Bismillahi rahmani raheem assalamu alaikum.
Every one understands that Allah knows everything and Allah sees everything, but what does that actually look like for a being to know all of that?
Look at how man thinks first, he thinks in sequential order, in intervals of time one moment after another continuously from the beginning of his life to its end, event after event, Allah doesn’t He is outside the flow of time and see it all at once.
Man when forming his intellectual thought, that moment of experience and time is built from his 5 physical sense in the body along with his spiritual inspiration regarding that moment, which is the function of the soul to see what is happening in the ghayb around that person, those layers of input/information then shape his experience, heart and intellect.
Keeping in mind Allah does not change, He is now as He ever was, Allah teaches us He is the same because our intellect is created on the Image of Allah, except His is “built” from layers of input/knowledge/information that is uniquely vast spanning all the knowledge and input that exist in the universe.
Allah knows what you know, sees what you see, knows what everyone else knows and sees what everyone else sees, all at the same time, now think back to how you come to understand how other people think, when you can understand the magnitude and vastness of an intellect that can perceive all of that then you will begin to form the first image of Allah in your self.
Your reality is who you are, but what about a being who knows every reality, mankind’s, Jinn and Angels from the first of them to the last of them?
Allah tells us His reality, the beginning of understanding it, is the sum total of every reality in existence because it all exists from His qualities, it comes from Him so we can know Him from our experiences and relate to Him, this is why Allah said “I am as my servant thinks I am”.
Allah did not create something different from Himself, He created things that bear is qualities so that creation, the universe, is the nature of Allah, you just have to study it and then relate what you learned back to Him to see Him in it.
Scholars have all said Allah’s knowledge does not increase or decrease, but understand they have also explained it has a hierarchy of things that come first and things that come last, it is ordered and arranged in priority and that is why time exists to show this and that creatures other than Him, need this hierarchy to learn, they need time Allah does not.
Every event occurs because of the passing of time and so the sum total of time, from the start of the Universe until Allah ends it, is Allah, His will His personality, His decree, His character.
The Prophet (saws) said:
“Do not inveigh against time (al-dahr), for Allah is time”
“Let not any one of you say, ‘Woe to time,’ for Allah is time”
“Allah says, ‘The sons of Adam offend Me and when they say, Woe to time, but they should not say Woe to time. (for) I am time, I alternate the night and the day (I bring change), and if I willed, I could seize them both (Stop Time).’”
The word used in the hadeeth is not waqt (time), but dahr (vicissitudes of time) meaning the actual passing of time, so Allah is saying He is the Passing of time, the events occurring that cause continuous change, this is because time is not the ticking of your clock which is just the counting of numbers but the continuous evolution of the universe from one moment to the next.
The statement of Allah is entirely what physics teach’s today, that time is connected with the fabric of space the stuff the universe is made of and relies on the subatomic reactions in it to exist, time is not the counting of numbers.
Imam al-Nawawi explains what the word time in the hadith refers to: They said: this is a metaphor, because the Arabs used to inveigh against time when disasters such as death, old age, loss of money, etc., happened. They would say, ‘Woe to time’ and other phrases cursing or inveighing against time. So the Prophet (peace and blessings of Allah be upon him) said: ‘Do not inveigh against time for Allah is time’, i.e., do not inveigh against the One Who brings about those disasters (brings about change), for that will be directed towards Allah, for He is the One Who causes them to happen (this directly refers to Allah controlling the forces of the universe and its laws, which He stated in the Quran for Rasul Allah (saws))…
The meaning of the phrase “for Allah is time” means that He is the One Who causes those events and accidents to happen (“accidents” between particles, it is a technical term from Islamic physics referring subatomic reactions), and He is the Creator of all that happens. And Allah knows best. (Sharh Muslim, 15/3)
When trying to understand how a persons mind works, how they think in order to find a method to see Allah, understanding the mind of Allah begins at knowing everything happening to us and around us every “where”, and knowing every thing that has occurred through all time past and future, then being able to respond to all of that all at the same time, that is the first image of Allah you should understand.
But that is only the first step because on the day of Judgment He will reveal of Himself to us up to the “shin” and you will realise what i am saying today is not even the starting point of knowing Him, it is your first look from a distance.
“The Day the shin will be uncovered and they are invited to prostration but the disbelievers will not be able,” (68:42)
The literal translation reads: “(Remember) the Day when the Shin shall be laid bare (a metaphor indicating quantity of knowledge given in comparison to the entire body) and they shall be called to prostrate (to Allah), but they (the hypocrites) shall not be able to do so,”(68:42) (like in many places in the Quran Allah here is singling out the hypocrites of today in this verse, the people who pretend they have religion but don’t).
When you understand how someones mind works you then try to see it for yourself in practice, likewise what we are describing is that step, when Allah reveals His shin on the day of resurrection you will see for yourself how this description is then, what it is like to perceive from a spiritual height, that is what this verse is saying.
Understand, like the Isra wal Miraj of Rasul Allah (saws) was almost timeless, a 33 year Journey from Makkah to Jerusalem and then into the heavens up to the Arsh that occurred in the span of a night, and that how similarly you experience an hour long dream in about 3 seconds; When your spirituality is raised you have mastery over events occurring in time, at that moment you will learn how to see Allah with clarity.
You will learn how He sees.
Shaykh Rami Al Rifai.