, the Possessor of Power, the Ever-Firm, who provides for whomever He wills without measure. He is the Guide and Helper: He guides whomever He wills to a straight path and helps His messengers and those who believe, both in this worldly life and on the Day when the witnesses rise. He is the All-Wise, the All-Knowing, the Merciful, who has made manifest effects of His knowledge, wisdom, and mercy that none but He can enumerate.

He is the Lord of all worlds, and the worlds are filled with the effects of His names and attributes. Everything glorifies Him with praise, but you do not understand their glorification. Some people, through knowledge and understanding, perceive the indications and testimony these things contain. Those whose hearing Allah opens hear the mountains and birds repeating His praises and understand the speech of birds.

If His manifestation and self-disclosure are interpreted in this sense, this is correct. However, the terms “manifestation” and “self-disclosure” are ambiguous, as we shall explain, if Allah Most High wills.

If someone says, “I have never seen anything without seeing Allah before it,” because He is its Lord, and the Lord precedes the servant; or, “I saw Allah after it,” because it is His sign, evidence pointing to Him, and a witness to Him, and knowledge of what is indicated follows knowledge of the evidence; or, “I saw Allah in it,” meaning that the effects of the Maker are manifest in His handiwork—then this is correct.

Indeed, the entire Quran explains this and points to it. This is the religion of the messengers and the path of those whom Allah has blessed: the prophets, the steadfastly truthful, the martyrs, and the righteous. It is the belief of the Muslims who belong to Ahl al-Sunnah wa-l-Jamāʿah, and of those included among them: people of knowledge and faith, endowed with understanding and certainty—the pious allies of Allah.