Abu Basir has related that he said to Abu Abdallah-upon whom be peace "Tell me about God, the Mighty and Majestic Will believers see Him on the Day of Resurrection ?"
He answered, "Yes, and they have already seen Him before the Day of Resurrection."
Abu Basir asked, "When ?"
The Imam answered, "When He said to them, 'Am I not your Lord?' They said: 'Yea, verily' (VII, I72)."3 Then he was quiet for a time. Then he said, "Truly the believers see him in this world before the Day of Resurrection. Doest thou not see Him now?"
Abu Basir then said to him, "That I might be made thy sacrifice I Shall I relate this (to others) from thee ?"
He answered, "No, for if thou relatest it, a denier ignorant of the meaning of what thou sayest will deny it. Then he will suppose that it is comparison and unbelief (kufr). But seeing with the heart (al-ru'yah b-il-qalb) is not like seeing with the eyes (al- ru'yah bi-l-ayn). High be God exalted above what the comparers (mushabbihun) and heretics (mulhidun) describe!."
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1. Cf. Quran XXI, 23: "He shall not be questioned as to what He does, but they shall be questiooned."
2. La yaqa' 'ala shay'. The meaning is not completely clear. The editor points out in a footnote (p. 300) that in the Usul min al-kafi the text of this hadith reads yandam for yaqa' i.e., "He becomes remorseful at nothing."
3. This verse is in reference to the covenant made between God and man before the creation of the world. See S. H. Nasr, Ideals and Realities of Islam, London, I966, pp. 25-7.
