and this is the more correct view. The verse would then affirm that He can be seen: He is seen but not encompassed, without being encompassed or confined. This is what makes it an expression of praise, for it describes His greatness: His servants’ eyes do not encompass Him, even though they see Him, whereas He encompasses their sight.

Ibn ‘Abbās—and ‘Ikrimah in his presence—said to someone who raised this verse as an objection:

“Do you not see the sky?”

He replied, “Yes.”

He asked, “Do you see all of it?”

Likewise, He said:

“They encompass nothing of His knowledge except what He wills.”

These people say that His knowledge is a single entity, no part of which can be encompassed apart from the rest. They therefore said: “They encompass nothing of what He knows.” This is not so. Rather, knowledge itself is a general category: they encompass as much of it as He wills, but do not encompass the rest.

He also said:

“He knows what is before them and what is behind them, but they do not encompass it in knowledge.”

The stronger of the two views is that the pronoun refers to “what is before them and what is behind them.” If they cannot encompass this in knowledge, although it is only part of the Lord’s creation, then it is all the more certain that they cannot encompass the Creator in knowledge.

Allah Most High said:

“None knows the hosts of your Lord except Him.”

He also said:

“Has there not reached you the news of those before you—the people of Noah, ‘Ād and Thamūd, and those after them? None knows them except Allah. Their messengers came to them with clear proofs, but they thrust their hands into their mouths”—to the end of the verse.

Thus, the statement “Vision does not encompass Him”—that is, it does not fully encompass Him—indicates that He