Questioner: What I want to ask is, why can’t we see Allah? Why can’t we see God?
Huzoor (rh): You can see God exactly in the manner as I was describing to him. Like you can see Prophet Muhammad Sallallahu Alaihi Wasallam, like you can see Abraham. You can see these past prophets, not bodily, but by imagining their characteristics, what they were, by contemplating on their character. So you can see God through his attributes. Moreover, it is not essential now, it has been established before you, just the previous answer to this question has established this, that it is not essential for us to see people, but it is essential for us to know their characteristics. So when you know God by his attributes and characteristics, then there is no need for you to see him physically with your eyes. That is one answer.
But the other is that it is impossible for you to see God. Why? Because you see through with the help of light. When there is no light you can’t see, can you? How do you see with the help of light? The light strikes against an image, an object, and returns to you, but it only returns when it strikes at a coarser object, which is not as rare as light itself. If there is thin something, thinner than light, like it is in between the heaven and earth, the light goes on passing through, it never returns, and you don’t see anything. So do you suppose that God is coarser in His person than light? He has created light. So as compared to God, light is very coarse and material and solid like, because God is rarest. So nothing can strike God and return to us. As such you can’t see him. Even the thin air, like this air is, the light passes through it and you don’t see the air. But if there were dust particles here, the light would strike against the dust particles and return to us, then you would see something, you know, hazy something hanging in the air. So because God is rarest of what we can imagine, so it is impossible for anybody to see God with his physical eyes. But as far as His attributes are concerned, they have been mentioned in the Holy Quran, discussed at length and also in depth to a degree, so that whatever we need, we know through the Quran.
