Episode 1In us
Your eye catches light from violet to red and, on a dark night, can register a single photon. But it needs light, a lens, a line of sight and a moment, and everything it sees has already happened.
The 99 Names · Name 27 of 99 · Capacity
The All-Seeing
al-Baṣīr الْبَصِيرُ
Recited as it sounds in the Qur'an, 22:61.
Heard together with: as-Samīʿ / al-Baṣīr
More than 17,000 wallets went “missing” in 355 cities across 40 countries in 2019. A team of economists handed each one in at a bank, a hotel or a police station, saying they had found it in the street. Some held no money, some held a little, some held more. In almost every country, people were more likely to email the owner when the wallet held more money.
Nobody was watching the people who sent those emails. They thought no one would ever know. That is the question behind al-Baṣīr, the All-Seeing: who are you when you are sure no one can see? For Muslims, the answer begins with knowing that Someone always can, and that this is meant as comfort as much as a warning.
Start with what we know
Start with something we know. Then take away everything it needs. What is left is not a bigger version of us: it is the Name.
Episode 1
Episode 2In nature
The mantis shrimp has twelve kinds of colour receptor to our three; the owl hunts by starlight. Every creature sees a slice of the world, never the whole of it.
Episode 3At our best
The Webb telescope's 6.5-metre gold mirror, a million miles out, catches light that left galaxies more than 13 billion years ago. Even it sees only the past, and only what light brings.
Episode 4The Break
Take away light, organ, distance, delay, direction, surface.
Every seeing we know needs light, an eye and a moment. Al-Baṣīr needs none of them.
From the tradition: al-Ghazālī: 'He sees without eyeball or eyelid'. Nahj Sermon 1: 'He sees even when there is none to be looked at'
Watch and listen
Films, documentaries and voices that reach towards this Name. Each links out to where you can watch it.
On screen
In Avatar, 'I see you' is the highest thing one person can say to another. Al-Baṣīr saw you before you could say it.
Where it shows up
- In scripture
- Q 6:103; 57:4; 42:11. Genesis 16:13; Hebrews 4:13
- The same thread in Jewish and Christian scripture
- Genesis 16:13 'You Are El-roi… God of Seeing'; Hebrews 4:13
- In the universe
- NASA JWST deep field: a patch of sky 'the size of a grain of sand held at arm's length' holds thousands of galaxies (11 July 2022)
- In nature
- 'Highlights: First Images from JWST' (NASA, official)
- In people
- Hagar in the desert naming 'the God who sees me' (Genesis 16:13)
- In science
- Optics: light-travel time; we see the Sun as it was about 8 minutes ago
The milk-seller's daughter
A story told about ʿUmar ibn al-Khaṭṭāb, the second caliph, is set in Medina at night. ʿUmar used to walk the streets after dark to see for himself how his people were living. One night, tired, he leaned against the wall of a small house and heard a mother and daughter talking inside.
The mother sold milk. “Get up,” she said, “and mix some water into the milk before morning.” The girl answered: “Don't you know that the Commander of the Faithful has forbidden people to water their milk?” Her mother said: “ʿUmar can't see us here. Go and do it.”
The girl replied: “If ʿUmar cannot see us, the Lord of ʿUmar sees us. I will not obey him in public and disobey him in private.”
In the story, ʿUmar marked the door, came back the next day, and asked his son ʿĀṣim to marry the girl. Tradition says that, generations later, one of her descendants was ʿUmar ibn ʿAbd al-ʿAzīz, remembered as one of the most just rulers in Islamic history. Whether or not every detail happened as told, Muslims have handed the story down because of one sentence a girl said in the dark.
What each faith says
Read:
Judaism
“He that planted the ear, shall He not hear? He that formed the eye, shall He not see?”
Psalms 94:9 · JPS 1917
The Psalms answer people who think God cannot see what they do with a simple question. If God made the eye, can God be blind? The same psalms that warn the powerful also comfort the weak. In Psalm 139 the writer says he could not flee from God's presence, even into darkness or to the far side of the sea.
The Mishnah's advice for avoiding wrongdoing is famous. Know what is above you, it says: an eye that sees, an ear that hears, and a book in which all your deeds are written (Pirkei Avot 2:1).
Christianity
“But you, when you pray, enter into your inner room, and having shut your door, pray to your Father who is in secret, and your Father who sees in secret will reward you openly.”
Matthew 6:6 · WEB
In the Sermon on the Mount, Jesus told his followers to give, pray and fast in secret, not to be seen by others. “Your Father who sees in secret will reward you.” What matters is what is done when only God sees.
In the Gospels, Jesus sits near the Temple treasury watching rich people put in large sums, and then a poor widow puts in two tiny coins. He tells his disciples she has given more than all of them (Mark 12:41-44). Nobody else noticed her. God did.
Ignatius of Loyola, founder of the Jesuits, taught a short prayer for the end of each day, the Examen. Catholics and many other Christians still use it: look back over the day as God saw it, give thanks, and notice where you went wrong.
Islam
“He said: Fear not. Lo! I am with you twain, Hearing and Seeing.”
Qur'an 20:46 · Pickthall (1930)
The Qur'an often closes a verse with “God sees what you do”. In one of the earliest passages revealed, it asks the man who mistreats others: “Is he then unaware that Allah seeth?” (96:14, Pickthall).
But al-Baṣīr is also a Name of comfort. When Moses and Aaron (peace be upon them) were afraid to go to Pharaoh, God told them: “Do not be afraid. I am with you both; I hear and I see.” Being seen by God means no injustice goes unnoticed, and no one is ever truly alone.
Same and different
All three faiths teach that God sees what is done in secret, and all three turn that into both a warning to the cruel and a comfort to the forgotten. Each refuses to describe God's seeing as eyes like ours. Jesus's teaching on giving in secret and the milk-seller's daughter in ʿUmar's Medina make the same point from two directions. The faiths differ in where they place God's seeing. Islam gives the idea a name of its own, iḥsān, excellence. The Prophet described it as worshipping God as though you see Him, for even if you do not see Him, He sees you (Muslim 8). Christians believe that in Jesus God also looked at the world through human eyes. Judaism and Islam hold that God sees without any body or organ at all.
A moment to reflect
- Would you act differently if you were sure no one, human or divine, could ever see? What does your answer tell you?
- Does the thought of being seen by God feel more like a comfort or a pressure to you? Why?
- Who around you does good that nobody notices?
Watch
How eyes evolved, from a light-sensitive patch to the camera-like eye: every kind of seeing we know needs an organ.
The mantis shrimp's strange way of seeing colour, from Science magazine.
NASA's first images from the Webb telescope: our widest seeing, and still only the past.
Do it together
families / schools / faith groupsThe secret kindness week
Everyone draws a name from a hat and does three kind things for that person over a week without being found out. At the end, guess who had whom, and read Matthew 6:6 and Qur'an 20:46 together.
schools / familiesWho sees what?
Make cards for animal eyes: the owl that hunts by starlight, the mantis shrimp, the eagle, the bee that sees ultraviolet. On the last card, write only ‘He sees without eyes’, and talk about why the faiths will not draw it.
faith groups / families / schoolsThe anonymous box
Maimonides ranked giving in which neither giver nor receiver knows the other near the top of his eight levels of charity (Mishneh Torah, Gifts to the Poor 10). Set up a box for a local food bank where gifts are left without names, and talk about why giving unseen feels different.
Go deeper
- Cohn and others, Civic honesty around the globe, Science 2019 · paper
- Psalm 94 (JPS 1917) on Sefaria · scripture
- Matthew 6 (WEB) on Bible Gateway · scripture
- Qur'an 20:42-46 with translations · scripture
Others say it too
Beyond the Abrahamic family, other traditions reach for something like this. Each in its own words; we connect, never rank.
Sikh
Who can sing Him, who is all-seeing and omnipresent?
Japji 3 · Guru Granth Sahib p. 2 · tr. M. A. Macauliffe, The Sikh Religion (1909), vol. 1
Sources (5)
- 17,000+ wallets, 355 cities, 40 countries; more money, more returns: Cohn, Maréchal, Tannenbaum and Zünd, Science 365 (2019)
- 'Does he not know that God sees?': Qur'an 96:14
- 'I am with you both; I hear and I see': Qur'an 20:46
- Know what is above you: One who sees and hears: Pirkei Avot 2:1
- The widow's two coins: Mark 12:41-44, WEB
Up next · Name 28 of 99The Judge whose decision is final and fairal-Ḥakam
Next →Watch more: The All-Seeing
5 films and talks, chosen for this page. They play here.
When You Need to Be Seen | Allah's Names | Dr. Omar Suleiman | Ep. 13
Yaqeen Institute · 20 min
Yaqeen: Dr Omar Suleiman on al-Basir, ar-Raqib and ash-Shahid, when you need to be seen (episode 13).
You Are Never Alone. He Protects, Hears & Sees you (Al-Waliy, As-Samii' & Al-Baseer)
Belal Assaad · 71 min
Belal Assaad: He protects, hears and sees you.
We've never seen THIS before - James Webb Space Telescope
Physics Girl · 19 min
The Snail-Smashing, Fish-Spearing, Eye-Popping Mantis Shrimp | Deep Look
Deep Look · 4 min
Deep Look: the mantis shrimp's extraordinary eyes.
History through the eyes of a chicken - Chris A. Kniesly
TED-Ed · 5 min
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