MARY—Auntie! Can you explain, how can God see without eyes, hear without ears and speak without a tongue?
BUSHRA—The tongue, the eyes and the ears are instruments created by God to help us. They are simply tools created to suit our limited capabilities. God, the Creator, has unlimited capabilities and as such does not need any such instruments.
He is All Powerful. He does everything and can do everything except that which is inconsistent with His Dignity or is opposed to His Promise.
We should remember that God is not only fully aware of what is happening in the entire universe but is also aware of that which is going to happen in the future. He is All Knowing. We, as human beings, do not know what the future is going to be, unless He tells us.
BARBARA—How can God know the future?
BUSHRA—God, being the Creator, knows each and every detail of His creation.
Let me give you an example. A car engineer, who designs and builds a car, knows perfectly well the limitations of the car. He knows how many kilometres it will run per litre of petrol. He can estimate the time its engine will last and also the limit of its speed. He also knows that it has to obey the laws of gravity and if it is driven at a high speed round a corner, it will topple over. However, God with His infinite knowledge, knows even the minutest details of human capabilities, as well as other external factors of His creation, more than any human being knows of what he himself has produced.
BARBARA—Thank you auntie. This point is clear to us now, however I wanted to know what does God look like? Does He have any shape?
BUSHRA—The nature of God is not very easy to understand, but I will try to make it clear to you. You know that our knowledge is confined to the limited experiences of our lives. God, being the Creator, cannot be compared with His own creation. Our position is that of a person who looks at a piece of artwork and then tries to visualise the artist who created it. Just as it is impossible to comprehend the physical shape of the artist by looking at his work, similarly it is impossible for us to imagine the shape of God by looking at His creation.
In fact, the difference between God, the Creator, and His creation is much greater than that of the artwork and the artist.
God has no shape, therefore it is absolutely impossible for us to see Him with our eyes, but He exists. His presence can be seen, felt and experienced through His various attributes manifested through His creation.
If you want to know Him, He is closer to you than your jugular vein. God loves those who love Him. They feel His closeness as He accepts their prayers and helps them in their time of need. Ordinarily though, we do not feel His presence.
By nature of His person He is distant from us. No one can directly reach Him through the five senses.
Imagine for a moment that God has a material shape. Imagine also that He is close to us and watches over us all the time. In such a situation life would become very boring, extremely burdensome and even miserable for some.
MARY—I would not like to be watched constantly by anyone.
BUSHRA—Yes indeed. One would like to have some moments to oneself at least. We love our privacy. So it is also a blessing in the sense that God is not visible to our physical eyes, though it can be argued that to live in the presence of one’s beloved cannot be called a burden. But then you have to be of a very high spiritual status. Prophets of God do not find it a burden.
God is also distant from those who never remember Him and consider themselves to be born by chance and not created by God. Such people lead an empty life with a void all around them. They can neither visualise nor feel the presence of God through inner experiences.
We should also remember that it is naïve for us to try to understand the nature of God’s figure in the dimensions we know.
Scientists have proved that there are many dimensions which we cannot comprehend and God being Limitless cannot be limited within any space or dimension.
It is a fact that every religion of the world describes God as Limitless and Infinite. Such a Being, therefore, has to be shapeless. I hope you understand now.