[Disagreement among Those Who Affirm the Vision concerning Allah’s Exaltedness and Establishment over the Throne]
That being so, he has argued that He cannot be seen on the grounds that He (1) is not in any direction. This is [one of the issues] over which (2) those who affirm the Vision have disagreed. The majority (3) upheld what (4) is indicated by the Prophet’s words—may Allah bless him and grant him peace:
“You will see (5) your Lord as you see the sun and the moon, without crowding one another in seeing Him.”
This hadith is agreed [upon] (6) and has been transmitted through numerous routes (7). [It is] (8) widely transmitted—indeed, mass-transmitted—according to hadith scholars (9). They agreed upon [its authenticity (10), in addition to] (11) its having come through numerous routes
(1) Manuscripts N and M read: *li-kawnihi* (“because He is”).
(2) Manuscripts N and M read: “This point is disputed.”
(3) Manuscript ʿ reads: *jumhūruhum* (“their majority”).
(4) The word *bi-mā* is absent from manuscripts B and A. In N and M, it is written *mimmā*, which is a scribal corruption.
(5) Manuscript ʿ reads: *satarawna* (“you will see”).
(6) Manuscripts B, A, N, and M read: *manqūl* (“transmitted”).
(7) Manuscript M reads: *jihātan* (“directions”).
(8) The words *wa-huwa* (“and it is”) are absent from manuscripts N and M.
(9) Manuscripts B and A read: “And the hadith is transmitted.” The following is written in the margin of manuscript ʿ:
“The hadith, ‘You will see your Lord…,’ is widely transmitted—indeed, mass-transmitted—according to hadith scholars. I say: By this, he indicated that mass-transmitted hadiths are not rare, nor are they confined to the hadith, ‘Whoever deliberately lies about me…,’ as Abū ʿAmr ibn al-Salāh claimed in his book on hadith methodology. Rather, they are frequently found: a hadith may be transmitted through multiple routes that become so numerous that the intellect deems it impossible for its transmitters to have colluded upon a lie. Al-ʿAsqalānī, the seal of the hadith masters, established this point. Jalāl al-Suyūtī said in *Sharh al-Taqrīb*: ‘I compiled a treatise in which I gathered approximately twenty mass-transmitted hadiths,’ and he then listed them individually.”
(10) This hadith is narrated through several routes, with similar wordings, from a number of Companions, including ʿAlī ibn Abī Tālib, Jābir ibn ʿAbd Allāh, and Abū Hurayra. See: *al-Bukhārī*, 6/44–45 (Book of Exegesis, chapter on His saying, “Indeed, Allah does not wrong even by the weight of an atom”) and 9/128–127 (Book of Divine Oneness, chapter on Allah Most High’s saying, “Some faces that Day will be radiant, looking at their Lord”); *Muslim*, 1/164 (Book of Faith, chapter on knowing the manner of the Vision); *Sunan Abī Dāwūd*, 4/322–323 (Book of the Sunna, chapter concerning the Vision); *Sunan al-Tirmidhī*, 4/92–93 (Book on the Description of Paradise, chapter concerning what has been narrated about seeing the Lord, Blessed and Exalted); *Sunan Ibn Mājah*, 1/63–64 (Introduction, chapter concerning what the Jahmiyya denied); and *al-Musnad*, Maʿārif ed., nos. 7703 and 7914, and Halabī ed., 3/16–17 and 4/11. The hadith also appears elsewhere in most of these works and in other books. See also *Miftāh Kunūz al-Sunna*, under “Allah,” and *Darʾ Taʿārud al-ʿAql wa-l-Naql*, 7/29–31.
(11) The words *sihhatihi maʿa* (“its authenticity, in addition to”) are absent from manuscript N.