Part One
The creed of Ahl al-Sunnah wa-l-Jamāʿah in summary
First Issue: The Word Sāq in the Language
Sāq in the language is the shin, the part of the leg between the knee and the foot. The Arabs also use the phrase “it bared its shin” of a matter that becomes severe: kashafat al-ḥarbu ʿan sāqihā, the war bared its shin, because a man who readies himself for a hard task tucks up his garment from his shins. Both uses are real in the language, and the context decides between them.
The verse of al-Qalam says yukshafu ʿan sāq: a shin will be uncovered, with the word sāq indefinite and not attributed to anyone. The ḥadīth of Abū Saʿīd says yakshifu rabbunā ʿan sāqihi: our Lord will uncover His Shin, with the Shin attributed to Allah by the possessive pronoun. The difference between the two wordings is the key to the whole question.
Second Issue: The Creed of Ahl al-Sunnah in the Shin
Ahl al-Sunnah affirm the Shin as an attribute of Allah established by the authentic Sunnah, as they affirm the Face, the Hands and the Foot. They affirm it as befits Him, without likening it to the shin of a creature and without asking how. They say what the Prophet ﷺ said, and they stop where he stopped.
This attribute is a sign of the Day of Resurrection that separates the sincere from the hypocrite. The prostration of the believers to their Lord when He uncovers His Shin is the reward of their prostration in this world for His sake, and the inability of the hypocrites is the punishment of their prostration for the sake of the people.
Part Two
The texts of the Qurʾān and the Sunnah
Third Issue: The Verse and the Ḥadīth
Allah said: on the Day a shin will be uncovered, and they will be called to prostrate, but they will not be able. The Prophet ﷺ described that Day: Our Lord will uncover His Shin, and every believing man and woman will prostrate to Him, and the one who used to prostrate in the world for show will go to prostrate, and his back will become a single rigid plate.
Allah, the Exalted, said:
On the Day a shin will be uncovered, and they will be called to prostrate, but they will not be able: their eyes humbled, humiliation covering them. And they used to be called to prostrate while they were sound.
Qurʾān 68:42–43 (al-Qalam) Read the verse (opens in a new tab)
Al-Bukhārī reported in his Ṣaḥīḥ:
Ādam narrated to us: al-Layth narrated to us, from Khālid ibn Yazīd, from Saʿīd ibn Abī Hilāl, from Zayd ibn Aslam, from ʿAṭāʾ ibn Yasār, from Abū Saʿīd, who said: I heard the Prophet ﷺ say: “Our Lord will uncover His Shin, and every believing man and believing woman will prostrate to Him. And there will remain whoever used to prostrate in the world to be seen and to be heard of. He will go to prostrate, and his back will turn into a single rigid plate.”
al-Bukhārī, al-Ṣaḥīḥ (al-Sulṭāniyyah), Kitāb al-Tafsīr, 6/159, no. 4919
Source, chain and authenticity
Authentic. It is in the Ṣaḥīḥ of al-Bukhārī, and the ummah received the two Ṣaḥīḥs with acceptance; its full chain is given in the Arabic above.
The ḥadīth repeats the wording of the verse: the uncovering of the Shin, the call to prostrate, and those who are unable. Al-Bukhārī placed it in the book of tafsīr under the verse of al-Qalam, so that the Prophet ﷺ himself explains what is uncovered on that Day. When the Messenger has explained a verse, no explanation is to be set against his.
Part Three
The claims of the opponents and their refutation
“The Shin means the severity of the Day”
The claim
Ibn ʿAbbās explained “a shin will be uncovered” as the severity and terror of the Day of Resurrection, so the Shin is not an attribute of Allah.
The response
The verse does not attribute the shin to Allah. It says “a shin”, indefinite. So whoever explained the verse by itself as the severity of the Day did not deny an attribute, because the verse on its own wording does not mention one. The Salaf who explained it this way were explaining a verse, not denying a ḥadīth.
The attribute is established by the ḥadīth, in which the Prophet ﷺ said “His Shin”, with the possessive. The possessive pronoun attaches the Shin to Allah as the Hand and the Face are attached to Him. The severity of the Day is not something that Allah uncovers from Himself, and the believers do not prostrate to a severity.
So the two explanations do not contradict each other. The Day is a day of severity, and on it Allah uncovers His Shin. Whoever takes the explanation of the verse and uses it to reject the ḥadīth has set the Companions against the Prophet ﷺ, which they themselves would never accept.
Sources
- Qurʾān
- al-Bukhārī, al-Ṣaḥīḥ (al-Sulṭāniyyah), Kitāb al-Tafsīr