comparison—qualifies the act of seeing. In one wording recorded by al-Bukhārī:

“They will see Him directly.”

It is well known that we see the sun and moon directly, facing them; we must therefore see Him likewise. As for seeing what we neither behold directly nor face, this is inconceivable to reason, let alone comparable to seeing the sun and moon.

For this reason, their most astute thinkers came to deny the vision of Allah, saying:

“Our position is, in reality, that of the Muʿtazilah; for they interpreted this vision as a heightened disclosure and similar things concerning which we have no disagreement with the Muʿtazilah.”

As for his assertion that the report indicates that they will see Him without His being in a direction, and his explanation that “lā tudāmūna” means that no single direction will gather them together when they see Him, because He is not in a direction—this interprets the hadith in a way that its wording does not support and that none of the leading scholars ever proposed. Rather, it is an interpretation rejected by reason, revelation, and the Arabic language.

The words “lā tudāmūna” are transmitted without doubling the consonant, meaning: you will suffer no hardship in seeing Him, such as people experience when trying to see something beautiful, like the crescent moon. They may encounter hardship in seeking to see it when it becomes visible. He, glorified be He, however, will manifest Himself clearly, and they will see Him as the sun and moon are seen, without any hardship befalling them in seeing Him. This is the well-known reading. It is also reported as “lā tudāmmūna,” with the consonant doubled, meaning: you will not crowd together