Sunnis, our brothers, narrate:
As he heard a man revile at a friend by saying, "Deformed be your look and its like.", the Prophet (peace be upon him and his family) addressed at him, "Seek not deformation of his look. God had surely created Adam on his look."
Some of the Prophet's companions adhered to this saying claiming its concordance to the Jews' conception of Allah's creating Adam on His divine look. This means that mankind's look is as same as Allah's. We, the Shias, followed our imams (peace be upon them) who assert that the Prophet's intendment was, "The look of the man you are deforming is as same as the look of Adam." Hence the pronoun in 'his look' refers to the addressee, not God, the Exalted.
A good number of Sunni scholars agreed with us in this question. Ibn Khuzeima, the criticizer of Aisha and the so called 'the grand master' who embraces fanatically conception of Allah's optical seeableness, was one of those scholars involved.
In His At-Tawhid, page 37, Ibn Khuzeima says:
Some of the unacquainted misthought that 'his look' intended in the hadith involved refers to Allah. The Beneficent, our Lord, be more exalted than being intended. The pronoun 'his', in fact, refers to the reproached man. The Prophet (peace be upon him) intended that that reproached's look was the same chosen by Allah to be Adam's. As the reviler was censured by the Prophet for imputing deformation to his acquaintance's face and those bearing the same, this means he imputed deformation to Adam's face since his sons' faces are as same as his. God's mercy be upon you, perceive this point in this form so that you should
evade errors and misunderstanding, otherwise, you will be deviating the right path by adopting for conception of Allah's corporeity that is actual deviation.
An expression more ambiguous than that reported by Abu Hureira was mentioned in another report:
Yousuf Bin Musa: Jarir: Al-Amesh: Habib Bin Abi Thabit: Atta Bin Abi Rebah: Ibn Omar:
The Prophet (peace be upon him) said, "Impute not deformation to faces. Sons of Adam were created on the look of the Beneficent."
At-Thawri reported the same wanting uninterrupted documentation.
Abu Musa Mohammed Bin Al-Muthenna: Abdurrahman Bin Mahdi: Sufian: Habib Bin Abi Thabit: Atta:
The Prophet (peace be upon him) stated, "Deformation should not be imputed to faces. Sons of Adam were created on the look of the Beneficent."
By this expression, a famous scholar who should not surmise knowledge, was perplexed. They misthought that attaching 'the look' to 'the Beneficent' is a sort of attaching attributes of entity. Yet, this is a big mistake and an ugly statement comparable to that of the anthropomorphists. May God protect Muslims and us against their statements!
As much as I can perceive, regarding interpreting this report, providing authenticity of communication is proved, there are three points of error. First, AtThawri contrasted AlAmesh in documentation. He relate without referring to Ibn Omar. Second, AlAmesh is fabricator. He could not receive the report directly from Habib Bin Abi Thabit. Third, Habib is also fabricator. He could not receive the report directly from Atta. Assuming authenticity of documentation of the report, it may hint at the idea that attaching 'the look' to 'the beneficent' is a sort of attaching creation to the Creator. Creatures are attached to the Beneficent since He was the Creator. Similarly, looks are attached to the Beneficent, the Creator. This is clear by God's sayings, (This is Allah's creation, but show Me what those besides Him have created. 31:11). Allah attaches creation to Him since He was the creator.
(This will be as Allah's shecamel for you, a sign. 7:73). Allah attached the she-camel to Him. He added, (Leave her to pasture on Allah's earth).
(They shall say: Was not Allah's earth spacious, so that you should have migrated therein? 4:97)
(Surely the land is Allah's; He causes such of His servants to inherit it as he pleases. 7:128). Allah attached the land to Him since it was He, the Creator.
(-Allah's nature- The nature made by Allah in which He has made men. 30:30). Allah attached that nature to Him as He made people in. God has not attached
to Him two attached items; one attachment of entity and the other is that of creation. For evading errors, you should understand these two meanings. Considering the authenticity of communicative documentation of the report, sons of Adam were created according to the look created by the Beneficent when He, first, created and puffed spirit in Adam. Allah, the Exalted, says, (And certainly We created you, then We fashioned you. 7:11).
The following narrative is a good evidence on accuracy of the interpretation we have recently rendered:
Abu Musa Mohammed Bin Al-Muthenna: Abu Amir Adul-Melik Bin Omar: Al-Mughira Bin Abdirrahman: Abuz-Zinad: Musa Bin Abi Othman: his father: Abu Hureira:
The Prophet (peace be upon him) stated, "Allah created Adam on his look. His was sixty yard long…etc."
Owing to its concordance to logic and our sect, we, the Shias, admit Ibn Khuzeima's interpretation involved. Wahabists, however, adopted for hadith of 'on the look of the Beneficent'. They alleged that Omar, the caliph, admitted the Jews' claim Allah's creating Adam on according to His divine look. So, they opted for a (god) of a look of mankind!!
