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What does the report 'God created Adam in his form' mean?

ما معنى حديث «خلق الله آدم على صورته»؟

Ibn Khuzayma narrates 'When one of you fights, let him avoid the face, for God created Adam in his form' and refers the pronoun to the person struck; he finds three defects in the wording 'in the form of the All-Merciful' and says that, if it is sound, the ascription in it is the ascription of a created thing to its Creator. His editor holds him mistaken, quoting Ibn Hajar's survey of the views on the pronoun, Ahmad's and Ishaq's authentication of the report, and Qiwam al-Sunna al-Taymi's remark that Ibn Khuzayma erred on it and is not to be faulted for that 1 2.

Depth

At a glance

Contested: This record includes matters on which scholars differ. The speaker's views are labelled as his, and other views are marked where no cited source yet exists.

Creed

The report

The report forbids striking the face and saying "God make ugly your face and the face of whoever resembles you", giving as the reason that God created Adam in his form; one wording Ibn Khuzayma narrates is: "When one of you fights, let him avoid the face, for God created Adam in his form." 3 He also narrates from Ibn 'Umar a wording he calls "more obscure": "Do not make the face ugly, for the son of Adam was created in the form of the All-Merciful", and al-Thawri's version of it, broken at 'Ata'. 4 The question is: to whom does the pronoun refer?

The views

How Ibn Khuzayma's error was regarded

The editor counts this interpretation among the book's substantive faults. 2 From a marginal note in the Taymuriyya manuscript he quotes Qiwam al-Sunna Isma'il al-Taymi: "Muhammad ibn Ishaq ibn Khuzayma erred on the hadith of the form, and he is not to be faulted for that"; and Abu Musa al-Madini's comment that there is hardly an imam without a slip, and that if an imam were abandoned for his slip, many imams would be abandoned. 5 The editor also mentions an article by Hammad ibn Muhammad al-Ansari, "Ta'rif Ahl al-Iman bi-Sihhat Hadith Surat al-Rahman", published in 1396 AH, which authenticates the report. 5

Opinions on the question

The question: The report forbidding striking or cursing the face 'for God created Adam in his form', Ibn 'Umar's wording 'for the son of Adam was created in the form of the All-Merciful', Ibn Khuzayma's interpretation of both in Kitab al-Tawhid, and his editor's reply.

First opinion · Sunni tradition (the museum's frame) · Sunni (Shafi'i)Main reference

The pronoun refers to the one struck; 'the form of the All-Merciful' is the ascription of a creation

Ibn Khuzayma says that some who did not seek knowledge carefully imagined 'in his form' meant the form of the All-Merciful, whereas the pronoun stands for the person struck and cursed: Adam's face resembles the faces of his children, so whoever says to someone 'God make ugly your face and the face of whoever resembles you' has made ugly the face of Adam. He faults Ibn 'Umar's version for al-Thawri's contrary mursal transmission, al-A'mash's tadlis and Habib ibn Abi Thabit's tadlis; then says that if it is sound, the ascription is that of a creation to God, and warns that taking it as an attribute of the Essence resembles the view of the anthropomorphists.

Held by: Ibn Khuzayma, Muhammad ibn Ishaq

Basis: Ibn Khuzayma, Kitab al-Tawhid wa-Ithbat Sifat al-Rabb — study and edition by 'Abd al-'Aziz ibn Ibrahim al-Shahwan, Dar al-Rushd, Riyadh, 1st edition 1408 AH/1988 CE (the text) Reports 40–42 and his comments, pp. 84–88

More opinions (2)

Sunni tradition (the museum's frame)Main reference

The report is sound, and the form is affirmed of God as befits Him

The editor quotes Ibn Hajar that Ibn Abi 'Asim and al-Tabarani transmitted the wording 'the form of the All-Merciful' with trustworthy men, and that Abu Hurayra's wording 'the form of a man's face is upon the form of the face of the All-Merciful' rules out the first interpretation; Harb al-Kirmani that Ishaq ibn Rahwayh said it is sound that God created Adam in the form of the All-Merciful, and that Ahmad declared it sound and called false the view 'in the form of the man', calling it the view of the Jahmiyya; and Ibn Qutayba that the form is no stranger than the Hands, the Fingers and the Eye, all of which he believes in without modality or limit. On this basis the editor finds Ibn Khuzayma's interpretation far-fetched, and quotes Qiwam al-Sunna al-Taymi: Ibn Khuzayma erred on the hadith of the form, and is not to be faulted for that.

Held by: Ahmad ibn HanbalIshaq ibn RahwayhIbn QutaybaQawwam al-Sunna, Isma'il ibn Muhammad al-Taymi

Basis: Ibn Khuzayma, Kitab al-Tawhid wa-Ithbat Sifat al-Rabb — study and edition by 'Abd al-'Aziz ibn Ibrahim al-Shahwan, Dar al-Rushd, Riyadh, 1st edition 1408 AH/1988 CE (the text) Editor's notes pp. 85–90

Sunni tradition (the museum's frame)Main reference

The pronoun refers to Adam

Ibn Hajar, as the editor quotes him, lists views referring the pronoun to Adam: that he was created in the form he kept until he was sent down and died, or that he was created complete from the start, against the eternalists, the naturalists and the Qadariyya; and he reports that al-Maziri and those who followed him denied that the addition 'in the form of the All-Merciful' is sound, and that if it is sound it is to be taken in a way befitting the Creator.

Held by: al-Maziri

People and things also explored

The wind that destroyed Aad· The questioning and punishment of the grave· Dreams (ahlam)· The prophets' dreams· The hereafter: the grave, resurrection and reckoning· Al-barzakh· Absolute unseen (al-ghayb al-mutlaq)· The Basin (al-Hawd) of the Prophet on the Day of Resurrection

Sources

  1. Ibn Khuzayma, Kitab al-Tawhid wa-Ithbat Sifat al-Rabb — study and edition by 'Abd al-'Aziz ibn Ibrahim al-Shahwan, Dar al-Rushd, Riyadh, 1st edition 1408 AH/1988 CE (the text) , p. 84-90
  2. 'Abd al-'Aziz ibn Ibrahim al-Shahwan's study of Ibn Khuzayma's Kitab al-Tawhid (vol. 1, the study section), Dar al-Rushd, Riyadh 1408 AH/1988 CE , p. 69
  3. Ibn Khuzayma, Kitab al-Tawhid wa-Ithbat Sifat al-Rabb — study and edition by 'Abd al-'Aziz ibn Ibrahim al-Shahwan, Dar al-Rushd, Riyadh, 1st edition 1408 AH/1988 CE (the text) , p. 83-84
  4. Ibn Khuzayma, Kitab al-Tawhid wa-Ithbat Sifat al-Rabb — study and edition by 'Abd al-'Aziz ibn Ibrahim al-Shahwan, Dar al-Rushd, Riyadh, 1st edition 1408 AH/1988 CE (the text) , p. 85-86
  5. Ibn Khuzayma, Kitab al-Tawhid wa-Ithbat Sifat al-Rabb — study and edition by 'Abd al-'Aziz ibn Ibrahim al-Shahwan, Dar al-Rushd, Riyadh, 1st edition 1408 AH/1988 CE (the text) , p. 90
Cite this page

islam.museum contributors. “What does the report 'God created Adam in his form' mean?”. islam.museum, https://islam.museum/en/questions/the-hadith-adam-created-in-his-form/. CC BY-SA 4.0. Last updated 2026-11-04.

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The wind that destroyed Aad

God destroyed Aad with a screaming, violent wind for seven nights and eight days in succession; you would see the people felled like hollow palm trunks — the first nation destroyed after the Flood.