concerning the words of the Most High:

‘Are they waiting for anything but for Allah to come to them in canopies of clouds?’ [al-Baqarah 2:210]

That is, ‘with canopies of clouds.’ Then that form will say, ‘I am your Lord.’ It would seem that this is the final trial faced by those who are morally accountable in the Hereafter. Its purpose is to keep the believer steadfast in righteous speech. This world is described as the abode of trial and the Hereafter as the abode of recompense only because this is generally and predominantly the case, although what occurs in either abode may occasionally occur in the other.

As for the Prophet’s statement (may Allah bless him and grant him peace), ‘They will say, “When our Lord comes, we shall recognize Him,”’ this is to be understood as meaning, ‘When our Lord’s beneficence comes, we shall recognize it.’ His statement, ‘Then Allah will come to them in the form they recognize,’ means that He will come to them with the form they recognize as indicative of beneficence.

As for the Prophet’s statement (may Allah bless him and grant him peace), ‘They will say, “There is a sign between us and Him,”’ that sign may be that He, exalted is He, is in His reality unlike substances