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Fatwa CenterA Mouth and Ears are not Attributes of Allah
Question
Assalamu Alaikum,A leader from a group made statements that Allah resembles Adam in form based on the hadith in Bukhari. He said Allah has ears, mouth and the group is not willing to correct this statement. I know that some Imams said that Allah has eyes but did they say He has ears, mouth etc. Is it permitted to make such statements about Allah when these attributes are not mentioned in the Quran and Hadith. Is it permissible to pray behind these people? Kindly advise.
Answer
All perfect praise be to Allah, The Lord of the Worlds. I testify that there is none worthy of worship except Allah, and that Muhammad 
is His slave and Messenger.
There is no doubt that this saying is an abominable disbelief. Allah Says (what means): {There is nothing like unto Him, and He is the Hearing, the Seeing.} [Quran 42:11]
Nu’aym ibn Hamaad Al-Khuzaa’i (the teacher of Al-Bukhaari), said: “If anyone resembles Allah to His creation, he has indeed disbelieved.”
As for the Hadeeth which you referred to in the question, it was reported by Al-Bukhaari and Muslim, that the Prophet said: “Allah created Aadam in His own Soorathi.”
There is a huge research on this Hadeeth and there are separate books (volumes) authored on this topic.
As for the correct meaning of this Hadeeth, Ibn Hajar 
said: “The term (Sooratih) means the Attribute of Allah. The meaning is that Allah created him in His attributes in regard to knowledge, life, hearing, sight and so on, although there is nothing that resemble the Attributes of Allah.” [End of quote]
As regards your saying: “I know that some Imams said that Allah has eyes”; then Ahlus-Sunnah wa-Jamaa’ah affirm the Attribute of eyes to Allah in a manner that befits His Majesty and Greatness, as evidenced by the Quran and the Sunnah. They affirm that Allah has two eyes.
Ibn Uthaymeen said:
“Allah has two eyes; this is what is known in the belief of Ahlus-Sunnah wal-Jamaa’ah, and none of their scholars has said otherwise as far as I know. Abu Al-Hasan Al-Ash'ari reported this from them in his book entitled ‘Ikhtilaaf Al-Musalleen wa maqaalaat Al-Islaamiyeen’, and Shaykh Ibn Taymiyyah and Ibn Al-Qayyim 
have reported this from him.” [End of quote]
With regard to proving the attributes of the ears and the mouth to Allah based on this Hadeeth, then this is a lie and it is speaking about Allah without knowledge. We are not aware of any scholar of Ahlus-Sunnah wal-Jamaa’ah who affirmed these two Attributes (to Allah).
Concerning your saying: ‘Is it permitted to make such statements about Allah when these attributes are not mentioned in the Quran and Hadeeth’; then the methodology of Ahlus-Sunnah wal-Jamaa’ah is that Allah is not described except with that which is mentioned in the Quran or the Sunnah, as stated by Imam Ahmad, who was the leading Imam of Ahlus-Sunnah wal-Jamaa’ah: “Allah should only be described with the Attributes that He described Himself with, or which His Prophet described Him with; we do not exceed the Quran and the Hadeeth.” [End of quote]
As for the issue of praying behind someone who says such innovated statements, then there are some details about this.
Ibn Taymiyyah said:
“With regard to praying behind the people who follow their desires or innovations, then there is a well-known dispute about this. However, the moderate view is that it is not permissible to make such people lead the prayer when it is possible to have someone else lead the prayer, as a way of forbidding evil and not because the prayer would be invalid.”
If it is possible for a person not to put forward someone who manifests evil to lead the prayer, then it is an obligation to prevent him. However, if other people appointed him [to lead the prayer] and one cannot prevent him from leading the prayer, or that he cannot prevent him except by causing a greater harm than the harm that the innovator displayed, then it is not permissible to repel little harm by committing a greater harm. Rather, he should pray behind him the prayers which he cannot pray except behind him (like the Friday prayers, the ‘Eed prayers and the congregational prayers) if there is no other Imam. It is for this reason that the companions used to pray behind Al-Hajjaaj and Al-Mukhtaar ibn Abu ‘Ubayd Ath-Thaqafi and others.” [End of quote]
Allah knows best.
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