their deeds in this world with good or ill, as He recompensed the people of Noah, ʿĀd, Thamūd and Pharaoh, and as He recompensed the prophets and their followers. No Muslim has ever said that encountering these things in this world constitutes meeting Allah. If someone were to say that meeting Allah means a particular recompense—Paradise, for example, or Hell—he would be told: Nothing in this expression specifies such an encounter, nor is there any evidence for it. This interpretation is no more justified than saying that meeting Allah Most High means meeting some of His angels or some devils, or making similar arbitrary claims involving things found in both this world and the Hereafter. The wording gives no more grounds for specifying one of these than another. Thus, that interpretation is invalid.

Seventh: “Meeting Allah” has never been used to mean meeting anyone other than Him, either literally or figuratively. Nor has “meeting Zayd” ever been used to mean meeting someone else. Wherever such an expression occurs, it means meeting the one named, for the wording neither suggests nor indicates anyone else.

Eighth: His words:

“He is the One who sends blessings upon you, as do His angels, to bring you out of darkness into light. And He is ever Merciful to the believers.”

“Their greeting on the Day they meet Him will be ‘Peace!’ And He has prepared for them a generous reward.”

If this “meeting” meant encountering His recompense, it would mean encountering the generous reward prepared for them. Having stated that they would encounter it, it would then be inappropriate to state that He had prepared it, since the purpose of preparing it is that they should receive it. How, then, could He mention the means after the intended end had been attained? This is an argument involving inarticulacy of a kind from which even an ordinary person’s speech is held free, let alone the speech of the Lord of the worlds. Moreover, the meeting is coupled with a greeting, which occurs only in a meeting in the familiar sense, not merely in receiving some created delight.