you used to call for.’” The object pronoun in “they see it” refers back to the promise, meaning what was promised: when they saw what they had been promised, the faces of those who disbelieved were distressed. The view that the pronoun here refers to Allah is weak.

The invalidity of interpreting the intended meaning as “meeting the recompense” rather than meeting Allah is necessarily evident upon reflection on the Book and the Sunnah. Its invalidity becomes apparent in several ways:

First: It contradicts the explanations transmitted from the Companions and the Successors.

Second: The omission of the genitive complement is accompanied by contextual indicators. The statement must therefore contain an indication that makes this clear, as has been explained concerning His words:

“Ask the town in which we were.”

If someone said, without qualification, “I saw Zayd” or “I met him,” while intending that he had met Zayd’s father or servant, this would indisputably be inadmissible in Arabic. Meeting Allah is mentioned in numerous places in the Book of Allah and the Sunnah of His Messenger without qualification, and without any accompanying indication that meeting Allah means encountering some created thing of His, whether recompense or something else.

Third: If an expression occurs repeatedly in the Book, used time and again in the same way, yet what is intended differs from what it conveys and entails when used without qualification, and this is not explained, that would constitute concealment and obfuscation. Allah’s speech must be held above this. He has declared it to be a healing for what is in people’s hearts, guidance and mercy for the believers, and a clear exposition for mankind. He has also declared that the Messenger conveyed it with clarity and explained to people what had been sent down to them, and that He Himself has undertaken to make it clear. Nor