In Islam, the comparison of God to created things. The practice of attributing human characteristics to the deity is regarded as a sin in Islamic theology, as is its opposite, taayntīl (divesting God of all attributes). The difficulty of dealing with the nature of God in Islam arises from seemingly contradictory views in the Qurhamzahān, which describes God as unique, yet also refers to him as having eyes, ears, hands, and face. Tashbīh is forbidden out of the fear that its practice will lead to paganism and idolatry; taayntīl is feared to lead to atheism.

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Tashbih (تشبيه) is an Islamic religious concept meaning closeness. In Islamic theology, two opposite terms are attributed to Allah: tashbih and tanzih . The latter means 'distance, transcendence'.

However, the fuller meaning of tashbih is 'affirming similarity', i.e. affirming Allah's nearness to humanity. This concept is eternally juxtaposed with Allah's tanzih (transcendence, or 'declaring incompatibility').

The literal meaning of the word is "to declare something similar to something else". This definition affirms that Allah has some similarity to his creations: "Nothing is like Him." (Sura 42:11) but His attributes require some similarity to the world, as people associate compassion, mercy and wrath with our interpretation of such adjectives.

The two, opposing aspects affect every aspect of a Muslim's belief, action and relationship with Allah. Tashbih is associated with Allah's Right Hand (mercy) in contrast to tanzih being associated with his Left Hand (wrath).

The Divine Names of Allah associated with tashbih are those that indicate nearness, closeness and mercy: Compassionate, Merciful, Desiring, Forgiver, Creator and Loving.

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