It is no crime to ask for the impossible, for what we consider impossible may not be so for GOD. Musa (peace be upon him) asked to see AL-LAH: When Musa came to Our appointment, and His Master spoke with him, he said, “O Master, let me see You.” He replied, “You shall not see Me. Look, though, at the mountain; if it keeps its place, then you will see Me.” When his Lord appeared before the mountain, He disintegrated it, and Musa fell unconscious. Then, when he awoke, he said, “How gloriously far beyond You are! I turn repentant unto You, and I am foremost of the faithful.” (Q7:143) GOD’s response was more a lesson than a rebuke, for the motivation behind the request was a worthy one, and its outcome was an increase in repentance and faith. But when the demand to see GOD – Let us see God plainly – stems not from a desire to strengthen one’s faith but merely to enhance one’s knowledge, and is intended more as a challenge than as a prayer, then the answer is as devastating as a lightning bolt . . . as if to say, “This is what it feels like to ‘see’ God when your heart is not humbly prepared for it.”
Working from the assumption that all persons can be ‘placed’ somehow, and that the intellect is sufficient to identify a placeholder of that sort, we expect that ordinary spatial vision and its auxiliary mental powers are all we need to ‘see’. But as I suggested in Chapter 5, the universe has a personal, heartfelt element discernible only by the eye of faith. There are some things that must be affirmed before they can be ‘seen’ in this way. If you affirm a falsehood in an environment where such claims are testable or comparable to clearly visible evidence, that falsehood will be easily dismissed. But if you affirm a falsehood that cannot be tested – the concept of the Trinity, for example – then nothing but a higher and clearer affirmation, i.e. that GOD is Absolutely One, will suffice to wipe that lie away. Even when endowed with this superlative sight, Musa (peace be upon him) was incapable of ‘seeing’ GOD. What he did see was the impact of His Presence, and that was enough to knock him unconscious.
If the sight, not of GOD, but of one of His powers in action was enough to cause an intrepid spiritual adventurer like Musa (peace be upon him) to black out, how much more likely would there be disastrous consequences if He were to respond to the demands for proof by today’s atheists? Their minds could be stricken numb for life, rendering them the mental equivalent of the pigs and monkeys mentioned in the Qur’an. Their not seeing, not knowing, and thereby being less accountable represents GOD’s kindness to them. Yes, they will almost certainly undergo a period of cleansing in the Fire – a necessary prerequisite for finally entering GOD’s presence – but that is something even believers may have to undergo in proportion to the greater knowledge they presumably have.
GOD remains our Greatest Good, and only He knows what is best for us. If He causes one of us to be born, to live, and to die in an unbelieving environment, with all the risks for our afterlife that entails, then that might still be better for us than to be placed in a situation where our greater exposure to the possibility of faith is counterbalanced by the greater penalty we incur if we see, know, and yet turn away. There are no guarantees, except for
Those whose faith was not contaminated with injustice – safety is for them, and they are rightly guided. (Q6:82)
الَّذِينَ آمَنُوا وَلَمْ يَلْبِسُوا إِيمَانَهُمْ بِظُلْمٍ أُوْلَئِكَ لَهُمْ الأَمْنُ وَهُمْ مُهْتَدُونَ
In the Qur’anic stories of the peoples of the past, the most persistent theme is the tragic contrast between those who were ready for the signs of AL-LAH, namely the prophets, and those who were not, namely the vast majority who rejected these messengers of GOD and were consequently destroyed. So it is that AL-LAH declares:
Nothing held Us back from sending signs but that the former folk had contradicted them. We gave Thamud the female camel, clear to see, and yet they did it harm, although the signs We send are meant to stir up fear. (Q17:59)*
وَمَا مَنَعَنَا أَنْ نُرْسِلَ بِالآياتِ إِلاَّ أَنْ كَذَّبَ بِهَا الأَوَّلُونَ وَآتَيْنَا ثَمُودَ النَّاقَةَ مُبْصِرَةً فَظَلَمُوا بِهَا وَمَا نُرْسِلُ بِالآياتِ إِلاَّ تَخْوِيفًا
*This is the fear, akin to religious awe, that Huxley (quoted in Wikipedia under “Numinous”) describes as follows: “The literature of religious experience abounds in references to the pains and terrors overwhelming those who have come, too suddenly, face to face with some manifestation of the mysterium tremendum. In theological language, this fear is due to the incompatibility between man’s egotism and the divine purity, between man’s self-aggravated separateness and the infinity of God.”1
Even Satan, the most knowledgeable of creatures, confesses to fearing GOD. (Q8:48) But today’s atheist thinkers, including those who admit feelings of awe when contemplating the vastness of the universe or the incredibly fine detail and complexity of the microscopic realms that inhabit our own bodies, would be the first to dismiss with scorn the possibility of ever feeling fear when confronted with a purported sign of God. Or they would resent having been overcome with fear despite themselves.
And We stir fear in them, but they do not increase in anything thereby but great iniquity. (Q17:60)
وَنُخَوِّفُهُمْ فَمَا يَزِيدُهُمْ إِلاَّ طُغْيَانًا كَبِيرًا
1 Aldous Huxley, The Doors of Perception and Heaven and Hell, p. 55
The GOD You Already Know 