can only be understood in the second sense, for nothing veils Allah, Mighty and Majestic, from seeing and witnessing His servants. Rather, His servants are veiled from seeing Him, and the splendour of His face is kept from consuming whatever of His creation His sight encompasses. A servant, however, may be veiled in either sense.

Even so, the veil need not be larger than what it conceals. A small object placed close to someone’s eye can prevent him from seeing things, while a large object far from the observer can be concealed by something much smaller. Thus, a cloud conceals the sun, although the sun is larger than it by a factor known only to Allah Most High. Likewise, the roof of a person’s house prevents him from seeing the sky; if it is removed, he sees the sky, although it is many times larger than the roof. This is because the closer a veil is to the observer, the smaller it can be compared with one farther away: its size is relative to him, not to what it prevents him from seeing. On what grounds, then, must the Lord’s veils—which prevent His servants from beholding Him, or prevent the splendour of His face from consuming whatever of His creation His sight encompasses—be larger than Him?

They said: “Neither a created being nor the Eternal One can be veiled by any dense, encompassing physical screens that cover them. Rather,