Allah Wears Clothes Like His Creatures

Allah Wears Clothes Like His Creatures: A Theological Inquiry

By Max Shimba Ministries Org.
Monday, August 3, 2015

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Introduction

Dear brethren,

This matter presents yet another theological dilemma concerning the Islamic concept of Allah. The Allah of Islam, who has claimed in various Qur'anic verses that He has no likeness and cannot be compared to anything in existence, surprisingly contradicts Himself in certain hadith literature by implying that He wears garments, possesses physical attributes such as hands, eyes, and ears — essentially, attributes analogous to His creation.

In this paper, we shall examine this issue critically, drawing upon authoritative Islamic sources to demonstrate how such descriptions contradict the fundamental Islamic claim of Allah’s absolute incomparability (tanzīh) and transcendence.

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Textual Evidence from Islamic Sources

Let us proceed directly to the evidences drawn from the hadith collections revered in Islam:

1. Allah Wears Clothes

In an authentic Hadith Qudsi, Allah is quoted as saying:

"Al-Kibriyā’ ridā’ī, wa al-‘aẓamah izārī."
"Pride is My upper garment and greatness is My lower garment."¹

This statement presents a profound theological problem. If Allah is said to wear an upper and lower garment — metaphorically or literally — it implies a physical form upon which these garments rest. This raises critical philosophical and theological concerns about the supposed incorporeal nature of Allah. If Allah has garments, does He then have a body to adorn them? And if He has a body, is He not then comparable to created beings, contradicting His own claim in the Qur'an:

لَيْسَ كَمِثْلِهِ شَيْءٌ
"There is nothing like unto Him." (Qur'an 42:11)

Thus, the claim of Allah’s transcendence is undermined by this hadith.

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2. Allah Has Eyes, Hands, Ears, and Feet

In another well-known Hadith Qudsi recorded in Sahih al-Bukhari, Allah says:

“…And My servant does not draw near to Me with anything more beloved to Me than the religious duties I have obligated upon him; and My servant continues to draw near to Me with supererogatory works so that I shall love him. And when I love him, I become his hearing with which he hears, his sight with which he sees, his hand with which he strikes, and his foot with which he walks.”²

In this passage, Allah claims to possess ears, eyes, hands, and feet, once again implying anthropomorphic attributes. While Islamic scholars have classically attempted to interpret such narrations metaphorically (ta’wīl) or consign their meaning to Allah (tafwīḍ), the explicit wording of these narrations leaves significant ambiguity.

If one upholds the literal reading, as many traditionalists (Ahl al-Hadith) have, it would imply that Allah possesses bodily attributes akin to His creation, directly violating the Qur'anic proclamation of uniqueness and incomparability.

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The Theological Dilemma

Dear readers, it is now evident that according to Islamic hadith literature, Allah is described in terms familiar to human beings — wearing garments, possessing sensory organs, and bodily limbs. This undermines the claim that Allah is utterly unlike His creation and exposes a serious doctrinal contradiction within Islamic theology.

If Allah is attributed with garments and physical traits, how then can He be fundamentally different from created beings? This conundrum raises difficult questions for the doctrine of divine transcendence in Islam and warrants deeper examination.

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Conclusion

This analysis reveals profound inconsistencies within Islamic theology regarding the nature of Allah. While the Qur'an categorically denies that anything resembles Allah, several authentic hadith narrations attribute to Him anthropomorphic characteristics. These contradictions cannot be dismissed lightly, as they touch upon the very essence of divinity and the nature of God as understood within Islam.

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References

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Bibliography

1. Al-Bukhari, Muhammad ibn Ismail. Sahih al-Bukhari. Translated by Muhammad Muhsin Khan. Riyadh: Darussalam, 1997.

2. Abu Dawud, Sulaiman ibn al-Ash‘ath. Sunan Abu Dawud. Translated by Nasiruddin al-Khattab. Riyadh: Darussalam, 2008.

3. Muslim ibn al-Hajjaj. Sahih Muslim. Translated by Abdul Hamid Siddiqui. Lahore: Sh. Muhammad Ashraf, 1976.

4. The Qur'an. Translated by M.A.S. Abdel Haleem. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2004.

5. Watt, W. Montgomery. Islamic Philosophy and Theology. Edinburgh: Edinburgh University Press, 1985.

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Footnotes

1. Abu Dawud, Sunan Abu Dawud, Book of Sunnah, Hadith no. 4090; also reported in Sahih Muslim, Kitab al-Birr wa al-Silah, Hadith no. 2620. ↩

2. Al-Bukhari, Sahih al-Bukhari, Book 76: Book of Softening the Hearts, Hadith no. 6502; also in Kitab al-Riqaq. ↩