A022
Surah: 075 - Ayah: 022
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75:22
Divine Vision (didar) in Paradise: The vision of God, the Blessed and Exalted, is mentioned in many noble verses of the Wise Qur'an, which state that He will bless the people of Paradise with the unprecedented and everlasting wealth of His manifestations. There will be splendour of the beauty and majesty of secrets of every kind of Divine vision there, for as it is said: "That day faces will be resplendent, looking towards their Lord" (75:22-23). Every person in Paradise will desire to see the resplendence of the manifestations of God, and when it will be shown to him, he will be extremely happy and amazed.
Nazirah (Viewer, looker)
In verses (75:22-23) it is mentioned: "That day some faces will be resplendent looking towards their Lord." God will make such fortunate people extremely beautiful, because God Himself is beautiful and likes physical and spiritual beauty, as the holy Prophet says: "Indeed God is beautiful and loves beauty." (Muslim, I, 93).
It is said in a Hadith: "The people said: O the Messenger of Allah! Shall we see our Lord on the day of resurrection. He said: Do you dispute with one another concerning the moon in the full moon-lit cloudless night? They replied: No! O the Messenger of God. He said: Do you dispute with one another concerning the sun in a cloudless sky? They replied: No! He said: You will see Him like that." (Bukhari, I, p. 393).
Proof 1: It is mentioned in verses (75:22-23): "On that day some faces will be resplendent looking at their Lord." The cause of the resplendence of such faces is not hidden. They will have the holy vision of their Lord which is His greatest favour to mu'mins.
Proof 2: The collective purport of verse (83:15) is that on the day of resurrection some people will be illumined and blessed with the holy vision of their Lord and some will be deprived of it, as mentioned: "Nay, verily on that day they shall be barred from (the vision of) their Lord." This shows that the vision of God, the Lord of honour, is a reality.
Proof 3: It is said in verse (6:104): "The eyes cannot reach Him, but He reaches the eyes. He is the Subtle, the Aware." Had the light of the sun with its lightning speed not reached our eyes, we would never have been able to see the sun. Similarly, when God becomes the eye of His lovers, they indeed have the greatest honour of His holy vision.
Proof 4: Study carefully all those Qur'anic verses related to the liqa' of God, such as liqa'i'llah (liqa' of God, 10:45), liqa’a rabbihi (liqa' of his Lord, 18:110), liqa'ana (Our liqa', 10:7), liqa'ihi (His liqa', 18:105). Liqa' means encounter, meeting, reunion. In this sense is liqa' not a synonym of didar or vision? Think carefully about this verse too: "Those will verily have perished who denied the meeting with Allah and were not guided." (10:45).
Proof 5: You may have read the article "Miracles of Nawafil" in this book, which is extremely necessary in order to understand practical Sufism. In it is mentioned that He becomes the eye of His lovers. The supreme purpose of this profound favour in which there is His manifestation in their inner eye, is to grant His holy vision and the treasure of recognition.
Proof 6: Ibn Abbas reported about verse (53:11): "His heart did not belie what he saw", that "Muhammad (s.a.s.) saw his Lord, may He be Mighty and Glorified, with his heart twice." (Musnad-i Ibn Hanbal, I, p. 223).
Proof 7: There are extremely significant and amazing secrets of recognition hidden at the end of some surahs, such as in verse (28:88): "Everything is perishable save His face. His is the command and to Him you will return." That is: O salik! you have to advance to the destination of vision leaving behind all things in the spiritual journey of the personal world, where there is the face of the Beloved (Image of the Compassionate), in which you have to annihilate yourself in the form of knowledge in order to attain your eternal reality. In the last portion of the verse, first is mentioned annihilation in God and then the return to Him. By this it becomes evident that the supreme reality is the one which is called "fana' fi'llah wa-baqa' bi'llah (annihilation in God and survival by Him)".
Proof 8: It is mentioned in verse (55:26): "All those who are in the ships (of the personal worlds) mentioned in verse (55:24) are perishable but the Face (mazhar) of your Lord, the majestic, the bounteous, will remain for ever." In every personal world, there is a laden ship representing the Throne on the water (11:7), in which the Perfect Man is the Face of God and His mazhar. In this representative laden ship were annihilated all those who are mentioned in verse (36:41). Proof 9: Allah created Adam in His Image. God did this intellectual creation in the Sacred Sanctuary, which is the paradise of the personal world. With this creation God granted Adam His vision and the rank of annihilation. Thus, whoever enters Paradise (Sacred Sanctuary) will be in the image of Adam. (Bukhara, III. p. 484). This shows that there is no vision without annihilation.
Proof 10: Verse (24:35) has been greatly praised by the authorities of religion. From the very first words of the verse, the waves of light spread in the heavens and the earth of the universe, which are: "Allah is the light of the heavens and the earth." That is, Allah is the light of guidance Who created the Universal Soul and the Universal Intellect, and He is the light of the personal world in a specific sense, of which the luminous lamp (siraj-i munir, 33:46) is not only an example, but also the centre. Thus, the light (an-nur) is an attributive name of God, which means “that which manifests itself in front of the inner eye”. This meaning is supported and substantiated by another name of God, which is the Manifest (az-zahir, 57:3). That is, He Who manifests Himself in the heart of the people of recognition and is the giver of vision to them.
Proof 11: In verse (17:72), it is mentioned: "And he who is blind in this world, will be blind in the next world, and far astray from the (right) way." This shows that in every age the mazhar of the light of God is present, from whom the guidance and inner eye can be attained. Had there not been such a means of guidance in this world, as severe a warning as this about not having the inner eye in the next world, would not have been given.
Proof 12: The Holy Prophet says: "Fear the perspicacity of the mu'min who sees by the light of God." (Lughat, Fa', p. 44). Such a mu'min is the Perfect Man whose eye God has become and who has seen God with the inner eye and has observed the spiritual secrets. Fearing his perspicacity means to fear his knowledge, and not to engage in a dispute with him, otherwise one's superficiality will be completely exposed.
Proof 13: The purpose of love is vision, and annihilation takes place from the vision, the coolness of eyes is in the vision, the manifestations are for the sake of vision, the purity of soul and intellect is from the vision, recognition is the result of vision, the special sign (isharah-i khas) is attained by the vision, the secret of merging in the origin is in the vision, Sacred Sanctuary is the place of vision, hidden treasure is attained by the vision, the bounty of Allah's beauty is for the sake of vision, the reward of the inner eye is vision, the fruit of light is vision and the rank of haqqu'lyaqin (the truth of certainty) is vision.
Vision of God
1. Although it is a fundamental Qur'anic reality that God is incomparable and has no resemblance with His creatures, it is also a Qur'anic fact that His vision is possible not only in the Hereafter, but also in higher spirituality in this world. Here we are not discussing how the Divine vision is possible, indirectly or directly, in any case, it is a fact according to the Qur'an, as it says:
2. "Some faces, that Day, will beam (in brightness and beauty) looking towards their Lord." (75:22-23). According to this sacred teaching of Islam, it is clear that the blessed vision of the Prophet and the Imam is important because of the fact that just as their obedience and love are God's obedience and love, their sacred vision is the vision of God and in this respect, the Holy Prophet has said: "He who has seen me, has indeed seen God."
3. In verse (7:79) in the language of wisdom, it is said that not loving the True Guide results in the rejection of advice and guidance. This is because it is the characteristic of human nature that the teaching of a teacher or the advice of a counsellor is received only if he is believed and loved, particularly, in religious teaching. Guidance cannot advance if a wall of enmity is erected in front of it.
4. According to religious teachings, love for God cannot be directly attained without the mediation of the Prophet, and that for the Prophet without the mediation of the Imam of the time. The Imam of the time is present and living in this world. Love for him is the root and foundation of the entire religious love(s), which leads to the love for the Prophet and then for God.
5. The Qur'an says that God has granted mu'mins the love for faith. That is, He has made the faith cherished and beloved to them. This implies that the Prophet and the Imams, who are the embodied faith (iman-i mujassam) must be befriended and loved.
6. The Holy Prophet has said: "He who has seen me, has indeed seen God." This Hadith is full of great wisdoms. One of them is that he was the face of God in his time, as according to verse (48:10) he was undoubtedly the hand of God in his time. And as the Holy Prophet was the face of God in his time, the pure Imams are the face of God in their respective times. Thus knowing this fact will give great happiness to true mu'mins that the more they yearn for the sacred vision of the Imam of the time, the more the light of their faith will increase.
7. In Khutbatu'l-Bayan Mawlana Ali says: "I am the face of God in the heavens and the earth." The ta'wil of this farman is that the Prophet and the Imam are the face of God in the sense that, in the world of religion, they are the vicegerent and deputy of God and God is recognised through their recognition. Because the vision of God is attained through their vision and in their love is hidden the love for God. Thus the certain means of Divine vision is its first stage, and representative of the second stage. Thus the vision of the Prophet and the Imam is the representative vision of God.
8. If it is accepted that man is the most noble of creatures, because he is given excellence and honour over all things of the universe and existents, then it also has to be accepted that the Perfect Man is the most noble and excellent of mankind and the souls of righteous people are angels and spiritual beings (ruhaniyyin) according to their ranks, then the Prophet and the Imam who are Perfect Men, are extremely close to God. In other words, they are in the state of fana' fi'llah (annihilation in God) and baqa' bi'llah (survival in God). Had they not been so and had there remained the slightest distance in the path of God, they would not have been True Guides of the people. Thus, it is evident that the Perfect Man is completely merged in God. Therefore, the bliss of the gracious vision of the Imam of the time is essential, so that the mu'mins may be able to completely attain the blessings from his presence.
This verse has been referred 4 times.