Seeing Allah: What Every Christian Should Ask Every Muslim. The Form/Shape of Allah?

“The faculties of seeing (tudriku) cannot grasp Him, and He grasp all–seeing (yudriku), He is the All-Subtle and All-Aware.” (Qur’an 6:103)

A question that every Christian should ask every Muslim is the following:

1 What form/shape of Allah (swt) is it that these people knew?

“Then the Almighty will come to them in a shape other than the one which they saw the first time, and He will say, ‘I am your Lord,’ and they will say, ‘You are not our Lord.’ And none will speak: to Him then but the Prophets, and then it will be said to them, ‘Do you know any sign by which you can recognize Him?’ They will say. ‘The Shin,’ and so Allah will then uncover His Shin whereupon every believer will prostrate before Him.”

 “Allah will come to them in a shape other than they know and will say, ‘I am your Lord.’ They will say, ‘We seek refuge with Allah from you. This is our place; (we will not follow you) till our Lord comes to us, and when our Lord comes to us, we will recognize Him. Then Allah will come to then in a shape they know and will say, “I am your Lord.’ They will say, ‘(No doubt) You are our Lord,’ and they will follow Him.”

“People asked the Prophet (saw): O’ Messenger of Allah will we see our Lord in the Day of Resurrection? Then the Messenger of Allah replied: Is there any dispute among you whether a full moon is visible? They answered: No. then The Prophet (saw) continued asking them: “ Is there any dispute among you whether the sun is visible in a cloudless sky? They replied in the negative. Then The Prophet stated (saw): “Then you will see your Lord JUST LIKE this”. Allah will get the people together in the Day of Resurrection then He says: those who were worshiping any deity shall follow it. Then the ones who were worshiping the sun will follow the sun and the ones who were worshiping the moon will follow the moon and those who were worshiping Rebels will follow Rebels …Then Allah will come to them in a FORM other than WHAT THEY KNEW and say: “I am your Lord”, they reply: “We seek refuge in Allah from you. This is our place until our Lord Comes to us, and when our Lord comes to us, we will recognize Him. THEN ALLAH WILL COME TO THEM IN A SHAPE THEY KNOW and will say, I am your Lord’ They will say, ‘(No doubt) You are our Lord,’ and they will follow Him.”

There are many problems with the apparent reading of this text and the approach that the Athari/Salafi take.

A) It follows from it that His Essence (dhat) Exalted is He, changes from one form to the other. Such change is characteristic of contingent existents  [huduth]. It, necessarily implies contingency of Him.  

B) It also follows from it that Allah, Exalted is He, is seen by this ummah (including believers and hypocrites)in this world with clear sight so that His form will remain printed in the minds of those who see. Then, when He comes to them in another form, they will refuse to accept that form as their Lord, and they will seek refuge in Allah from it. 

Otherwise, how would they recognize His form, seeing that they did not recognize Him when He came in a form other than that, and they recognized Him when He turned back to it? And all of this is at the first of the Stations of the Day of Resurrection! 

There have been debates between scholars of Ahl Al Haqq Wal Istiqamah (The Muslims) and certain scholars on that matter. When they were pinned down with this argument, they answered that this knowledge of His form is not a result of any earlier seeing. It is a result of their knowledge from the description of Him in His Book and in the Prophet’s Sunnah. 

They were urged strongly: Whoever has read the Book of Allah and has studied the Sunnah of His Messenger must know that real form in which He will see his Lord, Exalted is He, so that, when he sees Him in another form, he does not recognize Him.  Then please bring us the description of this form and definition of it from your knowledge through your reading of the Qur’an and your study of the hadiths of the Messenger (saw). Then they were taken aback and their argument became void, and the praise belongs to Allah. 

And among what falsifies their interpretation that they turned to fleeing from the compelling argument is its opposition to the clear text of the hadith of Abu Sa’id in the Sahihayn. 

It is in the Sahih of al-Bukhari with the words: ‘Then the Omnipotent will come to them in a form than what they had seen Him in at first.’ 

The wording of Muslim is: ‘Until when no one is left except those who worshipped Allah, pious and non-pious, then the Lord of the Universe, Exalted is He, will come to them in a form closer to the one they have seen Him in.’ 

Both wordings are clear that their knowledge of His form will be a result of a previous seeing.  There is no way for those who take the hadith literally but to say that He is seen in this world. 

Yet most of them have rejected that (the seeing of Him in this world).  

Whoever said it restricted the seeing of Him to some special individuals, and did not hold the opinion that it included the pious and the non-pious of this ummah, nor the opinion of the seeing of Him in barzakh (the isthmus between the two worlds).  

That is something no one has claimed before, let alone had any evidence for it. 

May Allah (swt) guide this ummah! May the people be guided to the truth!

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