What is the meaning of the Asha'irah's statement regarding the vision that Allah is not seen except in a direction, and what is the response of the people of the Sunnah and the community?

The questioner : The questioner asks: What is the meaning of the Asha'irah's statement regarding the vision that Allah is not seen except in a direction, and what is the response of the people of the Sunnah and the community?

The Shaykh : Allah the Mighty and Majestic says in the Qur'an when mentioning the Day of Resurrection: He attributed looking to the faces, and the only thing by which one can look at faces is the eye. So in this verse is evidence that Allah, Glorified and Exalted is He, is seen with the eye. But does our seeing of Allah the Mighty and Majestic require comprehending Him? No, absolutely not, and it is not possible to comprehend Him, because Allah says: If we cannot comprehend Allah in knowledge, and knowledge-based comprehension is broader and more inclusive than visual comprehension, that indicates that it is not possible to comprehend Him visually. And indicating this is His saying, the Exalted: Allah the Mighty and Majestic is seen with the eye in a true vision, but He is not comprehended by this vision, because He, the Mighty and Majestic, is too great to be comprehended. This is what the Salaf held, and they consider the greatest pleasure that a person is blessed with to be looking at the Face of Allah the Mighty and Majestic. For this reason, among the supplications of the Messenger (peace and blessings be upon him) was: "I ask You for the pleasure of looking at Your Face." He did not say "looking," he said "the pleasure of looking," because this looking has a great pleasure that is not perceived except by one who perceives it by the grace of Allah and His favor. I hope that Allah the Exalted will make me and you among those who receive it. This is the reality of the vision upon which the Salaf agreed. As for one who claims that Allah is not seen with the eye and that the vision is a state of perfect certainty, then his statement is invalid, contrary to the evidence, and reality also refutes it, because perfect certainty exists in this world as well. The Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him) said in explaining ihsan (excellence in worship): And your worship of Allah is as if you see Him. This is perfect certainty. So the claim that the texts regarding the vision mean perfect certainty, because one who is certain with perfect certainty is like one who sees with the eye—I say that this is distortion (tahrif), not interpretation (ta'wil), but rather a false distortion that must be refuted against the one who said it. Here is a matter, or here is an example I give you so that you may be cautious of the books of the people of innovation. The people of innovation are ghouls who come with methods that, when a person reads them, he says, "What Allah willed, this is good speech and this is fine speech," and he is deceived by them. Al-Zamakhshari, the author of al-Kashshaf, which is a well-known tafsir (exegesis) book, good in the Arabic language, but poor in creed because he is a Mu'tazili. When he came to interpreting His saying, the Exalted: He said, "And what greater success is there than entering Paradise and being saved from the Fire?" What do you say about this speech? Is it good or bad? On its surface, it is good and correct: what greater success is there than a person being saved from the Fire and entering Paradise? This is equal to the whole of this world. But he intended by this word the negation of seeing Allah the Mighty and Majestic, because seeing Allah is a greater success than entering Paradise. But when the ordinary person reads it, he does not suspect this suspicion. And I gave you this example so that you may be cautious of the books written by the people of innovation, for they may mislead you while you are not aware. And as Shaykh al-Islam Ibn Taymiyyah (may Allah have mercy on him) said in al-Fatwa al-Hamawiyyah: "They forge these doubts in long, strange expressions that a person considers to be truth because of the embellishments of speech they contain, but they are, as it was said, arguments that collapse like glass; you think them to be true, but they are all broken and shattered."