. 5, Book 44, Hadith 3235
Arabic reference: Book 47, Hadith 3543 (sunnah.com https://sunnah.com/urn/642690; capital emphasis mine)
This report is also found in another hadith collection:
4 Prayer
(8c) Chapter: Mosques and places of Prayer – Section 3
Mu’adh b. Jabal said: God’s Messenger was detained one morning from observing the prayer with us till the sun had almost appeared over the horizon. He then came cut quickly, and when the iqama had been uttered he conducted the prayer in a shortened form; then when he had given the salutation he called out to us saying, “Keep to your rows as you were.” Then turning to us he said, “I shall tell you what detained me from you this morning. I got up during the night, performed ablution, and prayed what I could; but during my prayer I dozed and was overcome, and there and then I saw my Lord in the most beautiful form. He addressed me by name, and when I replied, ‘At Thy service, my Lord,’ He asked, ‘What do the angels near My presence dispute about?’ and I replied that I did not know. He asked it three times. Then I saw Him put the palm of His hand between my shoulder-blades, so that I experienced the coolness of His fingers between my nipples so everything became clear to me and I attained knowledge. He then addressed me by name, and when I replied, ‘At Thy service, my Lord,’ He asked, ‘What do the angels near My presence dispute about?’ I replied, ‘Expiation.’ He asked what they were, and I replied, ‘Walking on foot to the congregational prayers, sitting in the mosques after the prayers are over, and performing complete ablution in difficult circumstances. He asked what next they disputed about, and when I said it was about degrees, He asked what they were and I replied, ‘Providing food, speaking gently, and praying at night when people are asleep.’ He then told me to make a request, and I said, ‘O God, I ask Thee for power to do good things and abandon objectionable things, for love towards the poor, that Thou shouldest forgive me and show mercy to me, and that when Thou intendest to test any people Thou wilt take me to Thyself without being led astray. And I ask for Thy love, the love of those who love Thee, and a love of doing things which will bring me near to Thy love.’” Then God’s Messenger said, “It is true, so study it and learn it.”
Ahmad and Tirmidhi transmitted it, and Tirmidhi said, “This is a hasan sahih tradition. I asked Muhammad b. Isma’il (AL-BUKHARI) about this tradition, and he said it is A SAHIH TRADITION.”
Reference: Mishkat al-Masabih 748
In-book reference: Book 4, Hadith 176 (sunnah.com https://sunnah.com/mishkat:748; emphasis mine)
If this weren’t shocking enough, other versions state that Allah appeared as a beautiful beardless young man with short curly hair!
“I saw my Lord in the most beautiful form like a youth with abundant hair.” (al-Daraqutni, Kitab al-Ru’ya, 332-333; 356-357; similar reports from Umm al-Tufayl, Anas b. Malik, Mu’adh b. ‘Afra, Ibn ‘Umar, ‘A’isha, Ibn ‘Abbas; Reported by Tabarani; Ibn Abi ‘Asim; al-Bayhaqi; al-Suyuti; al-Haythami; Ibn ‘Adi, al-Baghdadi)
I saw my Lord in the form of a young man, beardless (amrad) with short curly hair (ja’d) and clothed in a red garment. (Narrated by Ahmad b. Hanbal in Tabarani; AUTHENTICATED BY AHMAD B. HANBAL in Creed 3 citing isnad, ‘Abd al-Samad b. Yahya in Tabaqat al-Hanabila, 1:218, al-Marrudhi (d. 888) in Tabaqat, 3:81, Ibn ‘Aqil in Makdisi, Ibn ‘Aqil, 130; Ibn ‘Adi al-Qattan, al-Kamil fi du’afa’ al-rijal, 3:49-50, al-Daraqutni, Kitab al-Ru’ya, 332-333, 356-357; al-Tabarani, al-Mu’jam al-Kabir, 25:143; SAHIH BY ABU L-HASAN B. BASHSHAR in Ibn Abi Ya’la, Tabaqat, 2:59; Abu Ya’la, al-Muta’mad, 85; ACCEPTED BY IBN TAYMIYYA in Bayan Tablis al-Jahmiyya, 7:192-198, 290)
Here’s what one of sunni Islam’s greatest hadith scholars said about the aforementioned report:
Ahmad b. Hanbal said about the above hadith: “Report it because the ‘ulama have reported it.” (‘Abd al-Samad b. Yahya reported in Tabaqat al-Hanabila, 1:218)
In case the readers are unaware, ibn Hanbal was not only a compiler of hadiths, whose massive collection of narrations is called Musnad Ahmad, he even has a school of Islamic jurisprudence (madhab) named after him.
There’s more:
The Prophet saw Allah before death as is the doctrine of the majority of Ah al-Sunna thus related from al-Nawawi by al-Qari. The evidence for this is the hadith of Ibn ‘Abbas whereby the Prophet said: “I saw my Lord” (ra’aytu rabbi). Ibn Kathir cited it in his commentary on Sura al-Najm and declared its chain sound, but considered it part of the hadith of the dream cited below. Ibn Qayyim [see excerpt below] relates that Imam Ahmad considered such sight to be in the Prophet’s sleep but remains a true sight – as the dreams of Prophets are true – and that some of the Imam’s companions mistakenly attributed to him the position that the Prophet saw his Lord “with the eyes of his head.”
Al-Bayhaqi also narrated the hadith “I saw my Lord” in al-Asma’ wa al-Sifat WITH A SOUND CHAIN but with the addition: “in the form of a curly-haired, beardless young man wearing a green robe,” a condemned, disauthenticated addition and concatenation with another hadith that refers to Gibril. Hence al-Suyuti interpreted it either as a dream or, quoting his shaykh Ibn al-Humam, as “the veil of form” (hijab al-sura)… (Islamic Doctrines and Beliefs: Volume 1: The Prophets in Barzakh, The Hadith of Isra’ and Mir’aj, The Immense Merits of Al-Sham, The Vision of Allah, Al-Sayyid Muhammad Ibn ‘Alawi al-Maliki, translation and notes by Dr. Gibril Fouad Haddad [As-Sunna Foundation of America 1999], pp. 137-138; bold and capital emphasis mine)
In a footnote the translator mentions another narration that says Allah appeared as a man:
… and from Umm al-Tufayl by al-Tabarani (6:158 #3385). The latter chain actually states: “I saw my Lord in the best form of a beardless young man” and was rejected by al-Dhahabi in Tahdhib al-Mawdua’at (p. 22 #22)… (p. 139, fn. 257; bold emphasis mine)
The aforementioned narrations are either assuming that Allah took the form of a man, or that this is his actual uncreated shape or form.
Commenting on the anthropomorphic beliefs of ibn Hanbal, Islamic scholar Dr. Wesley Williams noted that:
Ibn Hanbal, then, was an anthropomorphist. He affirmed for the divine a human form, including a face, eyes, curly hair, mouth, voice breath, chest and two elbows, back, arms, hands with a palm, five fingers and fingertips, legs, shin, feet, soul, physical beauty, a limit, and even, shockingly, loins. He affirmed the external meaning of these attributes and refused to qualify them with balkafa. (Williams, “Aspects of the Creed of Ahmad Ibn Hanbal: A study of Anthropomorphism in Early Islamic Discourse,” in International Journal of Middle Eastern Studies 34 (2002), 441-463)
Hence, ibn Hanbal like the so-called Salafi Muslims of today, was an anthropomorphist literalist who held that Allah literally has a body of some kind. This explains why Ibn Hanbal was adamant that Muslims must take the apparent words employed in the Quran and Muhammad’s ahadith, and are to refrain from interpreting them in an allegorical or figurative manner:
One should not dispute with anyone, nor engage in formal debate, nor learn the art of argument. Verily, kalam regarding predestination, the sight (of God in the afterlife), the Qur’an, and other topics of the traditions is rejected and forbidden. Whoever does it, even if his kalam should agree with the Sunna, is not of the people of the Sunna until he rejects argument and surrenders. Ahmad b. Hanbal (‘Aqida III, in Ibn Abi Ya’la, Tabaqat al-Hanabila, 2:167, ed. Shaykh Ibn Uthaymin)
God is over [‘ala] the Throne. The Footstool is at the place of His Two Feet… He moves, speaks, observes, looks, laughs [yadhaku], rejoices, and loves… He descends every night to the lowest heaven however He wills… The servants’ hearts are between two of the Most Merciful’s fingers… He will put His foot in the Fire, causing it to recoil. Ahmad b. Hanbal (‘Aqida I, Ibn Abi Ya’la, Tabaqat, 1:61-62)
According to us, Hadith is taken according to its apparent meaning (zahirihi) just as what came from the Prophet. Talking [kalam] about it is an innovation. But we believe in it as it came to its apparent meaning (‘ala zahirihi). Hanbal (‘Aqida III, Ibn Abi Ya’la, Tabaqat, 2:168)
As another Muslim authority explained:
The zahir of the wording is what comes first to the mind from that text, irrespective of whether it is literal [haqiqa] or figurative. (Ibn Qudama, Dhamma al-taw’il, 55)
So, there you have it folks!
Muhammad’s god is a beautiful beardless young pubescent boy with short curly hair who wears a red dress!
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