A Comparative Review of Visual Perception and Vision of God in Sheikh Tusi's Tebyan Commentary and Maturidi's Ta'wilat Ahl-Al-Sunna Commentary

Abstract

Several Quranic verses mention the vision and seeing God on the Resurrection. Corporealists and anthropomorphists regarded God as man having body, its parts and organs, and interpreted such phrases as "God's Face" and "God's Hand" mentioned in some Quranic verses as having outward meanings. On the contrary, Mu'tazilites and Imamiyyah believe that Essence of Creator has no body and dimension, and cannot be seen. The present paper reviews the concept of divine vision through comparing the views of two interpreters and theologians, i.e. Sheikh Tusi (b.460 AH), the author of Al-Tebyan Commentary and Abu Mansur Maturidi (b.333 AH), the founder of Maturidism and the author of "Ta'wilat Ahl-Al-Sunna (Sunni Esoteric Exegeses)". Like other Shia scholars and adhering to hadiths and infallible Imams' guidance, Sheikh Tusi did not accept divine vision, believed that divine vision, whether in the world or hereafter, negates monotheism, and provided some arguments for it. On the contrary, Maturidi appealed to some hadiths and outward meaning of some Quranic verses in terms of divine vision, accepted divine vision on resurrection day, and argued that believers will vision God on that day, although he believed in incorporeality of God in terms of monotheistic issues. No doubt, he did not specify the quality of such vision which is so-called without howness. He negated the perception and comprehension of God, not divine vision.

Keywords

• divine vision
• testified attributes
• sheikh tusi
• al-tebyan commentary
• abu mansur maturidi
• ta'wilat ahl sunna (sunni esoteric exegeses.)