He thus likened the act of sight to the act of sight, even though the two objects beheld are in no way comparable. Accordingly, when the believers see their Lord on the Day of Resurrection and address Him in private, each one will behold Him above, directly before his face, just as he sees the sun and the moon—without any contradiction whatsoever.

[Is the outward sense of the texts intended or not?]

Whoever has been granted a share of knowledge of Allah and is firmly grounded in understanding Him will affirm the Qur’an and the Sunnah as they stand with even greater certainty.

Know that some later scholars say, “The way of the early generations (salaf) is to accept these texts as they have come, while believing that their outward sense is not intended.” This wording is ambiguous. His statement, “their outward sense is not intended,” may be understood to refer to the qualities of created beings and temporal attributes. For example, one might imagine that Allah being “qibala wajh al-musalli” (in front of the worshipper’s face) means that He is located in the wall toward which the worshipper prays, or that the words “Allahu maʿanā” (Allah is with us) outwardly mean He is physically beside us, and the like. There is no doubt that such meanings are not intended.

Thus, whoever says that the position of the salaf is that these meanings are not intended is correct in substance, yet mistaken in asserting without qualification that such interpretations are the apparent sense of the Qur’anic verses and prophetic hadith, for