Can One Behold God at All Times?

Question

Zayd says: “I have at all times such a vision that without it my moving and my resting are difficult,” and he keeps reciting this verse: [ar]در تو پھر ہی دیکھیں گے ٭ میں نے تجھ کو دیکھ لیا[/ar] “Your threshold we shall see only later — You I have already seen.” He performs the prayer and so on, and there are people who are his disciples as well. From such talk there is fear of the beliefs of the common people being corrupted. What is the ruling concerning such a person?

Answer

It is indeed possible that a person attains such istihdar (constant presence of God in the mind) that no heedlessness remains; but this seeing is not seeing with these eyes — rather, it is a conception in the heart. The Holy Qur’an says: [ar]لَّا تُدْرِكُهُ ٱلْأَبْصَـٰرُ[/ar] “Vision perceives Him not” (Surah al-An‘am, 6:103) — these eyes cannot perceive that Pure Essence.

Source: Fatawa Mahmudiyya

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