modes of perception. Accordingly, the hadiths affirm contact, as the Quran also indicates and the leading scholars of the early generations maintained. This is analogous to vision and relates to the question of the Throne, the creation of Adam [with] His hand, and other questions concerning the divine attributes. Some groups of speculative theologians and hadith scholars, including followers of Imam Ahmad and others, have denied it. This, however, is not the place to discuss it; the purpose is merely to draw attention to the central points of this argument.

Taste is a particular kind of touch, as is smell: air, which is a body, enters the nostrils and reaches the appendage in the brain. Hearing and sight, by contrast, involve no contact with what is seen or heard. Thus, the fundamental forms of sense perception are three: hearing, sight, and touch. Allah Most High says:

“You did not seek to conceal yourselves lest your hearing, your sight, or your skins should testify against you.” [Fussilat 22]

Since touch is a genus encompassing different kinds in animals and is not a general means of attaining abstract universal knowledge in the heart