heat and moisture or dryness, unless what is seen is an accident that does not admit of doubling, composition, and the like. Nevertheless, none of these features is decisive.”

He said:

I then learned that throughout that day, that night, and the following day, the sultan kept repeating to himself in his assembly, “How can one conceive of something that is not in a direction?” A belief that first takes hold of the heart and upon which one is raised is difficult to uproot. Allah is the One whose help is sought. The Karrāmiyyah, however, rejoiced at his response.

When I returned home, I found a note which read:

“The master—may Allah preserve his well-being—maintains that the Creator is not in a direction. How, then, can He be seen without being in a direction?”

I wrote:

“The report concerning seeing Allah is authentic, and this vision will certainly occur, as the Prophet, peace and blessings be upon him, gave them glad tidings of it. The report also indicates that Allah is seen without being in a direction, for he, peace and blessings be upon him, said, ‘You will not be crowded together in seeing Him.’ This means that no single direction will gather you together when you see Him, for He is not in a direction.”

I added a lengthy discussion addressing the matter from every angle, filling both sides of the note. When it was returned to him, he sent it to the judge of the town, Abū Muhammad al-Nāsihī, and sought his legal opinion on what I had said. He gathered a group of Hanafīs and Karrāmīs. He himself—may Allah honour you—wrote that whoever says that Allah is seen without being in a direction is a misguided innovator. Abū Hāmid al-Mu‘tazilī wrote the same, as did a man from Bistām who was a tutor in the household of