Basic · Knowing Allah · Faith & Theology · Ages 5–99
Nothing Is Like Allah
Nothing is like Allah: Allah has no body, shape or place and cannot be pictured, and though no eye can see Allah, we can know that Allah is real.
What you will learn
- Explain that nothing is like Allah: Allah has no body, no shape and no place, no parents and no children, and no picture or image can show Allah.
- Explain why no eye can see Allah, and how a person can still know that Allah is real: through what Allah has made and the understanding of the heart.
People and animals need food, water and sleep. What about Allah?
Answer: Allah needs nothing at all
Everything Allah made needs Allah, but Allah does not need anything.
Someone says: "Allah made the world, and ever since, the sun has run part of it by its own power, independently of Allah." What is wrong with this claim?
Answer: It makes the sun a partner in Allah's work
The sun really does give light and warmth, but only by Allah's command. Giving it a power of its own, independent of Allah, makes it Allah's partner. The claim itself says that Allah made the world.
You can draw the sun, a tree or a cat. Each one has a shape. Allah has no shape. Nothing is like Allah. No picture can show Allah.
Can anyone draw a picture of Allah?
Answer: No, nothing is like Allah
Everything Allah made has a size, a shape and a place: the ant, the mountain, the sky. Allah is not like that. Allah has no size, no shape and no place. When we say "Allahu akbar", we mean that Allah is greater than anything we can describe, not bigger in size.
An ant is small. A mountain is big. The sky is huge. Is Allah the biggest of all?
Answer: No, Allah has no size at all
Everything we can point to is somewhere: here or there, above or below. A place surrounds what is in it, so anything in a place is limited by it. Allah made every place: no place holds Allah, and no place is without Allah. When we call Allah high, above all things, we mean in greatness and power, not in height.
When people say Allah is "above" or "most high", do they mean Allah is in a place high above the world?
Answer: No, Allah has no place: above means in greatness and power
You have a body. A body is always in some place. Allah has no body. So Allah is not in any place, and no place is without Allah. Allah has no parents and no children.
What is true about Allah?
Answer: Allah has no body at all
Even a body we cannot see would be in a place. Allah made every place. Allah is not inside any of them, and none of them is without Allah.
When you think of a person you know, a picture comes into your mind. Every picture we can make is made of shapes and colours taken from things Allah created. So when a picture of Allah comes into your mind, you can say: Allah is not like that. Allah's book tells us that nothing is like Allah.
Why can no picture in your mind be Allah?
Answer: Every picture is made from things Allah created
Our imagination can only work with what Allah has made, and nothing Allah has made is like Allah.
Even the finest image the mind can form is put together from what we have seen: shapes, light, size, movement. So anything we can imagine is like created things. That is why Muslims say: whatever picture of Allah comes into your mind, Allah is other than that.
Why can no image in the mind be an image of Allah?
Answer: The mind pictures only created things, and Allah is like none of them
It is not that Allah has a form too great for us to take in: Allah has no form at all.
True or false?
- Allah has no body. — True
- Allah lives up in the sky. — False
- Nothing is like Allah. — True
True or false?
- Allah has no shape and no size. — True
- Allah is somewhere far beyond the stars. — False
- Allah has no parents and no children. — True
- If you try very hard, you can draw what Allah looks like. — False
True or false?
- Allah has no body, no shape and no place. — True
- "Allah is above all things" means Allah is in the highest place. — False
- No image that the mind forms of Allah is truly Allah. — True
- Allah is like the best of people, only far greater. — False
Allah Allah
The name of God, the Creator of everything
The Arabic name of God. People all over the world, whatever language they speak, use it to call on the One who created everything.
al-Ahad al-Ahad
The One, who has no partner and no equal
A name of Allah. Surah al-Ikhlas opens with it.
Allah is al-Ahad. Is anything like Allah?
Answer: No, nothing is like Allah
Allah made the sun. Nothing Allah made is like Allah.
فَاطِرُ ٱلسَّمَٰوَٰتِ وَٱلْأَرْضِ جَعَلَ لَكُم مِّنْ أَنفُسِكُمْ أَزْوَٰجًا وَمِنَ ٱلْأَنْعَٰمِ أَزْوَٰجًا يَذْرَؤُكُمْ فِيهِ لَيْسَ كَمِثْلِهِۦ شَىْءٌ وَهُوَ ٱلسَّمِيعُ ٱلْبَصِيرُ
The Originator of the heavens and the earth; He made mates for you from among yourselves, and mates of the cattle too, multiplying you thereby; nothing like a likeness of Him; and He is the Hearing, the Seeing.
Ash-Shura · 11 · M. H. Shakir (Tanzil)
What do these words say about Allah?
Answer: Nothing is like Allah, and Allah hears and sees all
Nothing at all, big or small, is like Allah. Allah hears and sees everything, without ears, eyes or any organ at all. Nothing heard or seen is hidden from Allah.
فَاطِرُ ٱلسَّمَٰوَٰتِ وَٱلْأَرْضِ جَعَلَ لَكُم مِّنْ أَنفُسِكُمْ أَزْوَٰجًا وَمِنَ ٱلْأَنْعَٰمِ أَزْوَٰجًا يَذْرَؤُكُمْ فِيهِ لَيْسَ كَمِثْلِهِۦ شَىْءٌ وَهُوَ ٱلسَّمِيعُ ٱلْبَصِيرُ
The originator of the heavens and the earth, He made for you mates from your own selves, and mates of the cattle, by which means He multiplies you. Nothing is like Him, and He is the All-hearing, the All-seeing.
Ash-Shura · 11 · Ali Quli Qara'i (Tanzil)
The ayah says "Nothing is like Him", then "He is the All-hearing, the All-seeing". How do the two parts fit together?
Answer: Allah hears and sees everything, without ears, eyes or any organ at all
The first part does not take hearing and seeing away from Allah. It denies that Allah's hearing and seeing are anything like ours: Allah needs no ears, eyes or any organ, and nothing heard or seen is hidden from Allah.
A man asked Imam Ali, peace be upon him, one of the great teachers of Islam: "Have you seen your Lord?" The Imam said: "Would I worship what I do not see?" The man asked how the Imam saw Allah. The Imam said: "Eyes do not perceive Him by sight, but hearts perceive Him through the truths of faith."
Nahj al-Balagha, sermon 179.
How did Imam Ali say a person knows Allah?
Answer: With the heart, through true faith
Eyes can only see things that have a body, but a heart with faith and understanding comes to know Allah.
A man, Dhi'lib, asked Imam Ali, peace be upon him, one of the great teachers of Islam: "Have you seen your Lord?" The Imam replied: "Would I worship what I do not see?" Dhi'lib asked: "And how do you see Him?" The Imam said: "Eyes do not perceive Him by sight, but hearts perceive Him through the truths of faith."
Nahj al-Balagha, sermon 179.
The Imam says he does "see" Allah, but not with the eyes. What kind of seeing does he mean?
Answer: A certainty the heart reaches through faith and understanding
This seeing is knowing for certain, from Allah's signs and from reflection. It is never a picture of Allah.
Our eyes cannot see Allah. Allah has no shape to be seen. But we see what Allah made: the sun, the rain and you! These tell us Allah is real.
We cannot see Allah. Is Allah still real?
Answer: Yes, Allah is real
Eyes can only see things that have a colour, a shape and a place. Allah has none of these. We cannot see Allah, but that is not because Allah is hiding, far away or too small. It is because nothing is like Allah. And everything Allah made, and keeps in being every moment, tells us that Allah is real.
Why can't eyes see Allah?
Answer: Allah has no shape, and eyes only see shapes
Distance and hiding places have nothing to do with it: eyes only see things with a body, and Allah has no body.
We are sure of much we have never seen: gravity, from falling things; a friend's mind, from what they say and do; that two and two make four, by reasoning. Allah is like none of these, yet we know Allah in a similar way: from what exists, and by reflection. Not seeing is a limit of eyes, not Allah's absence.
You wonder: "If no one can see Allah, how can I be sure Allah is real?" Which answer fits what you have just read?
Answer: Much that is real is known without being seen, from its effects and by reasoning
Certainty does not always need sight: what we can see points to what we cannot.
لَّا تُدْرِكُهُ ٱلْأَبْصَٰرُ وَهُوَ يُدْرِكُ ٱلْأَبْصَٰرَ وَهُوَ ٱللَّطِيفُ ٱلْخَبِيرُ
The sights do not apprehend Him, yet He apprehends the sights, and He is the All-attentive, the All-aware.
Al-An'am · 103 · Ali Quli Qara'i (Tanzil)
What does this ayah say about Allah and eyes?
Answer: No eye can grasp Allah, yet Allah knows every eye
The ayah turns the question round: eyes cannot take Allah in, yet the eyes themselves, and all they see, are never hidden from Allah.
Why can't we see Allah?
Answer: Allah has no shape to see
Eyes see shapes, and Allah has no shape. Allah is not far away, and Allah is not hiding.
No one can see Allah. How can we know that Allah is real?
Answer: From all the things Allah made and keeps in being
Nothing can make itself or keep itself going, so everything around us points to Allah, who made it and keeps it in being every moment, so we do not have to guess.
No eye can see Allah. What does this mean, and what does it not mean?
Answer: That Allah has no body, not that Allah is absent
Eyes see only bodies. Not seeing Allah tells us what Allah is not, not that Allah is not there.
"Nothing is like Allah." Which of these ideas does it rule out? Choose every one.
Answer: That Allah has a body / That Allah lives in a place / That Allah has a shape the mind can picture
These words deny Allah a body, a place and a picture. They do not deny that Allah knows and hears: Allah hears without ears or any organ at all, and nothing heard or seen is hidden from Allah.
At night, you look at the moon and wonder: "Is Allah up there?" What is true?
Answer: Allah has no place, and Allah is near me
Allah made the moon and the sky. Allah is not in any place. Allah is near to us wherever we are.
Imagine you are on a plane, high above the clouds, looking out of the window. Which thought is right?
Answer: Allah has no place, and is near me wherever I am
Flying higher does not bring anyone closer to Allah. Allah is in no place, and is already near to everyone.
You read in a school book that science studies what can be observed and measured. You wonder whether that leaves any room for Allah. Which thought is right?
Answer: Science studies created things, and they point to Allah, who is not one of them
Allah has no body, so no instrument can ever detect Allah. What science studies is Allah's work.
Online, you see an AI-generated image titled "What God might look like". Which thought is right?
Answer: No image can show Allah, because Allah has no form at all
The problem is not the artist's skill, or a rule against it: there is no form there to show.
You see a photo of a galaxy millions of light-years away. Which thought is right?
Answer: Even something this far away is Allah's work, and it points to Allah
No journey through space brings anyone nearer to Allah. Allah is in no place and is already near; we come near to Allah through faith and good deeds. What we see, however far away, is a sign of Allah.
For many years you have said and heard "Allahu akbar". Thinking about it today, what does it mean?
Answer: Allah is greater than anything that can be described
Here, "greater" has nothing to do with size, and there are no other gods to compare with. Allah is beyond every description.