Anthropomorphism and corporealism in Islam
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In Islamic theology, anthropomorphism (Arabic: تشبيه, romanized: tashbīh) and corporealism (تجسيم tajsīm) refer to beliefs in the human-like (anthropomorphic) and materially embedded (corporeal) form of God. This idea has been classically described assimilating or comparing God to the creatures created by God. An anthropomorphism is referred to as a mushabbih (pl. mushabbiha). A corporealist is referred to as a mujassim (pl. mujassima).
Questions of anthropomorphism and corporealism have historically been closely related to discussions of the attributes of God in Islam. By contrast, belief in the transcendence of God is called tanzih. Muslims widely accept tanzih today,
In the past, it stridently competed with alternative views, including anthropomorphic ones, especially until the year 950, when anthropomorphism briefly attained "orthodox" recognition around or after the Mihna. In premodern times, corporealist views were said to have been more socially prominent among the common people, with more abstract and transcendental views more common for the elite.
In a broader sense, tashbih refers not only to attributions of physical or behavioral human traits to God, but also to discussions about spatiality, directionality (including aboveness) and confinement with God. Typically, traditionalism has been associated with corporealist views. Rationalism has been associated with incorporealist views. Instead, Jon Hoover divides the range of views relating to God's body, location, and spatiality into a fourfold typology: the first stance which passes over, without comment, all traditions that use anthropomorphic or corporeal language ("Bila Kayf"); one which explicitly identifies God as having a body (جسم jism); one which spatially places God above the world but avoids saying God has a body (which Hoover calls "spatialism"); and finally explicit incorporealism. Groups which maintained anthropomorphic views, historically, have included traditionalist hadith transmitters and Karramism.
Polemically, Kalam theologians accused the Ahl al-Hadith (traditionalists) of having fallen prey to tashbih since at least the 9th century. Ibn Taymiyya (d. 1328) wrote a famous and extensive refutation of incorporealist views in his Bayān talbīs al-jahmiyya "Explication of the Deceit of Jahmism" as argued for by Abu Bakr al-Razi. Ibn Taymiyyah\ has been characterized as a spatialist. Explicit incorporealism has been maintained by groups like the Mu'tazilites, Ash'ari Sunnis, Maturidi Sunnis, Twelver Shi'ism, Ismailism, and Zaydism.