How did you come to know your Lord?

Hawzah News Agency - A group from our companions reported from Ahmad ibn Muhammad ibn Khalid, from some of our companions, from Ali ibn Uqbah ibn Qais ibn Sim'an ibn Abi Rubayhah, a freedman of the Messenger of Allah ﷺ, who said: The Commander of the Faithful was asked:

بِمَ عَرَفْتَ رَبَّكَ قَالَ بِمَا عَرَّفَنِي نَفْسَهُ قِيلَ وَكَيْفَ عَرَّفَكَ نَفْسَهُ قَالَ لا يُشْبِهُهُ صُورَةٌ وَلا يُحَسُّ بِالْحَوَاسِّ وَلا يُقَاسُ بِالنَّاسِ قَرِيبٌ فِي بُعْدِهِ بَعِيدٌ فِي قُرْبِهِ فَوْقَ كُلِّ شَيْ‏ءٍ وَلا يُقَالُ شَيْ‏ءٌ فَوْقَهُ أَمَامَ كُلِّ شَيْ‏ءٍ وَلا يُقَالُ لَهُ أَمَامٌ دَاخِلٌ فِي الاشْيَاءِ لا كَشَيْ‏ءٍ دَاخِلٍ فِي شَيْ‏ءٍ وَخَارِجٌ مِنَ الاشْيَاءِ لا كَشَيْ‏ءٍ خَارِجٍ مِنْ شَيْ‏ءٍ سُبْحَانَ مَنْ هُوَ هَكَذَا وَلا هَكَذَا غَيْرُهُ وَلِكُلِّ شَيْ‏ءٍ مُبْتَدَأٌ.

"How did you come to know your Lord?" He said: "By what He has introduced Himself to me." It was asked: "And how did He introduce Himself to you?" He said: "He is not similar to any image, nor can He be perceived by the senses, nor can He be compared to people. He is close in His distance and distant in His closeness, above everything, and nothing is said to be above Him. He is not referred to as being before anything, nor can He be said to be inside things like something inside something else, nor outside of things like something outside of something else. Glorified is He who is thus, and none other is like Him. Everything has a beginning."

Al-Kāfi, v.1, Book 3, Chapter 3