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Tanzīh

The Concise Oxford Dictionary of World Religions | 1997 | 599 words | Copyright

Tanzīh (Arab., ‘remove’). The insistence in Muslim theology on the way in which the attributes of God are not to be identified with the being of God. While it must be possible to have some idea of God (since otherwise he would be unknowable), the ideas and epithets are approximate and limited. Thus if he is called ‘merciful’, it is somewhat like what is recognized as merciful among human beings, but ‘removed from’ an exact and literal identification. Cf. ANALOGY; see also TASHBĪH; TAʾWĪL; and see bilā kaif in Allāh.

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