vision can grasp Him, while He grasps all vision” ? (1)

Ikrimah replied, “Do you not see the sky?” The man said, “Indeed.” Ikrimah then asked, “Do you see all of it?” (2)

From this (3) it is evident that Ikrimah, in the presence of Ibn ʿAbbās, explained that grasping (idrāk) by sight (4) means perceiving the whole of what is seen, not merely a part of it. Therefore, whoever looks at the sky yet does not see all of it cannot be said (5) to have grasped it (6). He adopted this as the explanation of Allah’s statement, “No vision can grasp Him” (7), and Ibn ʿAbbās endorsed that interpretation.

Nevertheless, those (8) from whom this wording has been transmitted have also (9) been reported as denying that the Divine Essence could consist of parts—glorified and exalted is He—and the narrators have clarified what they meant by that.

Al-Ḥāfiẓ Abū Shaykh al-Aṣbahānī (10) said in Kitāb al-Sunnah: “ʿAbd al-Raḥmān b. Muḥammad al-Āmulī narrated to us; from Mūsā b. ʿĪsā b. Ḥammād b. Zughbah; Naʿīm b. Ḥammād narrated to us; Nūḥ b. Abī (11) Maryam narrated to us, from Ibrāhīm b. Maymūn, …”