God's Vision in the View of Allamah Tabatabaii (based on Al-Mizan Commentary)

The issue of God's vision has long been the special concern of different nations and schools of thought. In the Muslim world, several remarks have been made by the scholars about this issue. Some scholars ascribe visual type of vision to God, some others reject this type of vision and seek to show the purpose of the verses and traditions that are concerned with God's vision, still others tend to stick to the surface structure of such verses and traditions and argue that meaning of vision is not limited to visual type. A group of scholars take no notice of the surface meaning of the Quran and devote their attention interpreting the verses and traditions. Resting on the related traditions, the late Allamah Tabatabaii believes in the idea of spiritual type of vision of God and rejects the idea of visual type of vision because God is high exalted above corporeality. In his view, spiritual vision of God means intuitive knowledge of Him, not acquired knowledge.