Praise be to Allah, and peace and blessings be upon the Messenger of Allah. To proceed:
These obsessive thoughts are among the ways through which Satan seeks to weaken the believer’s certainty. A Muslim should not dwell on them or build his beliefs upon them. Rather, he should confront them according to the guidance of the Qur’an and the Sunnah.
A Muslim must believe that Allah, Glorified and Exalted, has a true Essence befitting His Majesty and perfection. He is the Ever-Living, the Sustainer of all, the All-Hearing, the All-Seeing, the All-Knowing, and the All-Wise. He possesses every attribute of perfection that He has affirmed for Himself.
Therefore, it is impossible for Allah to be emptiness or nonexistence, because nonexistence cannot possess life, knowledge, hearing, sight, or speech, whereas Allah is perfect in His Names and Attributes.
While believing in Allah’s true existence, a person must not attempt to visualize His Essence or imagine His form, because there is nothing like Allah, and He does not resemble any of His creation.
Imam al-Tahawi, may Allah have mercy on him, said:
“Imaginations cannot reach Him, minds cannot fully comprehend Him, and He does not resemble created beings.”
The human mind can understand that Allah exists and can know the Attributes He has revealed about Himself, but it cannot fully comprehend the reality or manner of His Essence.
Allah should not be described as a body or as matter, whether by affirmation or denial, because these terms are not found in the Qur’an or the Sunnah. They are ambiguous expressions that may be intended to convey either truth or falsehood.
A Muslim should therefore restrict himself to the terms found in revelation, affirming for Allah what He has affirmed for Himself and declaring Him free from whatever He has declared Himself free from, without using newly invented terminology.
When Satan casts such questions into the mind, the treatment is what the Prophet ﷺ instructed:
The Prophet ﷺ said:
“If any of you experiences that, let him say: ‘I believe in Allah and His Messengers,’ for that will cause it to go away.”
Experiencing such obsessive thoughts does not necessarily indicate weak faith. Rather, they are among Satan’s deceptions. A Muslim must believe that Allah truly exists in a manner befitting His Majesty, that He possesses all attributes of perfection, and that there is nothing like Him.
A person should not attempt to imagine Allah’s Essence or delve into matters about which Allah has not informed us. When these obsessive thoughts arise, the Muslim should seek refuge in Allah, say, “I believe in Allah and His Messengers,” and turn away from them, for this is among the most effective means of repelling them.
And Allah knows best.