Question
I want to ask about the matter of seeing God in the Hereafter. What is the Qur’anic position on this matter?
Answer
Salaam!
Thank you for writing to us.
Concerning this matter, let me first cite the remarks of Maulana Amin Ahsan Islahi from his exegesis (tafsīr) on Qur’an 75:23, which is often used by some other scholars as evidence of seeing God in the Hereafter. The words in the Qur’an are:
وُجُوْهٌ يَوْمَئِذٍ نَّاضِرَةٌ (٢٢) إِلَى رَبِّهَا نَاظِرَةٌ (٢٣)
How many a face will be bright on that Day awaiting the graciousness of their Lord.
Amīn Aḥsan Iṣlāḥī, Tadabbur-i Qur’ān, vol. 9 (Lahore: Fārān Foundation, 2009), 77; English translation by Shehzad Saleem, Renaissance 26, no. 3 (March 2016).
Explaining it, Islahi writes:
The words إِلَى رَبِّهَا نَاظِرَةٌ mean that these people will await the blessings and favours of their Lord. When the preposition اِلٰی is used with نَظِرَ just as it means to look at something, it also means to await someone’s blessings and favours. Lexicographers explain this thus: if someone says اِنَّمَا نَنْظُرُ اِلَي اللهِ ثُمّ اِلِيْكَ to someone from whom he is expecting blessings and favours, it would mean: “I await God’s blessings and after them your favours.” Some people derive man’s observation of God by the verse إِلَى رَبِّهَا نَاظِرَةٌ. In my opinion, this verse does not refer to this if its context and occasion are understood. It is, in fact, a verse with an entirely different context and occasion. Similarly, those who oppose man’s observation of God and in frenzy of this opposition alter the meaning of the preposition إِلَى have erred in their interpretation. My view on this issue is that our belief in God in this world is not based on observation of Him. We believe in Him because certain signs and indications strongly point to His existence; however, in the Hereafter our belief in Him will be based on direct observation, and we will be able to directly witness every reality we profess faith in. As far as the nature of this observation is concerned, we cannot determine it in this world. It is from the category of mutashābihāt and one is not allowed to delve into the mutashābihāt. Only God, the Almighty knows the nature of this observation.
Iṣlāḥī, Tadabbur-i Qur’ān, 9:90–91; trans. Saleem, Renaissance 26, no. 3 (March 2016).
Having understood his position, you may also refer to the following textual and multimedia resources in which Ustadh Javed Ahmad Ghamidi and Ustadh Muhammad Rafi Mufti have explained this issue:
- آخرت میں اللہ تعالیٰ کا دیدار
- دیدارِ الٰہی — ایک فطری خواہش
- Video: Ghāmidī’s Explanation
- خدا کو دیکھنا ناممکن ہے؟
Regards,
Mushfiq Sultan
