Development of Ash'ari Theory about Seeing God From Ash'ari to Fakhr Razi

Discussion of the seeing God and its quality is one of the important theological debates among Islamic sects, including the al-Ash'ari. Early Ash'aris, according to transmitted reasons, believe that God is visible and the believers, in the hereafter, can see God with their eyes. This theory faced with changes in historical trends; so that in some periods intellectual arguments and in some others spiritual approaches were reinforced among them. Fakhr Razi is of the Ash'ari scholars who spoke about this theory. However his theory, due to his mental condition and history, is different from that of Ash'arites. After reviewing the various opinions, he believed that seeing God is not provable through rational reasons and cannot be achieved except by transmission and auscultation. He finally considered seeing God in the hereafter as a kind of intuition and accepted the view those centuries ago was achieved by Imamia in light of the teachings of Ahl al-Bayt.