Question
Brother, I have a very important question for you:
“Where is Allah?”
Please state your evidence (Qur’anic verses, tafseer1, Hadith etc.)
Thank you very much
Answer
Clarification Sought
What exactly do you imply by the question? Do you want to know where God is, in the physical sense? If that is what you imply, then I do not have the answer to your question. For the Qur’an gives us no information regarding the physical whereabouts or even the physical characteristics of God. The Qur’an only introduces us to God’s attributes but does not talk about His physical characteristics.
Clarification
Akhi, let me be a little more clear in my question and tell you my motives. I always believed that Allah is everywhere. That is what I was taught. Now I am hearing that to believe that God is everywhere is kufr2. I am hearing that “Allah is everywhere in knowledge but not physically”. This question is now asked to people to see if they are knowledgeable. I have to find the hadith for you that someone told me but let me try to tell you what he told me.
A woman went to the Prophet and [he] asked her where Allah was? She replied “in heaven”. Then he asked her where he (i.e. the Prophet pbuh) was. She said: “on earth”. Then he said: “that woman is a mu’mina3.
Answer
It is very unfortunate that we – Muslims – sometimes elevate our personal opinions on certain issues to the level of the “basic beliefs of Islam”. Not only that, we do not even hesitate in labeling others to be “Kafir” (infidel) and “Fasiq” (disobedient) merely on the basis of their disagreement with us on these issues. Had we studied the Qur’an more closely – the book which should have been the basis of all Muslim beliefs – we would have known that these issues due to which we label our brethren “Kafir” are actually non-issues in the Qur’an .
I do not know of any verse or directive of the Qur’an – and I am sure neither does anyone else – which tells me to believe that God is or is not physically present at every place in the universe. Nor am I aware of any verse or any directive of the Qur’an, which states that such and such people are Kafir because they believe that God is present in every nook and corner of the universe.
I do not hold the stated issue to be a part of the basic beliefs that the Qur’an wants to promote among the Muslims.
If due to my opinion, anyone believes that I am a “Kafir“, I really do not think that I can do much about it. But I would surely like to request him that he should have a close look at all his beliefs in the light only of the Qur’an if he wants to be included in the group of people labeled “Muslims” on the Day of Judgment.
18th February 1999