Toor and all those who were present there died.

Toor and all those who were present there died. Moosa (a.s.) himself fell down in a swoon and regained consciousness only after a long time. Later, Moosa (a.s.) began to weep and said how he could go back to Bani Israel? “They would blame me for the death of their elders. If You had killed them before this incident, I would have been free from this blame. Now the Bani Israel will try to kill me. I committed this foolish act of asking to see You with the eyes.

O my God, please raise them alive again, so that they can testify the seeing.”[^3] The writer says that the incident of Moosa (a.s.) shows that neither Moosa (a.s.) saw Allah nor the people did. They all saw only the lightning, which is a sign of Allah’s power. Staff, Shining arm, the flood etc. and all the miracles are visible, but Allah can never be seen, because he is beyond vision.

Some Ahlul Sunnat scholars say that though Allah cannot be seen in the world, people would be able to see Him in the Hereafter, and Muhiyuddin Arabi also has the same view.[^4] Obviously, just as Allah cannot be seen in the world, the same condition will apply for the Hereafter. Though Moosa (a.s.) did not see Allah with physical eyes, he saw the lightning, which is the sign of Allah and he swooned due to it.

Now the question is, whether the Holy Prophet (S) saw Allah on the night of Ascension or not? In view of the writer, the Prophet did not see Allah with this organ of sight, which is the eye. No one can say what he saw and with which eye. Anyway, in Sahih Muslim[^5] there are traditions from Shaibani and Abdullah that the Holy Prophet (S) saw only Jibraeel (a.s.) with these eyes, he did not see Allah. Ibn Abbas says that the Holy Prophet (S) saw Allah, but with the eye of his heart.

The writer says that this tradition of Ibn Abbas is in accordance with reason. According to the tradition of Shobi, ‘A’ysha says: “The Messenger of Allah (S) saw Jibraeel, he did not see Allah.” The same tradition is present in the 10th volume of Sahih Bukhari.[^6] And on page no. 98, according to a report of Masruq, ‘A’ysha said: “The Holy Prophet (S) did not see Allah.

When I hear this, my hair stand on their ends.” In the same way, on Page 99 of Sahih Bukhari, we see the following tradition of Abu Dharr that the Holy Prophet (S) said: “On the night of Ascension, I saw only a radiance.” But he didn’t say that, that radiance was Allah Himself.