Then, does “the Lord’s nearness to His servant” necessarily follow from this nearness, just as, when you approach something stationary—the House visited on pilgrimage, a wall, or a mountain—the nearer you come to it, the nearer it is to you? Or is it a further drawing near that the Lord Himself brings about, just as, when you approach something that is moving towards you, it too moves towards you, so that there is an action on your part and another on its part? Ahl al-Sunnah hold two positions on this, based on the principle concerning attributes of action discussed earlier, as in the question of the descent and other such matters. This has already been discussed.

In light of this, consider the reports concerning the Lord’s nearness to His elect servants and His manifestation to their hearts, such as the report in Ahmad’s al-Zuhd (Asceticism) that Moses said, “My Lord, where shall I find You?” He replied:

“With those whose hearts are broken for My sake. I draw a handspan nearer to those hearts each day; were it not for that, they would burn.”

According to the philosophers and the Jahmiyyah, this nearness is merely His appearing and manifesting Himself to the servant’s heart; it is thus the nearness of an image. The philosophers, however, do not affirm the movement of the soul, whereas the Jahmiyyah concede that the soul may move to a high place. According to Ahl al-Sunnah, alongside this manifestation and appearance, the servant himself draws near to his Lord Himself. As for whether Allah Himself may draw near, there are the two positions mentioned above. I have discussed this at length elsewhere.

According to the “negators” among the speculative theologians, the Lord’s coming, arrival, and descent are nothing more than His manifesting and revealing Himself to His servant when the veils associated with the servant, which prevent inward or outward vision, are lifted. It is like someone who was blind or dim-sighted, whose blindness then departed so that he saw the sun