Part One
The creed of Ahl al-Sunnah wa-l-Jamāʿah in summary
First Issue: The Words Ruʾyah (رُؤْيَة) and Naẓar (نَظَر) in the Language
Ruʾyah (رُؤْيَة) is the verbal noun of raʾā, yarā (رَأَى يَرَى). Ibn Fāris gives the root rāʾ–hamzah–yāʾ one meaning: looking and seeing, with the eye or with insight. From the second sense comes raʾy (رَأْي), opinion — what a man sees in a matter with his mind. The verb therefore has two uses, seeing with the eye and seeing with the mind, and the context decides between them. When it is attached to the eyes, or compared with seeing the sun and the moon, only the first is possible.
Ibn Fāris said in Maqāyīs al-Lughah:
Rāʾ, hamzah and yāʾ: a root that indicates looking and seeing, with the eye or with insight.
Ibn Fāris, Maqāyīs al-Lughah 2/472, root r-ʾ-y
Source, chain and authenticity
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رأل
الراء والهمزة واللام كلمةٌ واحدة تدلُّ على فِراخ النعام وهى الرَّأْل، والجمع رئَال، والأنثى رألَةٌ. واسْتَرْأل النّبات، إذا طال وصار كأعناق الرِّئال. وذات الرِّئال: روضة. والرِّئال: كواكب (¬٢).
رأم
الراء والهمزة والميم أصلٌ يدل على مُضامَّةٍ وقُرْب وعَطْفٍ.
يقال لكل مَنْ أحبَّ شيئاً وأَلِفَه: قد رَئِمَه. وأصلُه مِنْ قولهم: رَأَمَ الجُرْحُ رِئْماناً (¬٣)، إذا انضمّ فُوه للبُرْء. وقال الشَّيبانى: رأَمْت شَعْبَ القَدَح، إذا أصلحتَه. وأنشد:
وقَتْلى بحِقْفٍ من أُوارةَ جُدِّعتْ … صَدَعْنَ قُلوباً لم تُرأَّمْ شُعوبُها (¬٤)
والرُّؤمة: الغِراء الذى يُلزَق به الشَّئ. والرَّأْم: بَوٌّ أو ولدٌ تعطف عليه غير أمِّه. وقد رئِمت النّاقةُ رِئْمَاناً. وأرأمْناها، عطفْناها على رَأْمٍ. والناقة رؤومٌ ورائمة (¬٥).
رأى
الراء والهمزة والياء أصلٌ يدلُّ على نظرٍ وإبصارٍ بعينٍ أو بصيرة. فالرّأْى: ما يراه الإنسانُ فى الأمر، وجمعه لآراء. رأَى فلان الشئَ
Naẓar (نَظَر) is the verbal noun of naẓarah (نَظَرَ), and the Arabs construe it in three ways, each with its own meaning. First, transitive by itself: naẓartuhu (نَظَرْتُهُ) means intaẓartuhu, I waited for him, as the hypocrites will say to the believers: unẓurūnā naqtabis min nūrikum (انْظُرُونَا نَقْتَبِسْ مِنْ نُورِكُمْ), “wait for us, so that we take some of your light”. Second, with fī (فِي): naẓarah fī means to reflect and consider, as in a-wa-lam yanẓurū fī malakūti al-samāwāti wa-l-arḍ, “have they not reflected on the dominion of the heavens and the earth?”. Third, with ilā (إِلَى): naẓarah ilā means to look with the eye at a thing. When naẓar is construed with ilā and attributed to the face, it can only mean looking with the eyes that are in the face.
Allah, the Exalted, said:
On the Day the hypocrite men and hypocrite women will say to those who believed: Wait for us (unẓurūnā), that we may take some of your light. It will be said: Go back behind you and seek light. And a wall will be put up between them with a gate; its inside contains mercy, and its outside faces the punishment.
Qurʾān 57:13 (al-Ḥadīd) Read the verse (opens in a new tab)
In the verse of al-Qiyāmah, Allah said wujūhun yawmaʾidhin nāḍirah, ilā rabbihā nāẓirah (وُجُوهٌ يَوْمَئِذٍ نَاضِرَةٌ إِلَى رَبِّهَا نَاظِرَةٌ). The first word, nāḍirah with ḍād (ض), is from naḍrah (نَضْرَة): radiance, beauty and freshness, as the Prophet ﷺ prayed: naḍḍarah Allāhu imraʾan samiʿah maqālatī, “Allah make radiant the face of a man who heard my words and conveyed them as he heard them”. The second, nāẓirah with ẓāʾ (ظ), is from naẓar: looking. The faces became radiant because they looked at al-Raḥmān, and so they put on radiance, beauty, splendour and goodness. The verb is construed with ilā, attributed to faces, and placed on the Day of Resurrection: three marks, each of which by itself rules out the meaning “waiting”.
Allah, the Exalted, said:
Faces on that Day will be radiant (nāḍirah), looking (nāẓirah) at their Lord. And faces on that Day will be gloomy, expecting that a back-breaking calamity will be done to them.
Qurʾān 75:22–25 (al-Qiyāmah) Read the verse (opens in a new tab)
In the Sharīʿah the Ruʾyah is that the believers will see their Lord on the Day of Resurrection openly with their eyes, as they see the sun on a clear day with no cloud beneath it, and as they see the moon on the night it is full, without crowding one another to see Him. It is a seeing with the eyes, not a seeing of the heart as the distorters say. They will see Him on the plains of the Resurrection and its stations, and again after entering Paradise, as He wills — in how, when and where — and nothing of that is fixed except within what the established texts of the Book and the authentic Sunnah have stated.
Second Issue: The Greatest Bliss of Paradise
This is a very great question: the seeing of the Lord, Mighty and Majestic, in Paradise. Seeing Allah in the Gardens of Bliss is the highest of what the people of Paradise delight in. The highest of their bliss is seeing the Face of Allah, because it is the utmost of beauty; because in the seeing is His pleasure; because in the seeing is His honouring of them; and because in the seeing the heart is set right by seeing the One it loves.
Every kind of beauty that hearts attach themselves to is only some of the beauty of the attributes of the Lord: something of the beauty of His attributes, just as one part of the mercy of Allah is that by which people show mercy to one another. The beauty of the True One in His Essence, His attributes and His acts overflowed onto this existence, and so things became beautiful by what He poured onto them of His beauty. So every beauty that one longs for, whether of the creatures of this world or of the kinds of beauty and delight in Paradise, is nothing beside seeing, and delighting in, the One who poured out that beauty and those delights upon whomever He willed of His creation.
For this reason some of the people of knowledge said: the seeing of Allah is the goal towards which those who strive have rolled up their sleeves. If Paradise is the goal of the one who strives and the worship of the worshipper, then the highest and greatest bliss of Paradise is that the believers see their Lord, as He said: faces on that Day will be radiant, looking at their Lord.
Part Two
The texts of the Qurʾān and the Sunnah
Third Issue: The Ruʾyah in the Book of Allah
Allah said: “Faces on that Day will be radiant, looking at their Lord.” In Arabic the verb naẓarah followed by ilā, with faces as its subject, means looking with the eyes, and the faces are described as radiant because of what they look at. He said: “For those who do good is the best and more besides”, and the Prophet ﷺ explained “more” as looking at Allah's Face. He said of the disbelievers: “No! Surely from their Lord, that Day, they will be screened off.” If the believers were screened off as well, the threat would mean nothing.
Allah, the Exalted, said:
Faces on that Day will be radiant, looking at their Lord.
Qurʾān 75:22–23 (al-Qiyāmah) Read the verse (opens in a new tab)
Allah, the Exalted, said:
For those who do good is the best and more besides. Neither darkness nor humiliation will cover their faces. Those are the companions of Paradise; they will abide therein for ever.
Qurʾān 10:26 (Yūnus) Read the verse (opens in a new tab)
Allah, the Exalted, said:
No! Surely from their Lord, that Day, they will be screened off.
Qurʾān 83:15 (al-Muṭaffifīn) Read the verse (opens in a new tab)
Fourth Issue: The Ruʾyah in the Sunnah of the Messenger ﷺ
Jarīr ibn ʿAbd Allāh said: we were with the Prophet ﷺ and he looked at the full moon and said: “You will see your Lord as you see this moon, and you will not crowd one another to see Him.” The comparison is between one act of seeing and another, not between Allah and the moon. It is a clear, direct seeing that everyone has at the same time without obstruction.
Al-Bukhārī reported in his Ṣaḥīḥ from Jarīr ibn ʿAbd Allāh:
We were with the Prophet ﷺ, and he looked at the moon one night — meaning the full moon — and said: “You will see your Lord as you see this moon; you will not crowd one another to see Him. So if you are able not to be overcome in a prayer before the rising of the sun and before its setting, then do so.” Then he recited: {And glorify the praise of your Lord before the rising of the sun and before the setting} [Qāf 39].
al-Bukhārī, al-Ṣaḥīḥ (al-Sulṭāniyyah) 1/115, no. 554, from Jarīr ibn ʿAbd Allāh
Source, chain and authenticity
Authentic. It is in the Ṣaḥīḥ of al-Bukhārī, and the ummah received the two Ṣaḥīḥs with acceptance; its full chain is given in the Arabic above.
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Ṣuhayb reported that the Prophet ﷺ said: when the people of Paradise have entered it, Allah will ask them whether they want anything more. They will say: did You not whiten our faces, admit us to Paradise and save us from the Fire? Then He will remove the veil, and they will have been given nothing dearer to them than looking at their Lord. That is the “more besides” of the verse.
Muslim reported in his Ṣaḥīḥ:
“When the people of Paradise enter Paradise, Allah, Blessed and Exalted is He, will say: Do you want anything that I may give you in addition? They will say: Have You not whitened our faces? Have You not admitted us to Paradise and saved us from the Fire? Then He will remove the veil, and they will not have been given anything dearer to them than looking at their Lord, Mighty and Majestic.”
Muslim, al-Ṣaḥīḥ, ed. ʿAbd al-Bāqī, 1/163, no. 181, from Ṣuhayb
Source, chain and authenticity
Authentic. It is in the Ṣaḥīḥ of Muslim, and the ummah received the two Ṣaḥīḥs with acceptance; its full chain is given in the Arabic above.
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"إِذَا دَخَلَ أَهْلُ الْجَنَّةِ الْجَنَّةَ، قَالَ يَقُولُ اللَّهُ ﵎: تُرِيدُونَ شَيْئًا أَزِيدُكُمْ؟ فَيَقُولُونَ: أَلَمْ تُبَيِّضْ وُجُوهَنَا؟ أَلَمْ تُدْخِلْنَا الْجَنَّةَ وَتُنَجِّنَا مِنَ النَّارِ. قَالَ فَيَكْشِفُ الْحِجَابَ. فَمَا أُعْطُوا شَيْئًا أَحَبَّ إِلَيْهِمْ مِنَ النَّظَرِ إِلَى رَبِّهِمْ ﷿".
Part Three
The chains of transmission, with comments on them
Fifth Issue: The Chains of the Texts of the Ruʾyah
The proof of the Ruʾyah is the texts of the Book, the mutawātir Sunnah, and the consensus of the Salaf of the ummah: it is a matter on which the proofs have joined together. The ḥadīth of Jarīr, “you will see your Lord as you see this moon”, is in the two Ṣaḥīḥs through Ismāʿīl ibn Abī Khālid, from Qays ibn Abī Ḥāzim, from Jarīr — a chain of Kūfan imams, every one of them trustworthy, and Qays met the ten. The ḥadīth of Ṣuhayb in Muslim, that the “more” is looking at their Lord, comes through Ḥammād ibn Salamah, from Thābit al-Bunānī, from ʿAbd al-Raḥmān ibn Abī Laylā, from Ṣuhayb: Ḥammād was the most precise of men in the narrations of Thābit.
The ḥadīths of the Ruʾyah were reported from the Prophet ﷺ by a large number of the Companions — Abū Bakr, Abū Hurayrah, Abū Saʿīd, Jarīr, Ṣuhayb, Abū Mūsā, ʿAdiyy ibn Ḥātim, Anas and others — and the imams of ḥadīth counted them among the mutawātir. A matter reported by so many, through chains that do not meet in one man, is known with certainty; and the one who rejects it does not reject a single report but the transmission of the ummah.
The explanation of “and more” as looking at the Face of Allah came from Abū Bakr and Ḥudhayfah, in the chain of Isḥāq ibn Rāhawayh from Wakīʿ, from Isrāʾīl, from Abū Isḥāq al-Sabīʿī; Isrāʾīl was the grandson of Abū Isḥāq and among the most knowledgeable of men in his narrations. Al-Dārimī gathered it as well from Abū Mūsā, Ibn ʿAbbās, al-Ḍaḥḥāk, ʿAbd al-Raḥmān ibn Sābiṭ and others. Some of these routes are individually weak — the editor of al-Dārimī's Naqḍ marked one of them weak for an unknown narrator — but they come from many Companions and Followers, and above all they agree with the explanation of the Prophet ﷺ himself in the ḥadīth of Ṣuhayb. The explanation is established, whatever the state of any single route.
Part Four
The explanation of the mufassirūn and the Salaf
Sixth Issue: The Mufassirūn on “the best and more besides”
Abū Bakr al-Ṣiddīq and Ḥudhayfah explained the verse “for those who do good is the best and more besides” in the same words: the “more” is looking at the Face of Allah. The best (al-ḥusnā) is Paradise, and the “more” (al-ziyādah, الزِّيَادَة) is something beyond Paradise, greater than it — and there is nothing beyond Paradise and greater than it except the Lord of Paradise.
Isḥāq ibn Rāhawayh reported in his Musnad:
Wakīʿ informed us: Isrāʾīl narrated to us, from Abū Isḥāq, from Muslim ibn Nadhīr, from Ḥudhayfah; and from ʿĀmir ibn Saʿd, from Abū Bakr al-Ṣiddīq, concerning His saying {For those who do good is the best and more besides} [Yūnus 26]. He said: “The ‘more’ is looking at the Face of Allah.”
Isḥāq ibn Rāhawayh, al-Musnad 3/793, no. 1424
Source, chain and authenticity
Al-Dārimī listed the Companions and Followers who gave this explanation, and then said to al-Marīsī: all of them said, the “more” is looking at the Face of Allah; and not one of them said, at the face of the Kaʿbah, or the faces of righteous deeds, as you claimed. The Jahmī could not deny that the verse speaks of looking, so he changed the object of the looking. The Salaf left him no room.
ʿUthmān ibn Saʿīd al-Dārimī said in Naqḍ al-Imām Abī Saʿīd ʿalā al-Marīsī:
Abū Saʿīd said: All of them said: “The ‘more’ is looking at the Face of Allah, Exalted is He”; and not one of them said: at the face of the Kaʿbah, or the faces of righteous deeds, as you claimed.
ʿUthmān ibn Saʿīd al-Dārimī, Naqḍ al-Imām Abī Saʿīd ʿalā al-Marīsī, p. 279
Source, chain and authenticity
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وَعَلَى تَصْدِيقِ هَذِهِ الآثَارِ وَالإِيمَانِ بِهَا؛ أَدْرَكْنَا أَهْلَ الفِقْهِ وَالعِلْمِ، وَلَوْ لَمْ يَكُنْ إِلَّا مَا رَوَيْتَ أَيُّهَا المُعَارِضُ عَنْ وَكِيعٍ، عَنِ الأَعْمَشِ، عَنْ أَبِي وَائِلٍ، عَنْ حُذَيْفَةَ: «أنَّ العَبْدَ إِذَا قَامَ يُصَلِّي أقبل الله عَلَيْهِ بِوَجْهِهِ» (١) فَادَّعَيْتَ أَنَّهُ يُقْبِلُ عَلَيْهِ بِنِعْمَتِهِ وَثَوَابِهِ، وَأَنَّهُ قَدْ يُقَالُ: وَجْهُ الله فِي المَجَازِ، كَمَا يُقَالُ: وَجْهُ الحَائِطِ، وَوَجْهُ الثَّوْبِ.
وَيْلَكَ! فَهَذَا مَعَ مَا فِيهِ مِنَ الكُفْرِ، مُحَالٌ فِي الكَلَامِ؛ فَإِنَّهُ لَا يُقال لِشَيْءٍ لَيْسَ مِنْ ذَوِي الوُجُوهِ: أَقْبَلَ بِوَجْهِهِ عَلَى إِنْسَانٍ، أَوْ غَيْرِهِ إِلَّا وَالمُقْبِلُ بِوَجْهِهِ مِنْ ذَوِي الوُجُوهِ، وَقَدْ يَجُوزُ أَنْ يُقَالَ: لِلثَّوْبِ وَجْهٌ، وَللحَائِطِ، وَلَا يَجُوزُ أَنْ يُقَالَ: أَقْبَلَ الثَّوْبُ بِوَجْهِهِ عَلَى المُشْتَرِي، وَأَقْبَلَ الحَائِطُ بِوَجْهِهِ عَلَى فُلَانٍ، لَا يُقَالُ: أَقْبَلَ بِوَجْهِهِ عَلَى شَيْءٍ إِلَّا مَنْ لَهُ القُدْرَةُ عَلَى الإِقْبَالِ.
وَكُلُّ قَادِرٍ عَلَى الإِقْبَالِ ذُو وَجْهٍ، هَذَا مَعْقُولٌ [٥٢/ظ] مَفْهُومٌ فِي كَلَامِ العَرَبِ، فَإِنْ جَهِلْتَهُ، فَسَمِّ شَيْئًا مِنَ الأَشْيَاءِ لَيْسَ مِنْ ذَوِي الأَوْجُهِ يَجُوزُ أَنْ تَقُولَ: أَقْبَلَ بِوَجْهِهِ عَلَى فُلَانٍ؛ فَإِنَّكَ لَا تَأْتِي بِهِ، فَافْهَمْ، وَمَا أَرَاكَ وَلَا إِمَامَكَ تَفْهَمَانِ هَذَا وَمَا أَشْبَهَهُ.
وَلَوْلَا كَثْرَةُ مَنْ يَسْتَنْكِرُ الحَقَّ، وَيَسْتَحْسِنُ البَاطِلَ؛ مَا اشْتَغَلْنَا كُلَّ هَذَا الِاشْتِغَالِ بِتَثْبِيتِ وَجْهِ الله ذِي الجلَال وَالإِكْرَام، ولو لم يَكُنْ فِيهِ إِلَّا اجْتِمَاعُ الكَلِمَةِ مِنَ العَالِمِينَ: «أَعُوذُ بِوَجْهِ الله العَظِيمِ» و «أَعُوذُ بِوَجْهِكَ يَا رَبِّ»،
Part Five
The statements of the Salaf
Seventh Issue: The Creed of the Imams
Imām Aḥmad said that whoever says Allah will not be seen in the Hereafter is a Jahmī and has disbelieved. He said that they will look at their Lord and He will look at them, and that they will speak to Him and He to them, as He wills and when He wills.
Ibn Baṭṭah said in al-Ibānah al-Kubrā:
٤٨ - وَقَالَ: يَنْظُرُونَ إِلَى رَبِّهِمْ، وَيَنْظُرُ إِلَيْهِمْ، وَيُكَلِّمُونَهُ، وَيُكَلِّمُهُمْ كَيْفَ شَاءَ، وَإِذَا شَاءَ
٤٩ - وَقَالَ أَبُو عَبْدِ اللَّهِ: قَوْلُ اللَّهِ تَعَالَى: ﴿هَلْ يَنْظُرُونَ إِلَّا أَنْ يَأْتِيَهُمُ اللَّهُ فِي ظُلَلٍ مِنَ الْغَمَامِ وَالْمَلَائِكَةُ﴾ [البقرة: ٢١٠]، ﴿وَجَاءَ رَبُّكَ وَالْمَلَكُ صَفًّا صَفًّا﴾ [الفجر: ٢٢]، فَمَنْ قَالَ: إِنَّ اللَّهَ لَا يُرَى، فَقَدْ كَفَرَ
47 — Aḥmad said: Whoever says that Allah is not seen in the Hereafter is a Jahmī and has disbelieved. 48 — And he said: They will look at their Lord and He will look at them; they will speak to Him and He to them, however He wills and when He wills. 49 — And Abū ʿAbd Allāh said: Allah's saying 'Do they await but that Allah should come to them in shadows of clouds and the angels' [2:210], 'And your Lord comes, and the angels, rank upon rank' [89:22] — so whoever says that Allah is not seen has disbelieved.
Ibn Baṭṭah, al-Ibānah al-Kubrā 7/57 nos. 47–49.
Source, chain and authenticity
Ibn Taymiyyah wrote in al-ʿAqīdah al-Wāsiṭiyyah that faith in Allah, His Books and His Messengers includes believing that the believers will see Him on the Day of Resurrection openly with their eyes, as they see the sun on a clear day with no cloud beneath it, and as they see the full moon without crowding one another. They will see Him on the plains of the Resurrection and again after entering Paradise, as Allah wills.
Ibn Taymiyyah said in al-ʿAqīdah al-Wāsiṭiyyah, in Majmūʿ al-Fatāwā:
And also included in what we have mentioned of faith in Him, His Books and His Messengers is faith that the believers will see Him on the Day of Resurrection openly with their eyes, as they see the sun on a clear day with no cloud beneath it, and as they see the moon on the night it is full, not crowding one another to see Him. They will see Him, Glorified is He, while they are on the plains of the Resurrection, and then they will see Him after entering Paradise, as Allah wills.
Ibn Taymiyyah, al-ʿAqīdah al-Wāsiṭiyyah, in Majmūʿ al-Fatāwā 3/144
Source, chain and authenticity
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وَمِنْ الْإِيمَانِ بِاَللَّهِ وَكُتُبِهِ: الْإِيمَانُ بِأَنَّ الْقُرْآنَ كَلَامُ اللَّهِ مُنَزَّلٌ غَيْرُ مَخْلُوقٍ مِنْهُ بَدَأَ وَإِلَيْهِ يَعُودُ؛ وَأَنَّ اللَّهَ تَعَالَى تَكَلَّمَ بِهِ حَقِيقَةً وَأَنَّ هَذَا الْقُرْآنَ الَّذِي أَنْزَلَهُ عَلَى مُحَمَّدٍ ﷺ هُوَ كَلَامُ اللَّهِ حَقِيقَةً لَا كَلَامُ غَيْرِهِ؛ وَلَا يَجُوزُ إطْلَاقُ الْقَوْلِ بِأَنَّهُ حِكَايَةٌ عَنْ كَلَامِ اللَّهِ أَوْ عِبَارَةٌ عَنْهُ بَلْ إذَا قَرَأَهُ النَّاسُ أَوْ كَتَبُوهُ بِذَلِكَ فِي الْمَصَاحِفِ: لَمْ يَخْرُجْ بِذَلِكَ عَنْ أَنْ يَكُونَ كَلَامَ اللَّهِ تَعَالَى حَقِيقَةً فَإِنَّ الْكَلَامَ إنَّمَا يُضَافُ حَقِيقَةً إلَى مَنْ قَالَهُ مُبْتَدِئًا لَا إلَى مَنْ قَالَهُ مُبَلِّغًا مُؤَدِّيًا. وَهُوَ كَلَامُ اللَّهِ؛ حُرُوفُهُ وَمَعَانِيهِ؛ لَيْسَ كَلَامُ اللَّهِ الْحُرُوفَ دُونَ الْمَعَانِي وَلَا الْمَعَانِيَ دُونَ الْحُرُوفِ.
فَصْلٌ:
وَقَدْ دَخَلَ أَيْضًا فِيمَا ذَكَرْنَاهُ مِنْ الْإِيمَانِ بِهِ وَبِكُتُبِهِ وَبِرُسُلِهِ: الْإِيمَانُ بِأَنَّ الْمُؤْمِنِينَ يَرَوْنَهُ يَوْمَ الْقِيَامَةِ عِيَانًا بِأَبْصَارِهِمْ كَمَا يَرَوْنَ الشَّمْسَ صَحْوًا لَيْسَ دُونَهَا سَحَابٌ وَكَمَا يَرَوْنَ الْقَمَرَ لَيْلَةَ الْبَدْرِ لَا يضامون فِي رُؤْيَتِهِ يَرَوْنَهُ سُبْحَانَهُ وَهُمْ فِي عَرَصَاتِ الْقِيَامَةِ ثُمَّ يَرَوْنَهُ بَعْدَ دُخُولِ الْجَنَّةِ كَمَا يَشَاءُ اللَّهُ ﷾.
When the people of al-Qaṣīm asked Shaykh Muḥammad ibn ʿAbd al-Wahhāb about his creed, he wrote among its articles that the believers will see their Lord with their eyes on the Day of Resurrection as they see the moon on the night it is full, without crowding one another to see Him.
Muḥammad ibn ʿAbd al-Wahhāb said in his reply to the people of al-Qaṣīm on his creed, in al-Durar al-Saniyyah:
… and that the believers will see their Lord with their eyes on the Day of Resurrection, as they see the moon on the night it is full, not crowding one another to see Him.
Muḥammad ibn ʿAbd al-Wahhāb, his reply to the people of al-Qaṣīm on his creed, in al-Durar al-Saniyyah 1/32
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وأومن بأن نبينا محمدا ﷺ خاتم النبيين والمرسلين، ولا يصح إيمان عبد حتى يؤمن برسالته، ويشهد بنبوته; وأن أفضل أمته أبو بكر الصديق، ثم عمر الفاروق، ثم عثمان ذو النورين، ثم علي المرتضى، ثم بقية العشرة; ثم أهل بدر، ثم أهل الشجرة أهل بيعة الرضوان، ثم سائر الصحابة ﵃. وأتولى أصحاب رسول الله ﷺ، وأذكر محاسنهم، وأترضى عنهم، وأستغفر لهم، وأكف عن مساويهم، وأسكت عما شجر بينهم، وأعتقد فضلهم، عملا بقوله تعالى: ﴿وَالَّذِينَ جَاءُوا مِنْ بَعْدِهِمْ يَقُولُونَ رَبَّنَا اغْفِرْ لَنَا وَلإِخْوَانِنَا الَّذِينَ سَبَقُونَا بِالإيْمَانِ وَلا تَجْعَلْ فِي قُلُوبِنَا غِلاًّ لِلَّذِينَ آمَنُوا رَبَّنَا إِنَّكَ رَؤُوفٌ رَحِيمٌ﴾ ، [سورة الحشر آية: ١٠] . وأترضى عن أمهات المؤمنين المطهرات من كل سوء. وأقر بكرامات الأولياء وما لهم من المكاشفات، إلا أنهم لا يستحقون من حق الله تعالى شيئا، ولا يطلب منهم ما لا يقدر عليه إلا الله. ولا أشهد لأحد من المسلمين بجنة ولا نار، إلا من شهد له رسول الله ﷺ ولكني أرجو للمحسن، وأخاف على المسيء. ولا أكفر أحدا من المسلمين بذنب، ولا أخرجه من دائرة الإسلام. وأرى الجهاد ماضيا مع كل إمام: برا كان، أو
Part Six
Principles drawn from the evidence
Eighth Issue: The Rules Concerning the Ruʾyah
The first rule: the Ruʾyah in the Hereafter is for the believers. The disbelievers are veiled from their Lord, as Allah said, and this veiling is itself a punishment.
The second rule: no one sees Allah in this world with his eyes. Mūsā was told “you will not see Me”, and the Prophet ﷺ said: “Know that none of you will see his Lord until he dies.” Whoever claims to see Allah in this world while awake has claimed what was denied to Mūsā.
The third rule: the Ruʾyah does not require that the believers encompass Allah. They see Him as He wills, and vision does not encompass Him. The affirmation of seeing and the denial of encompassing are both in the Qurʾān, and Ahl al-Sunnah take both.
Ninth Issue: “without encompassing and without modality”
The Ruʾyah is a truth for the people of Paradise without encompassing and without modality. Encompassing is denied because the seeing of Allah cannot be a seeing that encompasses the one seen, as He said: lā tudrikuhu al-abṣār (لَا تُدْرِكُهُ الْأَبْصَارُ), vision does not encompass Him. The seeing of Allah is a seeing with the eyes, but He cannot be encompassed by sight, just as He cannot be encompassed by knowledge: wa-lā yuḥīṭūnah bihi ʿilmā (وَلَا يُحِيطُونَ بِهِ عِلْمًا), they do not encompass Him in knowledge. The root of knowledge of Allah is established, and so is the root of the seeing; what is denied in the verses is the encompassing. This is not particular to the Ruʾyah, but holds in every attribute of Allah: He is not encompassed in His Essence or His attributes, neither by knowledge nor by perception and sight.
Modality is denied because the seeing of the believers in Paradise follows His attributes, and the modality of the attributes of the Lord is not known. So the seeing of the one who sees the Lord in the abode of bliss is not a seeing of encompassing, and is not given a modality, for three reasons: because Allah in His Highness — it is not known how that is; because Allah in the believers' seeing of Him — it is not known how that is; and because Allah in removing the veil that veils Him from the sight of the creation — it is not known how that is. Our Lord is higher and greater than what turns in the mind, or what a thought hovers around, or what one who imagines imagines. So we affirm the seeing without looking into how it will be; but it is a seeing with sight, a seeing with the two eyes, not a seeing of the heart.
Part Seven
The claims of the opponents and their refutation
“You will never see Me”
The claim
Said by the Muʿtazilah, and the Jahmiyyah before them
Allah said to Mūsā, “You will never see Me”. The word lan negates for all time, so Allah will never be seen.
The response
Mūsā asked to see his Lord. A prophet who spoke with Allah does not ask for something impossible, and Allah did not rebuke him for asking. Allah said “you will not see Me”, not “I cannot be seen”. He linked the vision to the mountain staying in place, and a mountain staying in place is something possible. The negation is about this world, where no one could bear the vision, and the mountain itself crumbled. Nothing in the Arabic of lan requires the negation to last for ever. Allah said of the Jews, “they will never (lan) wish for it”, and yet the people of the Fire will wish for death and call out: let your Lord put an end to us.
Allah, the Exalted, said:
And when Mūsā came at Our appointed time and his Lord spoke to him, he said: My Lord, show me Yourself, that I may look at You. He said: You will not see Me; but look at the mountain: if it remains in its place, then you will see Me. And when his Lord manifested Himself to the mountain, He made it level, and Mūsā fell down unconscious. When he recovered he said: Glorified are You! I turn to You in repentance, and I am the first of the believers.
Qurʾān 7:143 (al-Aʿrāf) Read the verse (opens in a new tab)
“Vision cannot encompass Him”
The claim
Said by the Muʿtazilah
Allah said, “Vision cannot grasp Him”, so He is not seen at all.
The response
The verb used is idrāk, which means encompassing and reaching the full extent of something. It does not mean seeing. The verse praises Allah, and there is no praise in being a thing that does not exist to be seen. The praise lies in being seen while no vision encompasses Him because of His greatness. So the verse, read carefully, supports the believers' vision and does not deny it.
Allah, the Exalted, said:
Vision does not encompass Him, and He encompasses all vision; and He is the Subtle, the All-Aware.
Qurʾān 6:103 (al-Anʿām) Read the verse (opens in a new tab)
“Looking means waiting”
The claim
Said by the Muʿtazilah
In “looking at their Lord”, nāẓirah means waiting for His reward.
The response
In Arabic, naẓarah meaning “to wait” takes a direct object without ilā. Naẓarah followed by ilā means to look. The verse attributes the looking to faces, where the eyes are, and describes those faces as radiant. Waiting for a reward that has not yet come does not make a face radiant; looking at the One who gives it does. The Prophet ﷺ himself explained the “more besides” as looking at Allah. After his explanation, no other reading remains.
“He is seen, but in no direction”
The claim
Said by the later Ashʿarīs
Allah will be seen, but not in any direction, not above, and not facing the one who sees.
Its origin Al-Sanūsī's listing of direction among the impossibilities.
The response
This is the position of those who affirm the word “vision” and then remove everything that makes it a vision. Al-Sanūsī, as an answer preserved in al-Durar al-Saniyyah records from his Umm al-Barāhīn, counts “being in a direction” among the things impossible for Allah, and his commentator concludes: so it is not said that He is above the Throne. The Prophet ﷺ compared the believers' vision to seeing the sun and the full moon, which are seen above, in front of the one looking, and without crowding. Something seen in no direction, neither in front of the one seeing nor above him, is not seen with the eyes in any sense people know. The opponents end up with a vision that has no object, and that is a denial of vision under another name.
The imams of the Najdī daʿwah said, in an answer preserved in al-Durar al-Saniyyah:
And al-Sanūsī has opposed the imams of the Sunnah on this question. His wording in Umm al-Barāhīn is: “Among what is impossible in His description, Exalted is He, are twenty attributes” — and among them he mentioned: “that He be in a direction”. Its commentator, Muḥammad ibn ʿUmar al-Tilimsānī, said: “This too is among the kinds of impossible likeness: His being, Exalted is He, in a direction — so it is not said that He, Exalted is He, is above the Throne.”
An answer preserved in al-Durar al-Saniyyah, Kitāb al-Asmāʾ wa-l-Ṣifāt, 3/25, quoting al-Sanūsī, Umm al-Barāhīn, and its commentary by al-Tilimsānī
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والسنوسي قد خالف أئمة السنة في هذه المسألة ; وعبارته في أم البراهين قال: ومما تستحيل في صفته تعالى عشرون صفة، فذكر منها: وأن يكون في جهة ; قال الشارح لها، وهو محمد بن عمر التلمساني: هذا أيضا من أنواع المماثلة المستحيلة، وهي كونه تعالى في جهة، فلا يقال: إنه تعالى فوق العرش ; فقد تبين لك مخالفته السلف الصالح، ومنها: مسألة الصفات، فإن السنوسي أثبت الصفات السبع فقط.
وأما أهل السنة والجماعة فيصفون الله بجميع ما وصف به نفسه، كما يليق بجلاله وعظمته، فيثبتون النّزول، كما وردت بذلك السنة الصحيحة عن رسول الله ﷺ أنه قال: " ينْزل ربنا كل ليلة إلى سماء الدنيا، حين يبقى ثلث الليل "١ إلخ، ويثبتون صفة اليدين، كما يليق بجلاله وعظمته، وكذلك صفة الوجه الكريم، كما يليق بجلاله وعظمته، وكذلك الضحك الذي وردت به السنة، والتعجب، والغضب، والرضى، والقبضتان، والأصابع، فيصفون الله بما وصف به نفسه، أو وصفه به رسوله، ولا يفهمون من جميع ذلك إلا ما يليق بالله وعظمته، لا ما يليق بالمخلوقات من
“The ‘more’ is the face of the Kaʿbah, and the Face of Allah is a figure of speech”
The claim
Said by Bishr al-Marīsī
Bishr al-Marīsī: “The ‘more’ is looking at the face of the Kaʿbah and the faces of righteous deeds. ‘Allah turns towards the one praying with His Face’ means He turns to him with His favour and reward; ‘the Face of Allah’ is said figuratively, as one says the face of the wall and the face of the garment.”
Its origin The Jahmiyyah; answered by al-Dārimī in his Naqḍ.
The response
Al-Dārimī answered him from the speech of the Arabs, and did not soften his answer: Woe to you! This, along with the disbelief in it, is impossible in speech. A garment can be said to have a face, and a wall; but no Arab says that the garment turned with its face towards the buyer, or that the wall turned with its face towards a man. Turning with the face is said only of one able to turn, and everyone able to turn has a face. Name one thing without a face of which it can be said that it turned its face towards someone — you will not bring it.
ʿUthmān ibn Saʿīd al-Dārimī said in Naqḍ al-Imām Abī Saʿīd ʿalā al-Marīsī:
وَيْلَكَ! فَهَذَا مَعَ مَا فِيهِ مِنَ الكُفْرِ، مُحَالٌ فِي الكَلَامِ؛ فَإِنَّهُ لَا يُقال لِشَيْءٍ لَيْسَ مِنْ ذَوِي الوُجُوهِ: أَقْبَلَ بِوَجْهِهِ عَلَى إِنْسَانٍ، أَوْ غَيْرِهِ إِلَّا وَالمُقْبِلُ بِوَجْهِهِ مِنْ ذَوِي الوُجُوهِ، وَقَدْ يَجُوزُ أَنْ يُقَالَ: لِلثَّوْبِ وَجْهٌ، وَللحَائِطِ، وَلَا يَجُوزُ أَنْ يُقَالَ: أَقْبَلَ الثَّوْبُ بِوَجْهِهِ عَلَى المُشْتَرِي، وَأَقْبَلَ الحَائِطُ بِوَجْهِهِ عَلَى فُلَانٍ، لَا يُقَالُ: أَقْبَلَ بِوَجْهِهِ عَلَى شَيْءٍ إِلَّا مَنْ لَهُ القُدْرَةُ عَلَى الإِقْبَالِ.
وَكُلُّ قَادِرٍ عَلَى الإِقْبَالِ ذُو وَجْهٍ، هَذَا مَعْقُولٌ [٥٢/ظ] مَفْهُومٌ فِي كَلَامِ العَرَبِ، فَإِنْ جَهِلْتَهُ، فَسَمِّ شَيْئًا مِنَ الأَشْيَاءِ لَيْسَ مِنْ ذَوِي الأَوْجُهِ يَجُوزُ أَنْ تَقُولَ: أَقْبَلَ بِوَجْهِهِ عَلَى فُلَانٍ؛ فَإِنَّكَ لَا تَأْتِي بِهِ، فَافْهَمْ، وَمَا أَرَاكَ وَلَا إِمَامَكَ تَفْهَمَانِ هَذَا وَمَا أَشْبَهَهُ.
Upon affirming these reports and believing in them we found the people of fiqh and knowledge. And even if there were nothing but what you yourself narrated, O opponent, from Wakīʿ, from al-Aʿmash, from Abū Wāʾil, from Ḥudhayfah: “When the servant stands to pray, Allah turns towards him with His Face” — and you claimed that He turns towards him with His favour and reward, and that “the Face of Allah” is said figuratively, as it is said “the face of the wall” and “the face of the garment”. Woe to you! This, along with the disbelief in it, is impossible in speech. For it is not said of anything that is not possessed of a face: it turned with its face towards a person or anything else — except that the one turning with its face is one possessed of a face. It is permissible to say that a garment has a face, and a wall; and it is not permissible to say: the garment turned with its face towards the buyer, or the wall turned with its face towards so-and-so. It is not said “he turned with his face towards a thing” except of one who has the ability to turn. And everyone able to turn is possessed of a face. This is understood and comprehended in the speech of the Arabs; and if you are ignorant of it, then name one thing among the things that are not possessed of faces of which it is permissible to say: it turned with its face towards so-and-so — for you will not bring it. So understand; and I do not see you or your imam understanding this and what is like it.
ʿUthmān ibn Saʿīd al-Dārimī, Naqḍ al-Imām Abī Saʿīd ʿalā al-Marīsī, p. 279
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وَعَلَى تَصْدِيقِ هَذِهِ الآثَارِ وَالإِيمَانِ بِهَا؛ أَدْرَكْنَا أَهْلَ الفِقْهِ وَالعِلْمِ، وَلَوْ لَمْ يَكُنْ إِلَّا مَا رَوَيْتَ أَيُّهَا المُعَارِضُ عَنْ وَكِيعٍ، عَنِ الأَعْمَشِ، عَنْ أَبِي وَائِلٍ، عَنْ حُذَيْفَةَ: «أنَّ العَبْدَ إِذَا قَامَ يُصَلِّي أقبل الله عَلَيْهِ بِوَجْهِهِ» (١) فَادَّعَيْتَ أَنَّهُ يُقْبِلُ عَلَيْهِ بِنِعْمَتِهِ وَثَوَابِهِ، وَأَنَّهُ قَدْ يُقَالُ: وَجْهُ الله فِي المَجَازِ، كَمَا يُقَالُ: وَجْهُ الحَائِطِ، وَوَجْهُ الثَّوْبِ.
وَيْلَكَ! فَهَذَا مَعَ مَا فِيهِ مِنَ الكُفْرِ، مُحَالٌ فِي الكَلَامِ؛ فَإِنَّهُ لَا يُقال لِشَيْءٍ لَيْسَ مِنْ ذَوِي الوُجُوهِ: أَقْبَلَ بِوَجْهِهِ عَلَى إِنْسَانٍ، أَوْ غَيْرِهِ إِلَّا وَالمُقْبِلُ بِوَجْهِهِ مِنْ ذَوِي الوُجُوهِ، وَقَدْ يَجُوزُ أَنْ يُقَالَ: لِلثَّوْبِ وَجْهٌ، وَللحَائِطِ، وَلَا يَجُوزُ أَنْ يُقَالَ: أَقْبَلَ الثَّوْبُ بِوَجْهِهِ عَلَى المُشْتَرِي، وَأَقْبَلَ الحَائِطُ بِوَجْهِهِ عَلَى فُلَانٍ، لَا يُقَالُ: أَقْبَلَ بِوَجْهِهِ عَلَى شَيْءٍ إِلَّا مَنْ لَهُ القُدْرَةُ عَلَى الإِقْبَالِ.
وَكُلُّ قَادِرٍ عَلَى الإِقْبَالِ ذُو وَجْهٍ، هَذَا مَعْقُولٌ [٥٢/ظ] مَفْهُومٌ فِي كَلَامِ العَرَبِ، فَإِنْ جَهِلْتَهُ، فَسَمِّ شَيْئًا مِنَ الأَشْيَاءِ لَيْسَ مِنْ ذَوِي الأَوْجُهِ يَجُوزُ أَنْ تَقُولَ: أَقْبَلَ بِوَجْهِهِ عَلَى فُلَانٍ؛ فَإِنَّكَ لَا تَأْتِي بِهِ، فَافْهَمْ، وَمَا أَرَاكَ وَلَا إِمَامَكَ تَفْهَمَانِ هَذَا وَمَا أَشْبَهَهُ.
وَلَوْلَا كَثْرَةُ مَنْ يَسْتَنْكِرُ الحَقَّ، وَيَسْتَحْسِنُ البَاطِلَ؛ مَا اشْتَغَلْنَا كُلَّ هَذَا الِاشْتِغَالِ بِتَثْبِيتِ وَجْهِ الله ذِي الجلَال وَالإِكْرَام، ولو لم يَكُنْ فِيهِ إِلَّا اجْتِمَاعُ الكَلِمَةِ مِنَ العَالِمِينَ: «أَعُوذُ بِوَجْهِ الله العَظِيمِ» و «أَعُوذُ بِوَجْهِكَ يَا رَبِّ»،
Then he closed with the judgement that every Jahmī of every age deserves: I do not see you or your imam understanding this, or anything like it. The interpretation of al-Marīsī is the same interpretation that the later schools repeat when they make the Face “the reward” or “the Essence”: it fails in the Arabic before it fails in the creed. And al-Dārimī said: had it not been for the many who deny the truth and approve falsehood, we would not have busied ourselves with establishing the Face of Allah, Owner of Majesty and Honour — when the Muslims, scholars and common people alike, all say: aʿūdhu bi-wajhi Allāhi al-ʿaẓīm, I seek refuge in the Face of Allah the Mighty.
Sources
- An answer preserved in al-Durar al-Saniyyah, Kitāb al-Asmāʾ wa-l-Ṣifāt
- Ibn Baṭṭah, al-Ibānah al-Kubrā
- Ibn Fāris, Maqāyīs al-Lughah
- Ibn Taymiyyah, al-ʿAqīdah al-Wāsiṭiyyah, in Majmūʿ al-Fatāwā
- Isḥāq ibn Rāhawayh, al-Musnad
- Muslim, al-Ṣaḥīḥ, ed. ʿAbd al-Bāqī
- Muḥammad ibn ʿAbd al-Wahhāb, his reply to the people of al-Qaṣīm on his creed, in al-Durar al-Saniyyah
- Qurʾān
- al-Bukhārī, al-Ṣaḥīḥ (al-Sulṭāniyyah)
- ʿUthmān ibn Saʿīd al-Dārimī, Naqḍ al-Imām Abī Saʿīd ʿalā al-Marīsī