Tafwid is a religious word used by Muslim scholars in Islamic belief. It means leaving the knowledge of how something is to Allah.
In Islamic belief, tafwid means that the meaning of Allah’s attributes is known, but how they are is unknown. The how is left to Allah alone.
This idea became an important topic in Islamic belief discussions from the 4th century AH, especially when scholars spoke about Allah’s attributes.
Early Muslim scholars used tafwid to avoid comparing Allah to His creation. They believed that Allah is not like anything else, so people must not try to imagine how His attributes are.
Early scholars such as Ibn al-Majishun and Ahmad ibn Hanbal used tafwīḍ only for the how, not for the meaning. The attribute is affirmed as Allah described it, without asking how it is.
For Sunnis, tafwid means:
A famous example is the saying of Imam Malik ibn Anas when he was asked about Allah’s rising over the Throne:
This means:
Ibn Taymiyyah explained that asking how Allah’s attributes work is wrong:
He said the early scholars all agreed on this way.
Sunnis say that Allah sent the Qur’an so people can understand it and think about its meanings. If meanings were unknown, people could not understand the Qur’an or think about it properly.
So: