Question:
Asalam Alaikum,
I have heard that there are Ulema who say Allah can lie but does not. However, I have also heard that Imam Sanusi deriving his conclusion from aql and naql denied that Allah can lie. Could you clarify?
Answer:
Alaykum Salam,
Saying that Allah “can lie but does not do so” is a Mu`tazili doctrine. The creed of Ahl al-Sunna wal-Jama`a precludes such a possibility because it is impermissible to describe divine omnipotence as applicable to absurd or impossible propositions such as lying or doing wrong. Imam Sanusi whom you cited was Ash`ari, and this is also the position of the earliest and later Maturidis in their `aqida books and stated explicitly by al-Ṣābūnī in al-Bidāya min al-kifāya, al-Khabbāzī in al-Hādī, al-Samarqandī in the Rukniyya, al-Nasafī in al-Iʿtimād, Ibn al-Humām in the Musāyara, and Muḥammad Rāghib Bashā in Safīnat al-rāghib wa-dafīnat al-maṭālib (Bulāq: Dār al-Ṭibāʿat al-ʿĀmira, 1255/1839, p. 464) all of which are in print.
Hajj Gibril Haddad
