Ta'til

In Islamic theology, taʿṭīl (Arabic: تَعْطِيل‎) means "divesting" God of attributes. The word literally means to suspend and stop the work[1][2] and refers to a form of apophatic theology which is said because God bears no resemblance to his creatures and because the concepts available to man are limited and depends on his perceptions of his surroundings, so he has no choice but to remain silent about the divine attributes and suffice with the explanations given in the Quran and hadiths.[3][4] Taʿṭīl is the polar opposite of tashbīh (anthropomorphism or anthropopathism), the ascription to God of physical characteristics or human attributes such as emotion. Both taʿṭīl and tashbīh are considered sins[5] or heresies in mainstream Islam, frequently associated with a sect described by Sunni heresiography as the Jahmiyya.[6]

The corrective doctrine against taʿṭīl is tathbīt (confirming God's attributes), and the corrective against tashbīh is tanzīh (keeping God pure).[5]

  1. ^ زوزنی, حسین بن احمد. کتاب المصادر. Vol. ۲. تهران: چاپ تقی بینش. p. ۵۸۲. ۱۳۷۴ ش.
  2. ^ محمد بن مکرم بن علی أبو الفضل جمال الدین ابن منظور, الأنصاری الرویفعی الأفریقی. لسان العرب (in Arabic). Vol. ۱۱. p. ۴۵۳. ذیل «عطل».
  3. ^ سبحانی, جعفر. الالهیات (in Persian). Vol. ۱. قم: انتشارات امام صادق (ع). p. ۸۷.
  4. ^ احمد بن عبدالحلیم بن تیمیه, حرانی. الرسائل الکبری (in Persian). Vol. ۱. p. ۳۲. به نقل از، الالهیات، ج۱، ص۸۷.
  5. ^ a b Tashbīh. 1998-07-20. Retrieved 2020-02-22.
  6. ^ Bunzel 2023, p. 100.