Is Allah Seeing Himself?
Answered by Ustadh Sufyan Qufi
Question
Is there a consensus that Allah sees and hears all existing things, including His Essence and His attributes?
Answer
In the name of Allah, Most Compassionate, Most Merciful,
I pray this finds you in the best of states.
Allah, Most High, is attributed with the attributes of Hearing and Sight.
Allah, Most High, says: “Allah is truly All-Hearing, All-Seeing.” [Quran, 22:75]
The overwhelming mainstream position within Sunni Islam is that Allah’s attributes of Hearing and Sights are attached to everything that is in existence, whether this existent thing is uncreated (such as Allah’s Essence and Attributes) or created (such as human beings).
Thus Allah, Most High, sees and hears His Essence and His Attributes.
Another way of expressing this is to say: Allah’s attribute of Hearing is attached to everything that is audible and Allah’s attribute of Sight is attached to everything that is visible. This expression is found in many reliable works about Sunni beliefs. What is meant is that Allah hears anything that is audible for Allah which is de facto everything that is in existence. This is exactly what is meant by the mainstream position. [Bajuri, Tuhfat al-Murid; al-Hashimi, Miftah al-Janna]
Rational Proof
If Allah’s attributes of Sight and Hearing were not attached to a single thing in existence He wouldn’t be All-Hearing and All-Seeing.
If Allah’s attributes of Sight and Hearing were only attached to a part of the things that are in existence then this amount of things would need to be specified. Claiming that this amount is specified entails claiming that Allah’s attributes of Sight and Hearing are in need of a specifier. This would mean that Allah’s attributes of Sight and Hearing are created which would mean that Allah, Himself, being the locus of created attributes, would be created. This is absurd.
Thus the necessary rational conclusion is that Allah’s attributes of Sight and Hearing are attached to everything in existence, including His Essence and His Attributes. [Sanusi, al-Kubra]
And Allah knows best.
Wassalam
[Ustadh] Sufyan Qufi
Checked and Approved by Shaykh Faraz Rabbani
Ustadh Sufyan Qufi is an advanced seeker of knowledge, originally from Algeria, who grew up in France. He began searching far and wide for answers to the fundamental questions of life and was disappointed at the answers he found.
Then he connected with various traditional teachers and gradually connected with SeekersGuidance. He embarked on his journey of learning through the various teachers at SeekersGuidance, including his mentor Shaykh Faraz Rabbani.
He studied numerous texts in Islamic Law, Theology, Hadith, and other areas with Shaykh Faraz Rabbani and other teachers, including Shaykh Abdurrahman al-Sha‘ar, Shaykh Ali Hani, and others.
He is an active instructor at SeekersGuidance and answers questions through the SeekersGuidance Answers Service.
