بسم الله الرحمن الرحيم
Abū Mūsā al-‘Ash’arī narrated:
كُنَّا مَعَ رَسُولِ اللهِ صَلَّى اللهُ عَلَيْهِ وَسَلَّمَ فِي غَزَاةٍ، فَجَعَلْنَا لَا نَصْعَدُ شَرَفًا، وَلَا نَعْلُو شَرَفًا، وَلَا نَهْبِطُ فِي وَادٍ إِلَّا رَفَعْنَا أَصْوَاتَنَا بِالتَّكْبِيرِ. قَالَ: فَدَنَا مِنَّا رَسُولُ اللهِ صَلَّى اللهُ عَلَيْهِ وَسَلَّمَ فَقَالَ: ” أَيُّهَا النَّاسُ ارْبَعُوا عَلَى أَنْفُسِكُمْ؛ فَإِنَّكُمْ مَا تَدْعُونَ أَصَمَّ وَلَا غَائِبًا، إِنَّمَا تَدْعُونَ سَمِيعًا بَصِيرًا[قريبا] إِنَّ الَّذِي تَدْعُونَ أَقْرَبُ إِلَى أَحَدِكُمْ مِنْ عُنُقِ رَاحِلَتِهِ
We were with the Messenger of Allāh (ﷺ) in a ghazāh (military expedition), and we would not ascend a sharaf (height), nor go up a sharaf, nor descend into a valley except that we raised our voices with the takbīr. He said: Then the Messenger of Allāh (ﷺ) drew near to us and said: “O people, be easy on yourselves; for indeed you are not calling upon one who is deaf nor one who is absent. Rather, you are calling upon the All-Hearing (Samī’), the All-Seeing (Basīr), The Near (Qarīb). Indeed, the One whom you call upon is nearer to one of you than the neck of his riding camel.” (Musnad Imām Ahmad 19599. Sahīh al-Bukhārī 2992)
Allāh says:
وَإِذَا سَأَلَكَ عِبَادِي عَنِّى فَإِنِّي قَرِيبٌ أُجِيبُ دَعْوَةَ الدَّاعِ إِذَا دَعَانِ فَلْيَسْتَجِيبُوا لِي وَلْيُؤْمِنُوا بِي لَعَلَّهُمْ يَرْشُدُونَ
“And when My servants ask you concerning Me, then indeed I am Qarīb (Near). I answer the supplication of the supplicant when he calls upon Me. So let them respond to Me and believe in Me that they may be rightly guided.” [al-Baqarah:186]
Shaykh ibn al-‘Uthaymīn said:
“(From the) benefits (of the verse):
Establishing the nearness of Allāh, The Perfect and Most-High; and what is intended (is) the nearness of His Self; because the pronouns in this verse all return to Allāh; and accordingly, it is not valid to interpret the nearness in it as the nearness of His mercy or His angels; because that is contrary to the apparent (meaning) of the wording, and necessitates scattering the pronouns without evidence.
Then (regarding) the nearness of Allāh, The Mighty and Majestic—is it specific to whoever worships Him or supplicates to Him, or is it general?
There are two views; and the more correct (view is): that it is specific to whoever worships Him or supplicates to Him; because Allāh has not been described with it in an absolute/unrestricted manner; and it is not like al-ma’iyyah (being with), which (is) divided into general and specific.
If someone were to say: How is (the combining) between His nearness—may He be removed from all imperfection and Most-High —and His ‘Ulū’ (Highness above the creation) (reconciled)?
The answer is: that Allāh has affirmed that for Himself—I mean the nearness and the highness; and it is not possible for Allāh to combine for Himself two contradictory attributes; and because Allāh—there is nothing like unto Him in all of His attributes; so He is near in His highness, lofty/high in His nearness.” (Tafsīr al-Thamīn 1/336)
Shaykh ibn al-‘Uthaymīn also said: “When the Messenger was saying that He: “is nearer to one of you than the neck of his riding camel,” it does not imply that Allah, The Mighty and Majestic, is Himself on the earth between the man and the neck of his riding camel…His Nearness does not imply that He is on the earth, because there is nothing like Allāh, Exalted is He, in all His Attributes.” (Sharh ‘Aqīdah al-Wāsitiyyah 2/130)
Shaykh ul-Islām ibn Taymiyyah said: “Included in that [i.e. what Allāh has described Himself with] is the belief that He is Near His creation, and responds. As He combined between that in His statement:
“And when My servants ask you concerning Me, then indeed I am Qarīb (Near). I answer the supplication of the supplicant when he calls upon Me“
Indeed, the One whom you call upon is nearer to one of you than the neck of his riding camel.
And what is mentioned in the Book and the Sunnah regarding His Nearness and His Ma’iyyah, is not negated by what is mentioned about His ‘Ulū (Highness) and His Fawqiyyah (Being above his creation), for He, Perfect is He, nothing is like unto Him in all of His descriptions (i.e. attributes). He is High in His Nearness; He is Near in His Highness.” (Sharh Aqīdah al-Wāsitiyyah of al-‘Uthaymīn 2/134)
Narrated by Abū Hurayrah:
قال : قال رسول الله ﷺ: «يقول الله أنا عند ظن عبدي بي، وأنا معه إذا ذكرني، فإن ذكرني في نفسه ذكرته في نفسي، وإن ذكرني في ملا ذكرته في ملا خير منهم، وإن تقرب إلي شبراً تقربت إليه ذراعاً، وإن تقرب إلي ذراعاً تقربت إليه باعاً، وإن أتاني يمشي أتيته هرولة.
On the authority of Abū Hurayrah (رضي الله عنه) who said: The Messenger of Allāh (ﷺ) said: “Allāh says: I am as My servant thinks of Me, and I am with him when he remembers Me. So if he remembers Me in himself, I remember him in Myself, and if he remembers Me in a gathering, I remember him in a gathering better than it. And if he draws near to Me a hand span, I draw near (taqarrub) to him a forearm’s length, and if he draws near to Me a forearm’s length, I draw near to him an arm’s length, and if he comes to Me walking, I come to him running.” (Sahīh – Al-Albānī)
Shaykh Al-Albānī said: “I say: It has become widespread among the later scholars of ‘ilm al-kalām (speculative theology)—contrary to the Salaf—(the practice of) interpreting figuratively these attributes mentioned in this hadīth, such as (al-nafs, the Self) and (al-taqarrub, drawing near) and…
And that is only due to the narrowness of their understanding, and the extent of their being influenced by the doubts of the Mu’tazilah and their likes from the people of desires and innovations. Hardly does one of them hear these attributes except that what first comes to their hearts is that they are like the attributes of created beings, so they fall into al-tashbīh (anthropomorphism), then they flee from it to figurative interpretation seeking al-tanzīh (to exalt and free Allāh from imperfection) according to their claim.
If only they had received the (attributes mentioned in the texts) when hearing them while recalling His statement, The Most-High:
ليس كَمِثْلِهِ شَيْءٌ وَهُوَ السَّمِيعُ الْبَصِيرُ
“There is nothing like unto Him, and He is the All-Hearing, the All-Seeing” [al-Shūrā: 11]
they would not have inclined to figurative interpretation, and they would have believed in their realities in the manner that befits Him, The Most-High —their affair in that being like their affair in believing in the two attributes of hearing and seeing and others from His attributes, the Mighty and Majestic, while declaring Him exalted from resembling created things.
If they had (also applied) that here, they would have found rest and given rest (to others), and they would have been saved from their contradiction in their belief in their Lord and His attributes.” (Jāmi’ Turāth Fī al-‘Aqīdah 6/240-241)
Shaykh ‘Abdul-‘Azīz al-Humaydī said: “The name of Allāh “al-Qarīb” (The Near) indicates two meanings of nearness:
1) His nearness, by His Self, as He wills, to whomever He wills from His creation and His servants, and this is of two types:
(A) It is an action from Him and an attribute of action, such as His descent (nuzūl) to the lowest heaven every night, His drawing near (dunūw) to the people of the standing place on the afternoon of ‘Arafah, and His coming (majī’) for the decisive judgment on the Day of Resurrection.
(B) His nearness to whomever He wills from His servants by means of drawing near (taqrīb) whomever He wills from His servants and raising them to Him. For indeed the noble angels have known stations in the highest realm (al-malakūt al-a’lā), each having known his station and rank, as (Allāh) The Most-High said in describing them:
وَمَا مِنَّا إِلَّا لَهُ مَقَامٌ مَّعْلُومٌ
“And there is not among us except one who has a known position” [Al-Sāffāt: 164].
So the people of the seventh heaven are nearer to Allāh than the people of the sixth and fifth heavens.
And likewise the Final Prophet (ﷺ)—his Lord took him on the night journey (mi’rāj) to the highest heavens. He continued to draw nearer to his Lord, The Most-High, with each heaven he ascended.
2) That He, The Most-High, is near in the sense of the nearness of His (granting) preservation/security to His servants, the swiftness of His response to their supplication, and the nearness of His victory and mercy to them.
As (Allāh) The Most-High said:
إِنَّ رَحْمَتَ اللَّهِ قَرِيبٌ مِنَ الْمُحْسِنِينَ
“Indeed, the mercy of Allāh is near to the doers of good” [Al-A’rāf: 56].
And (Allāh) The Most-High said:
أَلَا إِنَّ نَصْرَ اللَّهِ قَرِيبٌ
“Unquestionably, the help of Allāh is near” [Al-Baqarah: 214].
And from this meaning (is) the drawing near (taqrīb) of His servants to Him in zulfā (nearness – i.e. rank/station). For indeed the one who draws near to Allāh The Most-High through faith and righteous deeds, his Lord The Most-High draws him near to Him in nearness (zulfā).
And as (Allāh) The Most-High said, refuting the disbelievers and transgressors, that neither their wealth nor their children will bring them near to Him in nearness:
وَمَا أَمْوَالُكُمْ وَلَا أَوْلَادُكُم بِالَّتِي تُقَرِّبُكُمْ عِندَنَا زُلْفَىٰ إِلَّا مَنْ ءَامَنَ وَعَمِلَ صَالِحًا فَأُولَيْكَ لَهُمْ جَزَاءُ الصِّعْفِ بِمَا عَمِلُوا وَهُمْ فِي الْعُرُفَاتِ وَامِنُونَ
“And it is not your wealth or your children that bring you nearer to Us in position, but it is [by being] one who has believed and done righteousness. For them will be the double reward for what they did, and they will be in the upper chambers [of Paradise], secure” [Sabā’: 37].
And (Allāh) The Most-High said:
كَلَّا لَا تُطِعْهُ وَاسْجُدْ وَاقْتَرِب
“No! Do not obey him. But prostrate and draw near [to Allāh]” [Al-‘Alaq: 19].” (Rawāhi al-Husnā pg. 255-256)
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