modes of being, it knows that the thing is sensed rather than imagined and that it perceived it with the eye of sense, not with the eye of imagination.
(Self-Disclosure and the Eye through Which Perception Occurs)
From this you understand how the human being perceives his Lord Most High in a dream, though He is transcendent above form or likeness and above being defined or delimited by perception. From this you also understand what is related in the sound report of the Creator disclosing Himself in a form lower than the one in which they had seen Him, and of His changing into a form that they recognize after they had denied Him and sought refuge from Him. Then you know with which eye you see Him.
I have informed you that imagination is perceived by itself, meaning with the eye of imagination, or it is perceived through sight, and have told you what is sound in this matter so that we can rely on it. On this we have said:
When my beloved discloses Himself, with which eye do I see Him?
With His eye and not my own, for none but He sees Him.
This declares the transcendence of His station and affirms the truth of His words. He is the One who says, “Eyesight does not perceive Him” [al-Anʿam 6:103]. He did not specify one abode to the exclusion of another. He sent it forth as an unrestricted verse and a definite, established matter. None but He perceives Him. Thus I see Him with His eye, glory be to Him. In the sound report He says, “I was his sight with which he sees.” So awaken, you who are heedless and asleep to such things, and pay attention.
I have opened for you a door of knowledge that thoughts do not reach, but that intellects can come to accept through divine care or through the polishing of hearts by remembrance and recitation. Then the intellect accepts
