and none of the authenticated hadiths concerning the Ascension states that he saw Him with his own eyes. As for his saying:

“My Lord came to me last night in the most beautiful form,”

the hadith related by al-Tirmidhī and others describes a dream in Medina, as the report explicitly explains. Likewise, the accounts of his seeing his Lord in the hadiths of Umm al-Tufayl, Ibn Abbās, and others concern events that took place in Medina, as explicitly explained in those hadiths. The Ascension, however, took place in Mecca, as Allah Most High said:

“Glory be to Him who took His servant by night from the Sacred Mosque to the Farthest Mosque.”

This matter has been discussed at length elsewhere.

The Quran explicitly establishes that Moses was told:

“You will not see Me,”

and that seeing Allah is a greater matter than having a book sent down from heaven, as Allah Most High said:

“The People of the Book ask you to bring down for them a book from heaven. They asked Moses for something even greater than that, saying, ‘Show us Allah openly.’”

Thus, whoever claims that any person sees Him is claiming that this person is greater than Moses son of Imrān. His claim is greater than that of someone who claims that Allah has sent down a book to him from heaven.

People hold three positions regarding seeing Allah:

• The Companions, the Successors, and the leading scholars of the Muslims hold that Allah will be seen directly with the eyes in the Hereafter, and that no one sees Him with his own eyes in this world. He may, however, be seen in dreams, and hearts experience disclosures and visions appropriate to their condition. Some people’s vision within the heart becomes so powerful that they think they have seen it with their own eyes;