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In Islamic theology, anthropomorphism (tashbīh; Arabic: تشبيه) and corporealism (tajsīm) refer to beliefs in the human-like (anthropomorphic) and materially embedded (corporeal) form of God, an idea that has been classically described assimilating or comparing God to the creatures created by God.[1] An anthropormorphist is referred to as a mushabbih (pl. mushabbiha), and a corporealist is referred to as a mujassim (pl. mujassima).[2] Questions of anthropomorphism and corporealism have historically been closely related to discussions of the attributes of God in Islam. By contrast, belief in the transcendence of God is called tanzih. Tanzih is widely accepted in Islam today, though in the past, it stridently competed with alternative, including anthropomorphic, views, especially up to the year 950, and anthropomorphism briefly attained "orthodox" recognition around or after the Mihna.[3] In premodern times, corporealist views were said to have been more socially prominent among the common people, with more abstract and transcendental views more common for the elite.[4]
In a broader sense, tashbih refers not only to attributions of physical or behavioral human traits to God, but also to discussions about spatiality, directionality (including aboveness) and confinement in relation to God.[5] Typically, traditionalism has been associated with corporealist views, whereas rationalism has been associated with incorporealist views. Instead, Jon Hoover divides the range of views relating to God's body, location, and spatiality into a fourfold typology: the first stance which passes over, without comment, all traditions that use anthropomorphic or corporeal language (Bila Kayf); one which explicitly identifies God as having a body (ǧism); one which spatially places God above the world but avoids saying God has a body (which Hoover calls "spatialism"); and finally the explicit incorporealism held by groups like the Mu'tazilites, Ash'aris, Maturidis, Twelver and Zaydi Shia.[6]
Early anthropomorphic groups included traditionalist hadith transmitters[7] and the Karramiyya.[8] Ibn Taymiyya (d. 1328) is now seen as one of the most prominent advocates of corporeal or anthropomorphic views. His Bayān talbīs al-ǧahmiyya ("Explication of the Deceit of the Jahmiyya") is the longest-known response to incorporealist views, especially as argued for by al-Razi.[9] Polemically, Kalam theologians accused the Ahl al-Hadith (traditionalists) of having fallen prey to tashbīh since at least the 9th century.[10]
- ^ Ernst Bremer; Susanne Röhl, eds. (2006). Language of Religion, Language of the People: Medieval Judaism, Christianity, and Islam. Vol. 11. Wilhelm Fink Verlag. p. 136. ISBN 9783770542819.
- ^ Holtzman 2018, p. 303.
- ^ Williams 2002.
- ^ Cook 2024, p. 140–141.
- ^ Holtzman 2018, p. 14.
- ^ Hoover 2022, p. 627–630.
- ^ Noor & Hamdi 2022, p. 15.
- ^ Khan 2023, p. 343.
- ^ Hoover 2022.
- ^ Suleiman 2024, p. 58.