The Arabic phrase Bila Kayf, also pronounced as Bila Kayfa, (
Arabic: بلا كيف) is roughly translated as "without asking how", "without knowing how or what",[1] or "without modality"[2] which means without considering how and without comparison.[3] Literally, "without how" but figuratively as "in a manner that suits His majesty and transcendence".[4] It was a way of resolving
theological problems in
Islam in
āyāt (verses of the
Quran) by accepting without questioning.[3][5] The concept is referred as Quranic literalism or Islamic literalism.
An example is the apparent "contradiction" between references to
God having human characteristics (such as the "hand of God" or the "face of God") and the concept of God as being
transcendental. The position of attributing actual hands or an actual face to God was known in
Arabic as tajsim or tashbih (corporealism or
anthropomorphism).[6][7][8]
Another was the question of how the Quran could be both the word of God, but
never have been created by God because (as many
hadith testified) it has always existed.[9][10]
History
Al-Ashʻarī (
c. 873–936) originated the use of the term in his development of the orthodox
Ash'ari theology against some of the paradoxes of the rationalist
Muʿtazila. Instead of explaining that God has a literal face, which would anthropomorphize God, he explained that the earliest Muslims simply accepted the verses as they stand - without asking how or what.[10]
Another source credits
Ahmad ibn Hanbal, founder of the
Hanbali school of
fiqh (Islamic jurisprudence) as the original creator of the doctrine.[11]
Interpretation
The term "bi-la kayf" is the belief that the verses of the
Qur'an with an "unapparent meaning" should be accepted as they have come without saying how they are meant or what is meant, i.e. not attributing a specific meaning to them.