Can God dwell in human beings?

All perfect praise be to Allah, The Lord of the Worlds. I testify that there is none worthy of worship except Allah, and that Muhammad is His slave and Messenger.

To believe that Allah, The Exalted, dwells in human bodies or any of His creation is one of the gravest acts of disbelief. We seek refuge with Allah from that. He is Exalted and High above what they say by great sublimity! Allah, The Exalted, is firmly Established on His Throne, and His Throne is above the heavens; He is far Exalted above being incarnate in His Creation. He is in no need of His Creation, but His Creation is in need of Him. Whoever holds the corrupt belief of Hulool (pantheism/incarnation) has failed to give due veneration and reverence to Him. This is similar to the Christians’ belief that Allah was incarnate in the Messiah, Jesus, the son of Mary, and the other belief held by some people that Allah was incarnate in ‘Ali and then in his descendants afterward, one by one. Shaykhul-Islam Ibn Taymiyyah said: “Hulool and Ittihaad (union of the Creator and the creation in one single existence) are of two kinds: general and specific.

The general kind is like those who say that Allah is everywhere by His Essence, or incarnate within His creation.

The specific kind is like those who claim that Allah is incarnate in some members of the Prophet’s household like ‘Ali and others, such as the ‘Alawites (also known as Nusayriyyah) and their like, or those who claim that He is incarnate in some descendants of the Prophet’s household like Al-Haakim (the 6th Fatimid Caliph) and others, such as the Druze and their like, or those who claim that He is incarnate in some people who were believed to be Shaykhs (spiritual leaders), such as Al-Hallaajiyyah (followers of Al-Hallaaj) and their like.

Whoever claims that Allah, The Exalted, is incarnate in or united in one single existence with one of the Companions or one of the Prophet’s relatives or one of the Shaykhs, his disbelief in this respect is graver than that of the Christians who held the beliefs of Hulool and Ittihaad with regard to Jesus Christ, for Jesus Christ is superior to all of those. Those who believed in the general Hulool and Ittihaad are more misguided than the Christians … By realizing the false beliefs of the Christians, the falsehood of the beliefs similar to theirs held by the advocates of atheism and religious innovations can be realized.” [End of quote]

For more benefit on the false belief of incarnation and pantheism, please refer to Fataawa 94462 and 153621.

Allah Knows best.