He said, “You would have found Me with him,” and He did not say, “You would have found Me to be him.” Thus He is “with him,” that is, in his heart, and what is in the heart is the intelligible exemplar.

The Exalted also says, “My servant, I was hungry and you did not feed Me.” The servant will reply, “My Lord, how could I feed You when You are the Lord of all worlds?” He will answer, “Did you not know that My servant So-and-so was hungry? Had you fed him, you would have found that with Me.” He did not say, “you would have found Me having eaten it.”

The same meaning appears in the sound hadith recorded by al-Bukhari, on the authority of Abu Hurayrah, in which the Prophet—may Allah bless him and grant him peace—said: Allah the Exalted declares,

“Whoever shows enmity to a friend of Mine, I declare war on him. My servant does not draw near to Me with anything more beloved to Me than the obligations I have enjoined upon him; and My servant continues to draw near to Me through supererogatory deeds until I love him. When I love him, I become the hearing with which he hears, the sight with which he sees, the hand with which he strikes, and the foot with which he walks.”

In another wording: “Through Me he hears, through Me he sees, through Me he strikes, and through Me he walks. Were he to ask of Me, I would surely grant him; were he to seek refuge in Me, I would surely grant him refuge. Never do I hesitate over anything I intend to do as I hesitate over taking the soul of My believing servant: he loathes death, and I dislike distressing him.”