Surah al-A‘lā (The Most High)

The Shaykh—may Allah have mercy on him—said:

Section

In the work he wrote to Abū Ishāq al-Isfarāyīnī, Ibn Fūrak recounted what had happened to him, saying:

In the course of his remarks, the sultan said, “Do you not say that He is seen without being in any direction?”

I replied:

“Yes, He is seen without being in any direction, just as He has always seen Himself, neither in a direction nor from a direction. Others see Him as He sees and has seen Himself. Direction is not a prerequisite for seeing.”

I also said:

“The visible things that we can conceive of in our experience are indeed seen in a direction and a location. Yet judgment cannot be based solely on familiar experience without examination and inquiry. For just as we see things only in a direction and a location, so too we have only ever seen things that have colour, dimensions and volume, that can be measured and weighed, and that are never devoid of