A comprehensive post on Ru’yah | Ash’ari perspective

Discussed in this post are the following queries:
– What does Ru’yah mean linguistically?
– How can Allah be seen if He’s not in a direction?
– What about the Hadith where the vision of Allah is mentioned?
– What does Ru’yah exactly entail?

This post is a loose translation of Shaykh Saeed Foudah’s al-Sharh al-Kabeer.

From a lexical perspective, the word Ru’yah means a number of things. Allamah al-Asfahani mentions in his al-Mufradaat:
‘’Ru’yah means perception/apprehension of the seen [idraak al-mar’iyy] and that can be of types in accordance with the strength of the self.

1. It can take place with the senses and whatever functions like it.

Allah says in the Quran:
لَتَرَوُنَّ الْجَحِيم
 You will most certainly see the blazing Fire. (102:6)

 ثُمَّ لَتَرَوُنَّهَا عَيْنَ الْيَقِينِ
Then you will most certainly see it with the eye of certainty. (102:7)

But also: فَسَيَرَى اللّهُ عَمَلَكُمْ
Allah will see your deeds (9:105)

Whereas know that Allah does not have senses or a physical instrument by which He sees. He transcends that.

2. It can take place through imagining [wahm] and envisioning [takhyeel].

Like when saying ‘’I could already see Zayd walking,’’ but also like Allah says in the Quran:

وَلَوْ تَرَى إِذْ يَتَوَفَّى الَّذِينَ كَفَرُواْ الْمَلآئِكَةُ
 And if you had seen when the angels cause to die those who disbelieve (8:50)

3. It can take place by pondering [tafakkur].

 إِنِّي أَرَى مَا لاَ تَرَوْنَ
 Surely I see what you do not see. (8:48)

4. It can take place with the mind [aql].

Allah says in the Quran:
مَا كَذَبَ الْفُؤَادُ مَا رَأَى
The heart did not deny, what it saw (53:11)

Based on that we also interpret the verse:
وَلَقَدْ رَآهُ نَزْلَةً أُخْرَى
And certainly he also saw him during another descent. (53:13)’’

These all are manners of Ru’yah, according to its lexical application. Thus, Ru’yah means apprehension [idraak]. This word [idraak] is, in the more general sense of the word, applied to knowledge [‘ilm]. It is said that knowledge is apprehension [al-‘ilm idraak].

It’s not a prerequisite for this type of idraak – which is Ru’yah – that things face one another or that there are light rays between them. Nor do one’s eyes need to be opened, just like it’s not necessary in case of ‘ilm.

Take for example the hadith of the Holy Prophet (peace be upon him) where he said ‘’Surely I see you behind me and in front of me.’’ It means that Allah informed him with the states of the Muslims by creating a vision of them within him, whereas they were behind him. This is clear proof that facing one another is not a prerequisite for vision.

So what about the following Hadith found in Sahih Muslim?

أَمَا إِنَّكُمْ سَتَرَوْنَ رَبَّكُمْ كَمَا تَرَوْنَ هَذَا الْقَمَرَ، لَا تُضَامُّونَ فِي رُؤْيَتِهِ
Surely you will see your Lord as you see this full moon; you will have no trouble in seeing Him.

A simile [tashbeeh] is given – it is a figure of speech comparing one thing to another. Three components are involved:

1. The matter being likened [mushabbah]
2. What it’s being likened to [mushabbah bihi]
3. The common feature [wajh al-tashbeeh]

To back up what I’m about to say, let’s first look at what Imam al-Nawawi says in the commentary of this hadith.

أي: ترونه رؤية محققة لا شك فيها ولا مشقة، كما ترون هذا القمر رؤية محققة بلا مشقة، فهو تشبيه للرؤية بالرؤية لا المرئي بالمرئي

Meaning: You’ll see Him with an actualized vision, without a doubt and without trouble. Just like you’re actually seeing this moon, without any trouble. The simile is comparing the vision of both things, not the perceived things themselves.

In other words: the common feature is the apparentness and ease by which both will and can be seen, i.e. the ease of the vision of both. The hadith is comparing the vision of both. It is NOT comparing Allah to the moon, in that He will be viewed in a direction and entering creation. That is a distortion of the hadith‘s meaning by the Mujassimah.

Just as Allah is able to inform us of rulings related to Him, He is – rationally speaking – able to further unveil for us His perfections. In such a way that we’re not able to arrive (at those Perfections) by means of mere rational contemplation. Nor are these perfections akin to what we normally can reach that way. Rather, they are perfections specific to Allah, which can’t be perceived, save by Allah creating their apprehension within us.

We are certain that knowledge, hearing and Ru’yah are all (forms of) unveiling. In that sense, Ru’yah resembles knowledge. In fact, it is a specific stage of unveiling which we call “apprehension.”

Analogizing to what we said prior (i.e. Allah hears and we hear, He sees and we see – without likening the two), we say:

It befits Allah that He be seen and we shall see Him, by that He creates within us (with His Power) a vision of Him. We won’t see Him in this world though, because the way our bodies are set up, they can’t withstand this level of unveiling – not even the Prophets. Hence, a lot of scholars favored the view that the Prophet didn’t see His Lord in this world nor during the Heavenly Ascension. Rather, he had a vision of the heart.

Allah and His Messenger know best.