Thus, she disputes and complains while Allah hears their conversation. This indicates that His hearing is like His seeing mentioned in His words:

“Say, ‘Do deeds, for Allah will see your deeds, as will His Messenger and the believers.’”

He also said:

“Then We made you successors in the land after them, so that We might see how you would act.”

This is a distinct instance of seeing and a distinct instance of looking. It has already been explained that, by the agreement of all rational people, what does not exist cannot be seen or heard as something separate from the one who sees and hears. Once words and deeds come into existence, He hears and sees them. “Seeing” and “hearing” are realities that exist and must have a subject characterized by them. If He is the One who sees and hears them, it is impossible for someone else to be characterized by this hearing and seeing, or for them to subsist in someone else. It follows necessarily that this hearing and seeing subsist in Him after the deeds and words have been created. This is an objection that cannot be evaded.

“This issue” and the positions taken on it across the various groups have been discussed at length elsewhere. Their own formulations have been quoted, making it certain that the one who denies this has no evidence, whether from revelation or reason, and that clear rational proofs accord with the position of the early generations and the people of hadith. The Quran and Sunnah indicate this, as do “the earlier scriptures”: the Torah, the Gospel and the Psalms. The prophetic texts, the statements of the early generations and the leading scholars all agree on it, and clear rational arguments establish it.

Anyone who disagrees on this issue is like those who disagree on comparable matters without any evidence from revelation or reason. Rather, he resembles those who said:

“Had we only listened or reasoned, we would not have been among the companions of the Blaze.”