Bi-la kaifa

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Bi-la kayf (Arabic: بلا كيف) is an Arabic phase roughly translated as "without asking how." It addresses the theological problem in Islam of how do deal with verses in the Qu'ran that refer to Allah as having human characteristics, i.e. the Hand of Allah or the Face of Allah. These verses are problematic because they give Allah human characteristics, something which is contrary to the Islamic concept of Allah as being transcendental. The term was first used by Abu al-Hasan al-Ash'ari in his development of a theological system that would resolve some of the paradoxes in Mu'tazilah thought. Instead of explaining how Allah can have a face, which would anthropomorphize Allah, or explaining the verses as metaphorical, which would cast doubt on the literalness of the Qur'an, the verse are simply accepted as they are, without asking how or why.

"The otherness (mukhalafa) of God is presupposed in Islamic thinking from the kur'an onward, but only gradually became an explicit article of faith; ... The central position was that of those who said the terms were to be taken neither literally nor metaphorically but bi-la kayf ("without how"), i.e. without specifying their manner or modality, or, as it was sometimes expressed, "in the sense in which God intended them" when He used them in the kur'an. It was emphasized that God was not corporeal and not material, and those who held that view were sometimes called Mudjassima. From the 5th/11th century onwards the followers of al-Ash`ari and other orthodox theologians, but not the Hanabila, largely abandoned bi-la kayf and accepted metaphorical interpretations of anthropomorphic terms." [1]

[edit] Dune

Bi-la kaifa is also a religious phrase used by the Fremen people in the Dune universe, created by author Frank Herbert. It has roughly the same meaning as the word amen and translates literally to "Nothing further need be explained".