—in the course of the debate—leading him to imagine that whatever a person does not perceive with his own senses he cannot acknowledge, as though the basic rule were that whatever cannot even be conceived of as an object of sensation is not to be affirmed. Jahm should therefore have asked them to clarify their statement, “A person does not affirm what he does not sense.” Did they mean this (1) or that?
If they intended the first meaning, the falsity of their claim could be shown in many ways, and the people of their own town—as indeed all mankind—would have refuted it. But if they meant the second meaning, namely that whatever cannot possibly be sensed is not to be affirmed, then conceding that to them does no harm; rather, one may grant it and say to them (2): “Allah, exalted be He, can indeed be seen (3) and His speech can be heard; in fact, some human beings have already heard His speech—namely…"
(1) In the manuscript S: “and.”
(2) The word “lahum” (for them) is omitted in S.
(3) In the printed edition T it reads “tamakkun ru’yatihi” (“the firm establishment of His vision”).
This is the doctrine of the righteous predecessors (salaf al-ṣāliḥ), may Allah be pleased with them, derived from the Book and the Sunnah and from the statements of the Companions and their Followers with kindness. It is the belief that every Muslim who follows their path must affirm.
Shaykh al-Islām Ibn Taymiyya (may Allah have mercy on him) says in the letter he sent to the people of Bahrain—recorded in al-Fatāwā 6:485 and what follows:
“…What is essential for every Muslim to believe is that the believers will see their Lord in the Hereafter on the plain of Resurrection (al-ʿArṣa) and after they enter Paradise, as the hadiths have reached consensus among the scholars of hadith. Indeed, he (peace and blessings be upon him) reported: ‘We shall see our Lord just as we see the full moon, and even the sun at its zenith; there is no difficulty in its vision.’
And His vision (Glorified is He) is the highest rank of the bliss of Paradise and the ultimate goal of those who worship Allah sincerely in their religion. Yet these visions will differ in degree according to each person’s nearness to Allah and knowledge of Him.
The position held by the majority of the Salaf is that whoever denies the vision of Allah in the Hereafter is a disbeliever. If he is among those to whom this knowledge has not reached, his case is judged accordingly—just as one who has not received the message of Islam—and if he persists in denial after the knowledge reaches him, then he is a disbeliever.”
The evidences for affirming the vision are drawn from the Book, the Sunnah, and the statements of the Companions and the Followers.