{"id":128783,"date":"2019-04-11T03:09:18","date_gmt":"2019-04-11T03:09:18","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/news.iium.edu.my\/?p=128783"},"modified":"2019-04-11T03:09:20","modified_gmt":"2019-04-11T03:09:20","slug":"why-cant-we-see-allah","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/news.iium.edu.my\/?p=128783","title":{"rendered":"Why Cant We See Allah?"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

By Spahic Omer<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

One may ask why we cannot see Allah, although we\ncan communicate with Him so closely. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

In a nutshell, we cannot see Allah because, first, there is nothing like Him (al-Shura, 11). Our eyes, and other senses and faculties, are relative things and thus, can only see other relative things belonging to the corresponding existential realms. They cannot see, hear or recognise beyond the orb of our everyday existential things and objects.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Second, nobody says that humans will not see Allah.\nBoth the Holy Quran and the Prophets sunnah<\/em> are explicit that\nbelievers will see Him in Paradise (jannah<\/em>). The vision will be as clear\nand certain as seeing \u0153the moon\non the night when it is full\u009d and \u0153the sun on a cloudless day\u009d (Sahih\nal-Bukhari). <\/p>\n\n\n\n

What is more, seeing Allah will be the best reward\nin Paradise; whereas not seeing Him will be the worst and most painful\nchastisement for the inhabitants of Hell. Seeing Allah is the greatest blessing\nand joy, so it is withheld for the place of ultimate blessing and joy, namely\nParadise, and it is reserved exclusively for believers. This, in addition,\nserves to believers as a strong motive to continue doing good in this world and\nnever get bored or give up. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

It goes without saying that not seeing Allah is\nonly a temporary decree for Allahs true servants, who are closest to Him in\nthis world. Seeing Allah in Paradise could also imply the pinnacle, or\nculmination, of their incessant drawing closer to Him.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Third, we cannot see Allah now and here because we\nare trapped in time and space, while He is beyond them. Time and space are\nAllahs creation. He is not fettered by them; we are. Consequently, man cannot\nthink except along the lines of time, space and matter. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Once the hindrances posed by the time and space\nfactors of this world are eliminated in the Hereafter — or modulated, together\nwith man himself and his various faculties, so as to make them suitable and\nfitting for the conditions of the Hereafter \u201c seeing Allah will appear utterly\nviable and sensible, especially for those who will be Paradise-bound.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Even in this world, man can see instantly and\ndirectly very little and a very few things. Man is myopic or short-sighted, so\nto speak. He cannot see more because of a myriad of time and space components\nand influences standing between him and things, incapacitating him from seeing\nmore. To see more, man must overcome, or eliminate, those components and\ninfluences. The problem, therefore, is not with things and objects, but with\nman and his limited abilities.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

For example, a person sitting in a windowless room\ncan only see the rooms interior. To see outside, he must leave the room; that\nis to say, he must overcome the room as a hindrance to seeing outside. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Moreover, to see a friend in a nearby town, 50 km away, a person must travel that much; that is, he must overcome the hindrance of the necessary distance and time that separate him from seeing the friend. The same principle applies to seeing everything else that lies outside the perimeters of the windowless room.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Similarly, for a person to see his friend who\npassed away two years ago, he will have to travel back in time two years or\nmore; that is, he will have to deal with the unsurmountable time hurdle, or\nbarrier, in order to see his friend. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Also, for a person to see his future grandchildren,\nhe will have to travel into the future as much as necessary; which means, he\nwill again have to contend with the unassailable time difficulty.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

At any rate, to see and experience things, man must\nfree himself from the physical milieus and situations wherein he, as\nsubstantially a physical being himself, is confined or imprisoned. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

The whole issue is about man and his weaknesses,\nexacerbated by the spatial and temporal parameters and constraints within which\nhe operates. Yet, there are many other things right inside man, or everywhere\naround him, which man cannot see, but which undeniably exist. Some of those things\nare radio waves as a type of electronic wave used to transmit data for\nsatellites, computer networks and radio, atoms as the smallest building blocks\nof matter, air or oxygen, ultraviolet light, gravity, the mind, the soul,\nemotions, quantum particles, the actual size of the universe, etc. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Anyway, it makes sense to wish, yet ask, to see existing things and objects. But a code of ethics, as well as a dose of pragmatism and common sense, are needed. Man must realise that, just like in everything else, there are certain physical, rational, ethical and spiritual rules, regulations and procedures that preside over the prospect of seeing things. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

For man — insignificant, weak and vulnerable as he\nis — to insist on seeing Almighty Allah, Who is the only truly\nTranscendent Being, the Exalted, Sublime, Ever-Living and Self-Sustaining, while he is\nimprisoned and stuck in the yokes of matter, is at once an ignorant, arrogant\nand preposterous pretence.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

When Allah spoke to Prophet Musa (Moses) on Mount\nSinai, Musa at one point said: \u0153O my Lord! Show\n(Yourself) to me that I may look upon You\u009d (al-Araf, 143).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Musa asked to see\nAllah because, as a prophet, he knew that seeing Allah is not impossible, nor\nthat wishing, or even humbly asking, to see Him in extraordinary situations\nsuch as the one in which Musa had found himself, is blasphemous.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

When Allah replied\nthat Musa neither will, nor could, see Him, He meant that in the context of\nthis world only \u201c as is the view of all mainstream exegetes (mufassir<\/em>).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

And when Allah\nsaid to Musa after that: \u0153Behold this mountain: if it remains firm in its\nplace, then — only then — will you see Me\u009d, Allah wanted to bring home to\nMusa his existing human weaknesses, as well as the impediments and hurdles of\ntime and space, which will need to be overcome, or liquidated, if he was to see\nAlmighty Allah. Allah wanted to communicate to Musa that he was not ready to\nsee Him, nor had the time come for such an event to take place.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

At last: \u0153When his\nLord manifested His glory on the mount, He made it as dust and Musa fell down\nin a swoon. When he recovered his senses, he said: \u02dcGlory be to You! To You I\nturn in repentance and I am the first to believe\u009d (al-Araf, 143).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

When Prophet\nMuhammad (pbuh) was asked if he had seen Allah on the night of Miraj<\/em> (ascension into heaven), he\nreplied: \u0153(He is veiled by) Light, how could I see Him?\u009d\n(Sahih Muslim).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Finally, Allah declares: \u0153No vision can grasp Him, but His grasp is over all vision. He is above all comprehension yet is acquainted with all things\u009d (al-Anam, 103).***<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

By Spahic Omer One may ask why we cannot see Allah, although we can communicate with Him so closely. In a nutshell, we cannot see… <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":5,"featured_media":128827,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[22,21],"tags":[],"nelio_content":{"isAutoShareEnabled":true,"autoShareEndMode":"never","automationSources":{"useCustomSentences":false,"customSentences":[]},"followers":[12,111,5],"suggestedReferences":[],"efiUrl":"","efiAlt":"","highlights":[],"permalinkQueryArgs":[]},"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/news.iium.edu.my\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/04\/Poster_KAABAH__24___Jumbo_size_50_x_70_cm_HBY0.jpg","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/news.iium.edu.my\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/128783"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/news.iium.edu.my\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/news.iium.edu.my\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news.iium.edu.my\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/5"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news.iium.edu.my\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=128783"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/news.iium.edu.my\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/128783\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":128815,"href":"https:\/\/news.iium.edu.my\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/128783\/revisions\/128815"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news.iium.edu.my\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/128827"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/news.iium.edu.my\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=128783"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news.iium.edu.my\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=128783"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news.iium.edu.my\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=128783"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}