themselves. The inability to bring them about is not peculiar to human beings. Indeed, singling them out in this respect suggests that He Himself can do these things. This is false, for this has no reality whatsoever; even seeing Allah is, according to those who deny it, among the impossibilities, like His nonexistence, death, or being brought into existence, and the like. Were that so, it would not be fitting to deny that His servants’ eyes could see Him, just as it would not be fitting to praise Him by saying that His servants cannot cause Him to cease to exist or cause Him to die. Rather, specifically denying that their eyes apprehend Him implies that He apprehends Himself. If, then, the word “apprehension” entails the particular kind of vision of one who is in a direction, it follows that the verse indicates that He is such.

As for what he related from the eminent Muʿtazilites, he presented the objection of Abū al-Husayn al-Basrī and his followers: that Moses, peace be upon him, might have known that seeing Allah was impossible. In reply, he said:

“As for his statement, ‘Why is it not possible to say that Moses, peace be upon him, was unaware that seeing Him was impossible?’ we say: For three reasons. First, there is consensus that the prophets’ knowledge of Allah and His attributes is more complete than anyone else’s knowledge of these matters. Can anyone doubt that the claim of consensus on this is more evident than the claim that the Companions unanimously agreed to act upon analogical reasoning and reports