as was affirmed on rational grounds by leading Imams such as Ahmad ibn Hanbal and others, including ʿAbd al-ʿAzīz al-Makki and ʿAbd Allāh ibn Saʿīd ibn Kullāb.

Likewise, the very possibility of beholding Him can be demonstrated by reason. Some have argued that anything which exists is, in principle, capable of being seen; others contend that whatever subsists by itself can be seen—and this latter argument is sounder than the former.

Moreover, the vision can also be proven by approaches other than these two, through a disjunctive division between negation and affirmation. One may say, for example, that vision depends only on positive conditions, and that whatever depends solely on such conditions—once the object exists