al-Risala al-Madaniyya fi Tahqiq al-Majaz wal-Haqiqa fi Sifat Allah (matbu within al-Fatwa al-Hamawiyya al-Kubra)
- Author died
- 728 AH
- Editions
- Maṭbaʿat al-Madanī
al-Risala al-Madaniyya fi Tahqiq al-Majaz wal-Haqiqa fi Sifat Allah (The Medinan Epistle on Verifying Metaphor and Reality in the Attributes of God) is a theological treatise written by the Hanbali scholar Ibn Taymiyya (661–728 AH / 1263–1328 CE) addressing the rules of literal (haqiqa) and figurative (majaz) language regarding the divine attributes .
Background and Occasion
The treatise was composed as a letter sent to an ascetic scholar in Medina identified as Shams al-Din, who had requested a written summary of four necessary criteria required when diverting words from their literal sense to a metaphorical meaning . Ibn Taymiyya recounts a prior debate held with an interlocutor who maintained that while the path of safety (salama) lay in adopting the traditional stance of submission associated with al-Shafi'i—affirming faith in what God and His Messenger conveyed according to their divine intent—the path of rigorous intellectual inquiry (tahqiq) supported the allegorical interpretation (ta'wil) practiced by speculative theologians (mutakallimun) . Ibn Taymiyya countered that true theological investigation demonstrates the invalidity of figurative interpretation and confirms that the truth remains outwardly and inwardly with the early generations (Salaf) and the scholars of hadith .
The Four Conditions for Figurative Interpretation
Ibn Taymiyya establishes that whenever God describes Himself, or the Prophet ﷺ or the consensus of early scholars describes Him, diverting the apparent meaning (al-zahir)—befitting His majesty—to an inward or metaphorical sense requires four sequential conditions :
- Linguistic Usage: The claimed metaphorical meaning must be an attested usage of that term within the Arabic language, preventing arbitrary or novel interpretations that lack linguistic foundation .
- Definitive Diverting Evidence: There must exist an established indicator (dalil) compelling the shift away from the primary literal meaning to the secondary figurative sense; if the diversion is claimed to be obligatory, it requires definitive rational or scriptural proof .
- Absence of Counter-Indicants: The diverting evidence must be free of opposing scriptural or rational proofs establishing that the literal sense was indeed intended .
- Prophetic Clarification: Because religious texts were revealed as guidance for the entire community in matters of belief, the Prophet ﷺ would have been required to clarify explicitly to his followers that the literal meaning was not intended, rather than relying on obscure indicators discernible only by a few speculative thinkers .
Linguistic Application and Arguments
To demonstrate these principles, Ibn Taymiyya applies them to scriptural descriptions of the divine "Hand" (al-Yad) and the dual "Hands" (Yadayn) . He analyzes common figurative claims that interpret the Hand as "power" (qudra) or "favor/blessing" (ni'ma), arguing from Arabic grammar that the explicit dual form—such as in لِمَا خَلَقْتُ بِيَدَيَّ (to what I created with My two hands)—cannot linguistically denote singular power or unquantifiable blessings . He further argues that when an action is directly transitivized to the agent using the preposition ba (as in "created with My two hands"), Arabic usage exclusively denotes a real, literal act rather than a metaphor .
He affirms that while anthropomorphic meanings (tajsim and physical limbs) must be negated from God, this does not permit negating the reality of the attribute itself, which exists in a manner suitable to the divine essence . Ibn Taymiyya supports this by citing numerous texts from the Quran and authentic Prophetic traditions, recording that his debating interlocutor conceded the argument and repented upon hearing these proofs .
Transmission and Publication
Ibn Taymiyya concludes the epistle with greetings to named residents of Medina—including Abu Zakariyya and Abu al-Baqa' Abd al-Majid—and inquires whether there existed a comprehensive historical work on the reports of Medina comparable to the histories compiled for Mecca . The text is preserved within compiled editions of Ibn Taymiyya's fatwas, including Majmu' al-Fatawa (volume 6), and has been printed alongside his treatise al-Fatwa al-Hamawiyya al-Kubra .
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