is predicated of sense perception, a sensible object, imagination, or imagining cannot be predicated of Him. Yet these are plainly described as existent, established, real, known, mentioned, and described, and the like—descriptions that may indisputably be applied to Allah.

If he means the second—which, Allah knows best, is what he intended, although his wording fails to convey it adequately—then his statement means that He cannot be sensed under any circumstances. If he intends something that entails that He cannot be seen and His speech cannot be heard, this is rejected and false. But if he means that He is unlike sensible things in the way sense perception apprehends Him, then it must be said that He is likewise unlike things known and understood in the way knowledge relates to Him. For nothing is like Allah in any respect, as we have explained elsewhere.

Thirteenth point:

Some groups distinguish between His being intelligible and His being sensible. The negationists among them even say:

“He can be known only through the indications of reason.”

They may also say:

“He belongs to the category of intelligible realities, not sensible ones,” and similar things.

The response is that this wording is ambiguous and misleading. If they mean that, in this world, He is known only through the heart and is not perceived through outward sight or any other sense, then this is true. Yet what the heart knows, witnesses, senses, and so forth is not confined to what is purely intelligible.

For it is established in an authentic hadith that the Prophet, may Allah bless him and grant him peace, said:

“Know that none of you will see his Lord until he dies.”

And there was agreement