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Fatwa CenterGesturing when explaining the attributes of Allaah
Question
Is it permissible to put the heart of a chicken between one’s two fingers and say that people’s hearts are between two of the fingers of Allaah The Almighty and He can change them in any way He wants, meaning, gesturing to represent the attributes of Allaah? (We believe in the attributes of Allaah that occur in the Quran and authentic Hadeeths of the Prophet, sallallaahu 'alayhi wa sallam (may Allaah exalt his mention), without distorting their wordings or meanings, nor denying them, nor asking how they are, nor drawing any resemblance between Allaah and any of His creation.)
Answer
All perfect praise be to Allaah, The Lord of the Worlds. I testify that there is none worthy of worship except Allaah, and that Muhammad, sallallaahu ‘alayhi wa sallam, is His slave and Messenger.
According to the opinion of Ahlus-Sunnah wa'l Jamaa‘ah (the Sunni mainstream), the names and attributes of Allaah should be ascribed to Allaah The Almighty in a way that suits Him and exalts him from anything that is unbecoming. They believe in the attributes of Allaah The Almighty that occur in the Quran and authentic Hadeeths of the Prophet 
without distorting their wordings or meanings, nor denying them, nor asking how they are, nor drawing any resemblance between Allaah and any of His creation.
Gesturing to represent some of the attributes of Allaah The Almighty may prove detrimental to the belief of common Muslims and may make them liken, deny or lose the essence of the meanings of the names and attributes of Allaah The Almighty. In a Hadeeth on the authority of ‘Ali 
he ordered Muslims to talk to people about things they know about (and can associate with) because talking to them about things that they cannot understand may cause them to deny the words of Allaah The Almighty and those of His Prophet, sallallaahu ‘alayhi wa sallam. [Al-Bukhari mentioned the Hadeeth without a chain of narrators]
Moreover, in a Hadeeth on the authority of Ibn Mas‘ood he mentioned that if one talks with people about things that their minds cannot perceive, it will be a cause of Fitnah (tribulation) for them. [Muslim]
However, in some Hadeeths the Prophet, sallallaahu ‘alayhi wa sallam, would gesture when he knew that it would not cause the attributes of Allaah to be misinterpreted. For example, in a Hadeeth on the authority of Ibn ‘Umar and his father, the Prophet, sallallaahu ‘alayhi wa sallam, recited the verse (which means): {They have not appraised Allaah with true appraisal, while the earth entirely will be [within] His grip on the Day of Resurrection}[Quran 39:67] while continually opening and closing his hand. [Ahmad]
Allaah Knows best.
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