And it is clear that this statement is true in its apparent meaning, as explained earlier concerning the established relations between a locative expression and what it locates. This is not the same as His statement:

“Like a mirage in a lowland which a thirsty man thinks is water, until, when he comes to it, he finds it is nothing, but finds Allah there, who pays him his account in full. And Allah is swift in reckoning.” (39) [al-Nūr 39]

Rather, in both passages, the relation between the locative expression and what it locates is bound up with the term to which that expression is annexed. This is like saying to one of the Companions, “You found Allah’s Messenger, may Allah bless him and grant him peace, with someone,” while another says, “I found Allah’s Messenger among those who follow his sunnah.”

This is especially so since the person addressed already knows that he cannot behold the One present with another person. Thus, the person addressed by His words, “Had you visited him, you would have found Me with him,” knew—as did Moses son of ʿImrān—that they do not see Allah with their own eyes in this world. Accordingly, the only apparent meaning they would understand from His words, “You would have found Me with My sick servant, and with those whose hearts are broken for My sake,” is the meaning appropriate to this particular referent of “with,” rather than the meaning appropriate to a different referent.

As for his words, may Allah bless him and grant him peace, “I become his hearing with which he hears and his sight with which he sees,” if the hadith were quoted in its actual wording, one would know that its meaning is clear and does not require