beyond which there is no ignorance. No one has attained that. They asked, ‘Not even you, Messenger of Allah?’ He replied, ‘Not even I. Allah is too exalted for anyone to comprehend His reality in full.’”

Yet he is the most knowledgeable of all creation concerning his Lord; beside his knowledge, the knowledge of all other knowers amounts to ignorance. In his intimate supplications, he would say:

“O Allah, make Yourself known to me, that my longing for You and my fear of You may increase.”

This is a request for increased knowledge, just as Allah instructed him:

“And say, ‘My Lord, increase me in knowledge.’”

Al-Shiblī used to say, “No one has truly known Allah,” meaning that, had they truly known Him, they would not have occupied themselves with anything besides Him.

Al-Wāsitī used to say, “Just as they came into being through Him, so they came to know Him through Him.”

Abū al-Hasan al-Marwazī said in his poem:

Through Him they knew Him and found their way aright;
Without His guidance, they would have been blind and bewildered.

The Prophet, may Allah bless him and grant him peace, said, among his words:

“By Allah, were it not for Allah, we would not have been guided, nor given charity, nor prayed”—to the end of the hadith.)