Philosophical Debates on Seeing God in Medieval Kalām Theology

This article offers a systematic philosophical study of the medieval Islamic debate over the possibility of seeing God (visio dei, ruʾyat Allāh), a doctrine that reveals an intersection of theology, epistemology and theories of perception. Moving beyond purely scriptural exegesis, the study reconstructs the major Muʿtazilī rational objections to Divine vision, focusing on their materialist theories of optics and their uncompromising commitment to Divine transcendence (tanzīh). In response, it analyses the counterarguments of Ashʿarī theologians, such as al-Ashʿarī, al-Bāqillānī, al-Juwaynī, al-Anṣārī and al-Rāzī, highlighting their methodological developments: from early occasionalist models of Divine action to later sophisticated critiques of Muʿtazilī extramission theories of vision. This study shows how later Ashʿarīs redefined vision as a direct, non-physical act of Divine creation, thereby preserving the possibility of seeing God without compromising His transcendence. Furthermore, it demonstrates how the adoption and adaptation of Avicennian intromission models of optics allowed thinkers like al-Rāzī to refine their metaphysical and epistemological frameworks. In doing so, the doctrine of visio dei in early kalām theological discourse emerges not merely as a theological point of faith but as a site of rich philosophical engagement with logic, metaphysics and natural philosophy.