—and there are prophetic and historical reports that bear this out. Allah, Most High, says of the unbelievers: “No indeed! On that Day they will be screened from their Lord; then they will surely enter the Blaze” (Qur’an 83:15–16). Thus the punishment of being veiled from Him is the greatest of all punishments, while the joy of beholding His Face is the loftiest of all pleasures, and no benefit they receive from any other created thing can replace the benefit they receive from Him—exalted is He.

These two principles are firmly established in the Qur’an and the Sunnah; scholars and believers uphold them, the Sufi masters and gnostics discuss them, and Ahl al-Sunnah wal-Jamāʿah together with the generality of the Muslim community affirm them. They are part of the innate disposition with which Allah has fashioned mankind.

Those who champion these truths sometimes argue with scriptural proofs—verses and reports—and at other times, when someone denies the very existence of this delight, they appeal to direct tasting and spiritual experience, for tasting and experiencing it refute its denial. They may also, on occasion, argue by analogy drawn from everyday examples, that is, by rational proofs.