Allah is the Manifest One.
A thing is apparent to some and hidden from others in accordance with their abilities to see and to realize. Allah Most High is hidden from those who seek to see by means of their senses or their imagination, but He is apparent to those who seek to know Him by the inference of that treasure of wisdom and reason that Allah has bestowed upon them.
Allah is hidden in the endlessness of His infinite power and existence. He is like a light that makes all visible, yet His Light itself becomes a veil to His Light. That which has no bounds seems not to have a shape, therefore becoming invisible. But He is apparent in everything: everything our eyes see, every sound we hear, everything we touch, everything we taste. The meaning of everything we think, everything without and everything within us, is not Him but is from Him. Everything is a proof of His existence. Everything says, "I am nothing on my own. The one who made me, who keeps and maintains me, is my Creator. I am in need of Him every moment of my existence. Every shape, every color, every taste, every perfume, every movement, every force, every quality that appears in me is from Him. It is His making, His gift, His bounty, His work."
Allah is manifest in His attributes. One can know an artist from his artwork. If one does not see the setting sun, but sees its reflection in distant windows and says that he has seen the sunset, he is not lying. If one sees the perfect attributes of Allah in His creation, within and without himself, and says, "I have seen Allah," he is not lying.
One is able to see only what is closest to one, and that which is closest to you is yourself. Man is Allah's best creation. All creation is within man. If you see His perfect attributes in the perfect creation that you are, you will see Allah the Manifest One, and your faith will be complete.
The apparent and the hidden are also in man. His form, his words, his actions, and his work are manifest. His feelings and thoughts are hidden. Man is not what he is only because of what is manifest in him. He may grow fat or thin, he may even lose a limb - but his essence, his identity, that which is he, that which is constant, is hidden in him. His identity becomes manifest only through his action, through the evaluation of the quality of his actions.
'Abd az-Zahir is the one to whom the inner meaning of things becomes outwardly manifest, like the prophet Moses (May Allah bless him), upon whom the secret of the Manifest One was bestowed. He saw the manifestation of the divine light in the flames of the Burning Bush, and invited the Bani Israel to faith with a huge Torah revealed to him in golden script, ordering worldly law, salvation from the hand of the tyrant, and the benefits of Paradise.1
AZ-ZAHIR AL-BATIN - The Manifest and Hidden One
These two characterizations also are among those that are relative, for that which is manifest is (at one and the same time) manifest (in relation to) one thing and hidden (in relation to) another. (But) from the same point of view it cannot be both manifest and hidden. Rather it is manifest from one point of view and hidden from another, for it is only in relation to perceptions that things are manifest and hidden.
(Certainly it is true that) God Most High is hidden if He is sought through the perception of the (five) senses and the treasure house of the imagination, but He is manifest if sought through the treasure house of the mind and its reasoning faculties. You may (object to this and) say, "As for His being hidden in relation to the perception of the senses, that is (quite) obvious; but as for His being manifest in relation to (that which is perceived by) reason, that is abstruse. For (one terms) manifest that about which there is no dispute, that in the perception of which people do not differ. But this is a point on which men have had great doubt. How, then, is it possible for him to be a manifest one?"
(At the same time), however, you must realize that He is hidden in spite of his manifestness, in view of the degree of his manifestness. (Or to state the matter in another way), his (very) manifestness is the cause of his hiddenness and his (very) light is the veil of his light, for everything which goes beyond its own limits must (eventually) turn to its opposite. Perhaps you are astonished by this teaching, consider it (quite) remote and will not understand it unless we cite an analogy.
Let me assure you that if you were to consider a single word written by a certain author, from it you would be able to infer that he is learned, capable, and able to hear and see, and you would also reach the position where you were very certain about the existence of these attributes. Indeed, if you saw a written word, (from it) you would attain unmistakable evidence of the existence of its writer who is learned, capable, able to hear and see and, (of course), is alive, and the only evidence (of his being such a person) would be the formation of the single word (in question). Even as this word is unmistakable evidence of the attributes of (its) author, so (also) there is not an atom in the heavens and the Earth, not a celestial body, star, sun, moon, animal or vegetation, not a characteristic or anything that is characterized which does not bear witness of its own need for (the) manager who planned it, determined it and endowed it with its particular attributes. Moreover, man cannot contemplate any of his own external or internal members or parts, or any of his attributes or states which pertain to him by necessity and not by his own choice, without finding them to be outspoken witnesses for their Creator, Realizer and Planner.
This same truth applies in respect of everything which he perceives by means of all his senses, whether it be within or without his own person. If (some of) the things differed in respect of the witness (they brought), in that some of them bore witness and others did not, surely certainty would result in respect of all of them. But since the witnesses are so numerous that they have overlapped and (therewith) become indistinct, they have (in fact) become obscure due to (the) excessive clarity. An illustration of this is that the most manifest of (all) things are those which are perceived by the senses, and of these the most manifest things are those that are perceived by the senses of sight, and the most manifest of (all) things perceived by sight is the light of the sun which shines upon (worldly) bodies, that light by which everything becomes manifest. How could that by which everything is made manifest not (itself) be manifest?
This (is a question that) has confused many people and caused them to say, "As far as the coloured objects are concerned, only the colouring - (that is to say) black and red - exists in them. As for the possibility of there being together with the colour a radiance and a light associated with the colour, this is not true." These people become conscious of the existence of light in the coloured things by the difference they perceive between the shade and the pace of the light and between nighttime and daytime. Since it is possible to conceive of the sun being concealed during the night, and its being veiled from sight by (various) dark bodies during the day, (you know that) its effect is distinguishable by the things that are coloured, and thereby the difference is perceived between that which is affected and illuminated by it and between the shaded objects concealed from it.
Thus the existence of the light is (actually) known by the non-existence of the light. (The same result would also obtain) if existence were placed via-a-vis non-existence and the difference were perceived, with colours remaining constant in either case. If the light of the sun fell upon all the bodies that are manifest to a person and if the sun did not set and so enable him to notice the difference (made by its setting), surely it would be impossible for him to know that the light is something of consequence, existing and distinct from the colours; and this in spite of the fact that it is the most manifest of all things; indeed, it is that which makes all things manifest.
(Similarly), if the non-existence or absence of God Most High, the Holy One, from some things, were conceivable, certainly the heavens and the earth and everything that would be cut off from His light would perish, and (then) surely the distinction between the two states (of existence and non-existence) would be comprehended. (In such an eventuality - which, of course, is impossible) His existence definitely would be known. But since all things are in agreement in respect of the witness (of Him) and all of the various states are uniformly constant, that is the cause of His being hidden. Praise, then, be to the One who is concealed from mankind by His light, the One who is hidden from them by the degree of His manifestness! He is az-Zahir, the One (in comparison with whom) there is no one more manifest; and He is al-Batin, the One (in comparison with whom) there is no one more hidden.
An Admonition. Do not be surprised at this (admonition) in respect of the attributes of God Most High, for the sense in which man is (said to be) man is both manifest and hidden. It is manifest in that one may infer it by looking at his orderly (and) wise deeds; (but) it is hidden if it is sought through sensory perception. For sensory (perception) is concerned only with his external form, but the fact remains that) man is not man (simply) by virtue of his visible form. For if that form is changed - indeed, if all his component parts are changed - he is still he, (a man). And (it is an indisputable fact that) the (various) parts (of the body) do change. When he has grown old perhaps the parts of every man's body are no longer the same as they were when he was a youth. They disintegrate with the passing of time and are exchanged for similar parts as a result of the nourishment (one receives). But man's nature has not changed. That (inner) nature is hidden from the senses, (but) it is manifest to reason by deduction from the evidence of its effects and deeds.2