Abū Hurayrah: “Allah will come to them in a form other than the form they recognize.” This makes clear that their recognition arose from having previously seen Him in a form different from the one in which they failed to recognize Him. In this interpretation, however, he takes the form they recognize to be the one whose attributes He had made known to them in this world. That is not the case, for the report states that it is the form in which they saw Him the first time, not that they recognized it from its description in this world. The wording explicitly refers to seeing. We have already shown that more than one hadith makes clear that they saw Him before this occasion.

The second point is that, in this world, they do not know any form of Allah, nor have they seen Him in any form here. The descriptions Allah Most High has given of Himself, and those given by His Messenger, may Allah bless him and grant him peace, do not furnish them with a form they can recognize. Thus, another hadith states: “There is nothing like Him.” Had they meant the attributes conveyed to them in this world, they would have said so. This shows that they were unable to describe the form in which they saw Him the first time.

The Prophet said concerning the Lote Tree of the Utmost Boundary: “Then there came over it, by Allah’s command, that which came over it, until no one could