Sight: It is the subtle essence. [Mahamud said: "Sight is the subtle essence that Allah, glorified and exalted is He, created in the sense of sight by which one perceives ... etc."] Ahmad said: And the discussion on this verse has previously occurred in other contexts, because the author hastened to speak about it earlier. What he intends now is that perception is an expression of encompassing. From it: Until when drowning overtakes him, meaning it encompasses him. And indeed, we are surely encompassed, meaning we are surrounded. Therefore, what is negated from sight is its encompassing by Allah, glorified and exalted is He, not merely seeing. Then, we may either limit ourselves to saying that the verse does not indicate our contradiction, or we may add that specifying the encompassing in the negation implies, by way of its meaning, the affirmation of what is lesser than that. The least of which is merely seeing. Just as we say: Understandings do not encompass Him, even though knowledge by itself is attained by every believer. The encompassing of the intellect is negated just as the encompassing of the senses is negated. What is less than encompassing, from knowledge for the intellect and sight for the senses, is affirmed and not negated. Al-Zamakhshari did not mention any rational evidence or doubt regarding the impossibility of sight, thus he needs to be critiqued on this and opposed with evidence of possibility. However, he limited himself to the improbability that the seen is not in a direction, thus he confines himself to requiring the improbability that the existent is not in a direction, as following the imagination distances both. Submitting to reason nullifies this illusion and allows both. This amount is sufficient according to what he has presented in this context. And Allah is the Grantor of success.]

The meaning is that sights do not relate to Him nor perceive Him, because He is exalted above being seen in His essence. This is because sights only relate to what is in a direction, either originally or as a consequence, like bodies and forms. And He perceives sights, and due to the subtlety of His perception of the perceived, He perceives those subtle essences that cannot be perceived by a perceiver. And He is the Subtle, who is beyond being perceived by sights. The All-Aware of every subtle thing, He perceives sights, and they do not become subtle in perceiving Him, and this is from the aspect of subtlety.