Part One
The creed of Ahl al-Sunnah wa-l-Jamāʿah in summary
First Issue: The Word Wajh (وَجْه) in the Language
Wajh (وَجْه) is from the root wāw–jīm–hāʾ (و ج ه). Its base meaning is facing and meeting: the wajh of a thing is the side of it that meets you, and the verb wājahah (وَاجَهَ), muwājahah, is to meet face to face. From it come jihah (جِهَة) and wijhah (وِجْهَة), the direction one faces, and tawajjuh (تَوَجُّه), turning towards.
Ibn Fāris said in Maqāyīs al-Lughah, under the root wāw–jīm–hāʾ:
والوجه مستقبِلٌ لكلِّ شئ. يقال وَجْه الرّجلِ وغَيره. وربَّما غُبِّر عن الذات بالوَجْه. [و] تقول: وَجْهى إليك.
Wāw, jīm and hāʾ: a single root that indicates facing (muqābalah) a thing. The face is what meets everything. It is said: the face of the man, and of others. And sometimes the self is expressed by “the face”. And you say: my face is towards you.
Ibn Fāris, Maqāyīs al-Lughah 6/88, root w-j-h
Source, chain and authenticity
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الواو والجيم والعين: كلمةٌ واحدة، هى الوَجَع: اسمٌ يجمع المرض كلَّه. وهو يِيجَعُ وياجَعُ (¬١)، وأنت تِيجع من كذا. وقال رائدٌ من الرُّوَّاد:
«رأيتُ كَلأَ ييجَعْ له كَبِدُ المُصْرِم (¬٢)». وهو وَجِعٌ وقومٌ وَجَاعَى. وأنا أوْجَعُ رأسى، ويُوجِعُنى رأسى. وتوجّعت له: رَثَيت. ويقولون: إنَّ الوَجْعاء: السَّهُ (¬٣).
وجم
الواو والجيم والميم: يدلُّ على سكوتٍ فى اهتمام. وَوَجَم من الأمرِ يَكرَهُه: أَسْكَتَ له. وفى الحديث: «مالى أراكَ واجما». ويقولون:
يومٌ وجيم: شديد الْحَرّ، وفيه نظر. ومصدرهُ الوَجْمُ والوجوم (¬٤).
وجن
الواو والجيم والنون يدلُّ على صلابةٍ فى الشّئ. ومنه الوَجِين: العارض من الأرض يَنقَاد، وهو صُلْبٌ، وبه سمِّيت الناقة وَجْناء.
وقياس وَجْنَةِ الإنْسان منه، لأنَّ فيها (¬٥) صلابةً وشِدّة، والجمع وَجَنَات. وربَّما سمَّوْا شَطَّ الوادِى وَجِيناً. ووَجَن ثوبَه: ضَرَبه بالمِيجَنَة، هى الخشَبةُ يُدَقُّ بها.
وجه
الواو والجيم والهاء: أصلٌ واحد يدلُّ على مقابلةٍ لشئ.
والوجه مستقبِلٌ لكلِّ شئ. يقال وَجْه الرّجلِ وغَيره. وربَّما غُبِّر عن الذات بالوَجْه. [و] تقول: وَجْهى إليك. قال:
Ibn Fāris notes that the self is sometimes expressed by “the face”. That usage proves the reverse of what the opponents want from it. The Arabs name a person by his face because the face is the noblest of what he has and the part by which he is known and met; one who has no face is never named by a face. So even where wajh refers to the whole, it presupposes a real face. And in the texts of the attributes the Face is attributed to Allah, described with its own description, and distinguished from the Essence in the grammar of the verse, as follows.
Allah said: wa-yabqā wajhu rabbika dhū al-jalāli wa-l-ikrām (وَيَبْقَى وَجْهُ رَبِّكَ ذُو الْجَلَالِ وَالْإِكْرَامِ). The word dhū (ذُو), possessor of, is in the nominative, which shows that it describes wajhu, itself nominative as the subject of yabqā. Had the description been of rabbika (رَبِّكَ), which is genitive after the construct, the verse would read dhī al-jalāl (ذِي الْجَلَالِ) — and that is the reading in the last verse of the same sūrah: tabārakah smu rabbika dhī al-jalāli wa-l-ikrām, where the description belongs to the Lord. In one sūrah Allah described the Lord with dhī and the Face with dhū. The Face itself is described with majesty and honour.
Second Issue: The Creed of Ahl al-Sunnah in the Face
The verses of the Face are among the texts of the attributes, and they prove that Allah has a Face. Ahl al-Sunnah wa-l-Jamāʿah affirm it for Allah as befits Him, with the denial of likeness and the denial of any knowledge of the modality. His Face is not like the faces of the servants. The servants have faces — “faces on that Day will be radiant” — and the Face of the Creator is not like the face of any of the creation; and the servants do not know the modality of His Face, just as they do not know the modality of His Essence.
The Face is an attribute of the Essence: Allah has never been without it and never will be. It is real, and it is not a part, a limb or an organ in the way of creatures; these words are not used of Allah, either in affirmation or denial, because the texts did not bring them. What the texts brought is affirmed — the Face, its majesty and honour, its glories, the seeking of refuge in it, the believers' looking at it — and what they did not bring is left alone.
Part Two
The texts of the Qurʾān and the Sunnah
Third Issue: The Face in the Book of Allah
Allah mentioned the perishing of everything on the earth, and then set against it the remaining of His Face. The contrast is between what perishes, which is the creation, and what remains, which is the Lord with His Face.
Allah, the Exalted, said:
Everyone upon it will perish, and there will remain the Face of your Lord, Owner of majesty and honour.
Qurʾān 55:26–27 (al-Raḥmān) Read the verse (opens in a new tab)
Everyone upon the earth will perish — plants, animals and men — and then Allah raises the dead from their graves after annihilating them; and there remains the Face of your Lord. The verse attributes the remaining to the Face, describes the Face with majesty and honour, and connects the Face to “your Lord” by the construct. Three features of the wording, each of which belongs to a real attribute.
And He, the Exalted, said:
And do not call upon any other god along with Allah; there is no god but He. Everything will perish except His Face. His is the judgement, and to Him you will be returned.
Qurʾān 28:88 (al-Qaṣaṣ) Read the verse (opens in a new tab)
Here the Face is set against “everything”: everything will perish except His Face. Whoever says that the Face is created, or that it is the reward, has made the Face one of the things that perish, against the exception in the verse. And whoever says that it is a word added with no meaning has made the speech of Allah carry a word that the meaning would be better without — exalted is Allah above that.
Fourth Issue: The Face in the Sunnah of the Messenger ﷺ
The Prophet ﷺ described the Face of his Lord with its majesty, and described the veil that is between it and the creation.
Muslim reported in his Ṣaḥīḥ from Abū Mūsā al-Ashʿarī that the Messenger of Allah ﷺ stood among them and said:
قَامَ فِينَا رَسُولُ اللَّهِ ﷺ بِخَمْسِ كَلِمَاتٍ.
⦗١٦٢⦘
فَقَالَ: "إِنَّ اللَّهَ ﷿ لَا يَنَامُ وَلَا يَنْبَغِي لَهُ أَنْ يَنَامَ. يَخْفِضُ الْقِسْطَ وَيَرْفَعُهُ. يُرْفَعُ إِلَيْهِ عَمَلُ اللَّيْلِ قَبْلَ عَمَلِ النَّهَارِ. وَعَمَلُ النَّهَارِ قَبْلَ عَمَلِ اللَّيْلِ. حِجَابُهُ النُّورُ. (وَفِي رِوَايَةِ أَبِي بَكْرٍ: النَّارُ) لَوْ كَشَفَهُ لَأَحْرَقَتْ سُبُحَاتُ وَجْهِهِ مَا انْتَهَى إِلَيْهِ بَصَرُهُ مِنْ خَلْقِهِ".
Abū Bakr ibn Abī Shaybah and Abū Kurayb narrated to us; they said: Abū Muʿāwiyah narrated to us: al-Aʿmash narrated to us, from ʿAmr ibn Murrah, from Abū ʿUbaydah, from Abū Mūsā, who said: The Messenger of Allah ﷺ stood among us with five statements. He said: “Allah, Mighty and Majestic, does not sleep, and it does not befit Him to sleep. He lowers the scale and raises it. The deeds of the night are raised to Him before the deeds of the day, and the deeds of the day before the deeds of the night. His veil is light — in the narration of Abū Bakr: fire — and if He were to remove it, the glories (subuḥāt) of His Face would burn whatever of His creation His sight reaches.”
Muslim, al-Ṣaḥīḥ, ed. ʿAbd al-Bāqī, 1/161–162, no. 179, from Abū Mūsā al-Ashʿarī
Source, chain and authenticity
Authentic. Muslim reported it from two of his teachers, Abū Bakr ibn Abī Shaybah and Abū Kurayb, both imams of ḥadīth, from Abū Muʿāwiyah Muḥammad ibn Khāzim, who was the most precise of men in the ḥadīth of al-Aʿmash; from Sulaymān al-Aʿmash, from ʿAmr ibn Murrah, the trustworthy Kūfan, from Abū ʿUbaydah, the son of ʿAbd Allāh ibn Masʿūd, from Abū Mūsā. Muslim noted the one difference between his two teachers' wordings — “light” in one, “fire” in the other — and that in Abū Bakr's narration al-Aʿmash did not say “narrated to us”. That precision is the precision of the Ṣaḥīḥ, and the ummah received the book with acceptance.
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٢٩٣ - (١٧٩) حَدَّثَنَا أَبُو بَكْرِ بْنُ أَبِي شَيْبَةَ وَأَبُو كُرَيْبٍ. قَالَا: حَدَّثَنَا أَبُو مُعَاوِيَةَ. حَدَّثَنَا الأَعْمَشُ عَنْ عَمْرِو بْنِ مُرَّةَ، عَنْ أَبِي عُبَيْدَةَ، عَنْ أَبِي مُوسَى، قَالَ:
قَامَ فِينَا رَسُولُ اللَّهِ ﷺ بِخَمْسِ كَلِمَاتٍ.
⦗١٦٢⦘
فَقَالَ: "إِنَّ اللَّهَ ﷿ لَا يَنَامُ وَلَا يَنْبَغِي لَهُ أَنْ يَنَامَ. يَخْفِضُ الْقِسْطَ وَيَرْفَعُهُ. يُرْفَعُ إِلَيْهِ عَمَلُ اللَّيْلِ قَبْلَ عَمَلِ النَّهَارِ. وَعَمَلُ النَّهَارِ قَبْلَ عَمَلِ اللَّيْلِ. حِجَابُهُ النُّورُ. (وَفِي رِوَايَةِ أَبِي بَكْرٍ: النَّارُ) لَوْ كَشَفَهُ لَأَحْرَقَتْ سُبُحَاتُ وَجْهِهِ مَا انْتَهَى إِلَيْهِ بَصَرُهُ مِنْ خَلْقِهِ". (وَفِي رِوَايَةِ أَبِي بَكْرٍ عَنِ الأَعْمَشِ وَلَمْ يَقُلْ حدثنا).
Subuḥāt al-wajh (سُبُحَات الْوَجْه) are the glories and the light of the Face, its splendour and majesty; the word is from tasbīḥ, declaring Allah free of every deficiency. The Prophet ﷺ said that if the veil were removed, these glories would burn everything His sight reaches — and His sight reaches everything. The ḥadīth affirms the Face, its glories, and the veil, and shows that what keeps the creation in existence is that the veil remains.
And the Prophet ﷺ sought refuge in the Face of his Lord, which no one does with something that is not real.
Al-Bukhārī reported in his Ṣaḥīḥ, in the Book of Tawḥīd, from Jābir ibn ʿAbd Allāh:
Qutaybah ibn Saʿīd narrated to us: Ḥammād narrated to us, from ʿAmr, from Jābir ibn ʿAbd Allāh, who said: When this verse was revealed — {Say: He is able to send upon you a punishment from above you} — the Prophet ﷺ said: “I seek refuge in Your Face.” He said: {or from beneath your feet} — and the Prophet ﷺ said: “I seek refuge in Your Face.” He said: {or to confuse you into sects} — and the Prophet ﷺ said: “This is lighter.”
al-Bukhārī, al-Ṣaḥīḥ (al-Sulṭāniyyah), Kitāb al-Tawḥīd, 9/121, no. 7406, from Jābir ibn ʿAbd Allāh
Source, chain and authenticity
Authentic. Al-Bukhārī placed it in Kitāb al-Tawḥīd under the chapter on the saying of Allah “Everything will perish except His Face”. Its chain is among the highest in the Ṣaḥīḥ: Qutaybah ibn Saʿīd, from Ḥammād ibn Zayd, from ʿAmr ibn Dīnār, from Jābir — four imams, each of whom heard from the one before him.
When the threat of punishment from above and from below was revealed, the Prophet ﷺ said each time: aʿūdhu bi-wajhik (أَعُوذُ بِوَجْهِكَ), I seek refuge in Your Face. One seeks refuge only in Allah and in His attributes; seeking refuge in a creature is shirk. So the Prophet ﷺ seeking refuge in the Face of Allah is a proof that the Face is an attribute of Allah and not something created — not the reward, and not the direction of the Qiblah.
From the honouring of the Face is that nothing of this world is asked by it, as in the report of Abū Dāwūd.
Abū Dāwūd reported in his Sunan, under the chapter “the dislike of asking by the Face of Allah”, from Jābir:
١٦٧١ - حدَّثنا أبو العباس القِلَوريُّ، حدَثنا يعقوبُ بنُ إسحاقَ الحضرمي، عن سليمانَ بن معاذ التميمي، حدَّثنا ابنُ المنكدر
عن جابرٍ قال: قال رسولُ الله ﷺ: "لا يُسأل بوجْه الله إلا الجنَّةُ"
Chapter: the dislike of asking by the Face of Allah, Mighty and Majestic. 1671 — Abū al-ʿAbbās al-Qillawrī narrated to us: Yaʿqūb ibn Isḥāq al-Ḥaḍramī narrated to us, from Sulaymān ibn Muʿādh al-Tamīmī: Ibn al-Munkadir narrated to us, from Jābir, who said: The Messenger of Allah ﷺ said: “Nothing is asked by the Face of Allah except Paradise.”
Abū Dāwūd, al-Sunan, ed. al-Arnaʾūṭ, 3/103, no. 1671
Source, chain and authenticity
Its chain is weak. The editor of the Risālah edition, al-Arnaʾūṭ, judged: “its chain is weak, because of the weakness of Sulaymān — he is Ibn Qaram ibn Muʿādh al-Tamīmī al-Ḍabbī”. It is cited here for its meaning, which is supported by the authentic texts that honour the Face of Allah; it is not relied upon by itself.
The chain of this report is weak, as is shown in its box, and it is not relied upon by itself. Its meaning is supported by what is authentic: the Face of Allah is sought in refuge by the Prophet ﷺ, is sought by the righteous in their deeds, and is looked upon by the believers in Paradise. A thing of this rank is not made a means of asking for the trifles of this world.
Part Three
The explanation of the mufassirūn and the Salaf
Fifth Issue: The Mufassirūn on “everything will perish except His Face”
The mufassirūn of the Salaf gave the verse of al-Qaṣaṣ two explanations, and al-Ṭabarī recorded both.
Al-Ṭabarī said in his Tafsīr, on the verse of al-Qaṣaṣ:
وقال آخرون: معنى ذلك: إلا ما أريد به وجهه، واستشهدوا لتأويلهم ذلك كذلك بقول الشاعر:
أَسْتَغْفِرُ اللهَ ذَنْبًا لَسْتُ مُحْصِيهُ ... رَبُّ العِبادِ إلَيْهِ الوَجْهُ والعَمَلُ
And they differed over the meaning of His saying {except His Face}. Some of them said: its meaning is, everything will perish except Him. And others said: the meaning of that is, except what is sought by it His Face; and they cited for their interpretation the saying of the poet: “I seek Allah's forgiveness for a sin I cannot count — the Lord of the servants, to Him is the face and the deed.”
al-Ṭabarī, Jāmiʿ al-Bayān 19/643, on al-Qaṣaṣ 88
Source, chain and authenticity
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يقول تعالى ذكره: ولا يصرفنَّك عن تبليغ آيات الله وحججه بعد أن أنزلها إليك ربك يا محمد هؤلاء المشركون بقولهم: (لَوْلا أُوتِيَ مِثْلَ مَا أُوتِيَ مُوسَى) وادع إلى ربك وبلغ رسالته إلى من أرسلك إليه بها (وَلا تَكُونَنَّ مِنَ الْمُشْرِكِينَ) يقول: ولا تتركنّ الدعاء إلى ربك، وتبليغ المشركين رسالته، فتكون ممن فعل فِعل المشركين بمعصيته ربه، وخلافه أمره.
القول في تأويل قوله تعالى: ﴿وَلا تَدْعُ مَعَ اللَّهِ إِلَهًا آخَرَ لا إِلَهَ إِلا هُوَ كُلُّ شَيْءٍ هَالِكٌ إِلا وَجْهَهُ لَهُ الْحُكْمُ وَإِلَيْهِ تُرْجَعُونَ (٨٨) ﴾
يقول تعالى ذكره: ولا تعبد يا محمد مع معبودك الذي له عبادة كلّ شيء معبودا آخر سواه. وقوله: (لا إِلَهَ إِلا هُوَ) يقول: لا معبود تصلح له العبادة إلا الله الذي كلّ شيء هالك إلا وجهه.
واختلف في معنى قوله: (إِلا وَجْهَهُ) فقال بعضهم: معناه: كلّ شيء هالك إلا هو.
وقال آخرون: معنى ذلك: إلا ما أريد به وجهه، واستشهدوا لتأويلهم ذلك كذلك بقول الشاعر:
أَسْتَغْفِرُ اللهَ ذَنْبًا لَسْتُ مُحْصِيهُ ... رَبُّ العِبادِ إلَيْهِ الوَجْهُ والعَمَلُ (١)
وقوله: (لَهُ الْحُكْمُ) يقول: له الحكم بين خلقه دون غيره، ليس لأحد غيره معه فيهم حكم (وَإِلَيْهِ تُرْجَعُونَ) يقول: وإليه تردون من بعد مماتكم، فيقضي بينكم بالعدل، فيجازي مؤمنيكم جزاءهم، وكفاركم ما وعدهم.
تفسير سورة العنكبوت
Neither explanation denies the Face. The first, “except Him”, means except Allah Himself — and He is Allah with His Face, His Hands and all His attributes; it does not say that He has no Face. The second, “except what is sought by it His Face”, takes the verse as speaking of deeds, that every deed perishes except the deed done for the Face of Allah; and it affirms the Face as that which is sought. The line of poetry they cited, “to Him is the face and the deed”, uses wajh in the sense of the direction one turns to — and that sense is itself taken from the meaning of facing.
As for the verse of al-Raḥmān, “and there will remain the Face of your Lord, Owner of Majesty and Honour”, it does not bear the second explanation at all. It speaks of what is on the earth perishing and the Face of the Lord remaining, and describes the Face with majesty and honour, which are not descriptions of deeds.
Part Four
The statements of the Salaf
Sixth Issue: The Salaf and the Imams of Ḥadīth
Imām Ibn Khuzaymah, the imam of the imams, opened the chapter on the Face in his Kitāb al-Tawḥīd with the creed of the scholars of every land.
Imām Ibn Khuzaymah said in Kitāb al-Tawḥīd, opening the chapter on the Face:
So we and all of our scholars, of the people of the Ḥijāz, Tihāmah, Yemen, ʿIrāq, Shām and Egypt — our way is that we affirm for Allah what Allah affirmed for Himself; we acknowledge that with our tongues and affirm it in our hearts, without likening the Face of our Creator to the face of any of the creatures. Our Lord is too mighty to resemble the creatures, our Lord is exalted above the saying of the muʿaṭṭilah, and He is too mighty to be non-existent, as the people of falsehood said; for what has no attribute is non-existent. Exalted is Allah above what the Jahmīs say, who deny the attributes of our Creator with which He described Himself in the precise verses of His revelation and on the tongue of His Prophet
Ibn Khuzaymah, Kitāb al-Tawḥīd 1/26
Source, chain and authenticity
He named the lands one by one — the Ḥijāz, Tihāmah, Yemen, ʿIrāq, Shām and Egypt — to show that this was not the saying of one city or one school. And he gave the rule that ends the whole dispute: what has no attribute is non-existent. The one who denies the Face in order to free Allah from likeness has not freed Him from likeness; he has described Him with the description of nothing.
Al-Dārimī said, in his refutation of Bishr al-Marīsī:
And were it not for the many who deny the truth and approve falsehood, we would not have busied ourselves all this busying with establishing the Face of Allah, Owner of Majesty and Honour — when there is nothing in it but the agreement of the word of the knowledgeable: “I seek refuge in the Face of Allah the Mighty”, and “I seek refuge in Your Face, O Lord”
ʿUthmān ibn Saʿīd al-Dārimī, Naqḍ al-Imām Abī Saʿīd ʿalā al-Marīsī, p. 279
Source, chain and authenticity
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وَعَلَى تَصْدِيقِ هَذِهِ الآثَارِ وَالإِيمَانِ بِهَا؛ أَدْرَكْنَا أَهْلَ الفِقْهِ وَالعِلْمِ، وَلَوْ لَمْ يَكُنْ إِلَّا مَا رَوَيْتَ أَيُّهَا المُعَارِضُ عَنْ وَكِيعٍ، عَنِ الأَعْمَشِ، عَنْ أَبِي وَائِلٍ، عَنْ حُذَيْفَةَ: «أنَّ العَبْدَ إِذَا قَامَ يُصَلِّي أقبل الله عَلَيْهِ بِوَجْهِهِ» (١) فَادَّعَيْتَ أَنَّهُ يُقْبِلُ عَلَيْهِ بِنِعْمَتِهِ وَثَوَابِهِ، وَأَنَّهُ قَدْ يُقَالُ: وَجْهُ الله فِي المَجَازِ، كَمَا يُقَالُ: وَجْهُ الحَائِطِ، وَوَجْهُ الثَّوْبِ.
وَيْلَكَ! فَهَذَا مَعَ مَا فِيهِ مِنَ الكُفْرِ، مُحَالٌ فِي الكَلَامِ؛ فَإِنَّهُ لَا يُقال لِشَيْءٍ لَيْسَ مِنْ ذَوِي الوُجُوهِ: أَقْبَلَ بِوَجْهِهِ عَلَى إِنْسَانٍ، أَوْ غَيْرِهِ إِلَّا وَالمُقْبِلُ بِوَجْهِهِ مِنْ ذَوِي الوُجُوهِ، وَقَدْ يَجُوزُ أَنْ يُقَالَ: لِلثَّوْبِ وَجْهٌ، وَللحَائِطِ، وَلَا يَجُوزُ أَنْ يُقَالَ: أَقْبَلَ الثَّوْبُ بِوَجْهِهِ عَلَى المُشْتَرِي، وَأَقْبَلَ الحَائِطُ بِوَجْهِهِ عَلَى فُلَانٍ، لَا يُقَالُ: أَقْبَلَ بِوَجْهِهِ عَلَى شَيْءٍ إِلَّا مَنْ لَهُ القُدْرَةُ عَلَى الإِقْبَالِ.
وَكُلُّ قَادِرٍ عَلَى الإِقْبَالِ ذُو وَجْهٍ، هَذَا مَعْقُولٌ [٥٢/ظ] مَفْهُومٌ فِي كَلَامِ العَرَبِ، فَإِنْ جَهِلْتَهُ، فَسَمِّ شَيْئًا مِنَ الأَشْيَاءِ لَيْسَ مِنْ ذَوِي الأَوْجُهِ يَجُوزُ أَنْ تَقُولَ: أَقْبَلَ بِوَجْهِهِ عَلَى فُلَانٍ؛ فَإِنَّكَ لَا تَأْتِي بِهِ، فَافْهَمْ، وَمَا أَرَاكَ وَلَا إِمَامَكَ تَفْهَمَانِ هَذَا وَمَا أَشْبَهَهُ.
وَلَوْلَا كَثْرَةُ مَنْ يَسْتَنْكِرُ الحَقَّ، وَيَسْتَحْسِنُ البَاطِلَ؛ مَا اشْتَغَلْنَا كُلَّ هَذَا الِاشْتِغَالِ بِتَثْبِيتِ وَجْهِ الله ذِي الجلَال وَالإِكْرَام، ولو لم يَكُنْ فِيهِ إِلَّا اجْتِمَاعُ الكَلِمَةِ مِنَ العَالِمِينَ: «أَعُوذُ بِوَجْهِ الله العَظِيمِ» و «أَعُوذُ بِوَجْهِكَ يَا رَبِّ»،
Al-Dārimī, who wrote a century before the later schools, said that he would not have spent so long establishing the Face had it not been for those who deny the truth, because the matter is settled in the speech of every Muslim: the scholars and the common people alike say, I seek refuge in the Face of Allah the Mighty. The denial of the Face is not a scholarly opinion; it is a departure from the language of the Muslims.
Part Five
The imams after them
Seventh Issue: The Imams After Them, to al-Durar al-Saniyyah
The imams of the Sunnah after them held the same creed. Ibn Taymiyyah listed the two verses of the Face in al-ʿAqīdah al-Wāsiṭiyyah as the first of the proofs of the attributes of the Essence. And the imams of the Najdī daʿwah, answering one who counted al-Sanūsī among the imams of the Sunnah, wrote:
And the imams of the Najdī daʿwah said, in an answer preserved in al-Durar al-Saniyyah:
الأعضاء والجوارح، تعالى الله عن ذلك علوا كبيرا.
فيحصل بذلك: إثبات ما وصف به نفسه في كتابه، وفي سنة رسوله ﷺ؛ ويحصل أيضا نفي التشبيه والتكييف في صفاته، ويحصل أيضا ترك التأويل، والتحريف، المؤدي إلى التعطيل، ويحصل أيضا إثبات الصفات على ما يليق بجلال الله وعظمته، لا على ما نعقله نحن من صفات المخلوقين، وأما الأشاعرة فيؤلون النصوص الواردة في كتاب الله وسنة رسوله، فيؤلون الاستواء بالاستيلاء، والنّزول بنُزول الأمر، واليدين بالقدرتين والنعمتين، والقدم بقدم صدق، وأمثال ذلك.
As for Ahl al-Sunnah wal-Jamāʿah, they describe Allah with everything with which He described Himself, as befits His majesty and greatness. They affirm the Descent, as the authentic Sunnah came with it from the Messenger of Allah ﷺ, that he said: “Our Lord descends every night to the lowest heaven when the last third of the night remains” to the end. They affirm the attribute of the two Hands as befits His majesty and greatness, and likewise the attribute of the noble Face, as befits His majesty and greatness, and likewise the Laughter that the Sunnah came with, the Wonder, the Anger, the Pleasure, the two Handfuls and the Fingers. They describe Allah with what He described Himself with or what His Messenger described Him with, and from all of that they understand only what befits Allah and His greatness, not what befits creatures of limbs and organs — exalted is Allah far above that. By this is attained the affirmation of what He described Himself with in His Book and in the Sunnah of His Messenger ﷺ; and also the negation of likening and of asking how in His attributes; and also the abandonment of taʾwīl and taḥrīf that lead to taʿṭīl; and also the affirmation of the attributes as befits the majesty and greatness of Allah, not according to what we understand of the attributes of creatures. As for the Ashʿarīs, they interpret the texts that came in the Book of Allah and the Sunnah of His Messenger: they interpret the Istiwāʾ as conquering (istīlāʾ), the Descent as the descent of the command, the two Hands as the two powers and the two blessings, the Foot as a “foot of truthfulness”, and the like.
An answer of the imams of the Najdī daʿwah preserved in al-Durar al-Saniyyah, Kitāb al-Asmāʾ wa-l-Ṣifāt, 3/25–26
Source, chain and authenticity
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والسنوسي قد خالف أئمة السنة في هذه المسألة ; وعبارته في أم البراهين قال: ومما تستحيل في صفته تعالى عشرون صفة، فذكر منها: وأن يكون في جهة ; قال الشارح لها، وهو محمد بن عمر التلمساني: هذا أيضا من أنواع المماثلة المستحيلة، وهي كونه تعالى في جهة، فلا يقال: إنه تعالى فوق العرش ; فقد تبين لك مخالفته السلف الصالح، ومنها: مسألة الصفات، فإن السنوسي أثبت الصفات السبع فقط.
وأما أهل السنة والجماعة فيصفون الله بجميع ما وصف به نفسه، كما يليق بجلاله وعظمته، فيثبتون النّزول، كما وردت بذلك السنة الصحيحة عن رسول الله ﷺ أنه قال: " ينْزل ربنا كل ليلة إلى سماء الدنيا، حين يبقى ثلث الليل "١ إلخ، ويثبتون صفة اليدين، كما يليق بجلاله وعظمته، وكذلك صفة الوجه الكريم، كما يليق بجلاله وعظمته، وكذلك الضحك الذي وردت به السنة، والتعجب، والغضب، والرضى، والقبضتان، والأصابع، فيصفون الله بما وصف به نفسه، أو وصفه به رسوله، ولا يفهمون من جميع ذلك إلا ما يليق بالله وعظمته، لا ما يليق بالمخلوقات من
الأعضاء والجوارح، تعالى الله عن ذلك علوا كبيرا.
فيحصل بذلك: إثبات ما وصف به نفسه في كتابه، وفي سنة رسوله ﷺ؛ ويحصل أيضا نفي التشبيه والتكييف في صفاته، ويحصل أيضا ترك التأويل، والتحريف، المؤدي إلى التعطيل، ويحصل أيضا إثبات الصفات على ما يليق بجلال الله وعظمته، لا على ما نعقله نحن من صفات المخلوقين، وأما الأشاعرة فيؤلون النصوص الواردة في كتاب الله وسنة رسوله، فيؤلون الاستواء بالاستيلاء، والنّزول بنُزول الأمر، واليدين بالقدرتين والنعمتين، والقدم بقدم صدق، وأمثال ذلك.
وأما أهل السنة والجماعة فيصفون الله بهذه الصفات، وغيرها، مما وصف به نفسه، ولا يحرفون الكلم عن مواضعه، ولا يكيفون، ولا يشبهون; والكلام عندهم في الصفات فرع على الكلام في الذات، فكما أن ذاته لا تشبه ذوات خلقه، فكذلك صفاته لا تشبه صفات خلقه، فإذا ثبت وصفه تعالى بالصفات السبع، على ما يليق بجلاله، فكذلك باقي الصفات.
وأما مسألة الحرف والصوت، فتساق هذا المساق، فإن الله تعالى: قد تكلم بالقرآن المجيد، وبجميع حروفه، فقال: "الم"، وقال: "المص"، وقال: " ق "؛ وكذلك جاء في الحديث: " فينادي يوم القيامة بصوت يسمعه من بعد، كما يسمعه من قرب "١، وفي الحديث: " لا أقول الم حرف، ولكن
They named the attribute of the noble Face among what Ahl al-Sunnah affirm as befits the majesty of Allah, and they set against it the way of the Ashʿarīs, who interpret the attributes and so fall into taḥrīf. From the Companions to the imams of the Najdī daʿwah, the creed in the Face has not changed.
Part Six
Principles drawn from the evidence
Eighth Issue: The Rules Concerning the Face
The first rule: affirming the Face does not mean that everything else of Allah perishes. When Allah said, “Everything will perish except His Face”, the Salaf explained that everything that is not for His Face perishes, and that He Himself remains with His Face, as He said elsewhere: “and there will remain the Face of your Lord”.
The second rule: the believers will look at His Face in Paradise, and this is the greatest of their bliss. The Prophet ﷺ used to ask in his supplication for the delight of looking at His Face and the longing to meet Him. Whoever denies the Face has denied the believers the very thing the Prophet ﷺ asked for.
Part Seven
The claims of the opponents and their refutation
“The Face is an extra word”
The claim
Said by those of the later Ashʿarīs and Māturīdīs who interpret the attributes
In “there will remain the Face of your Lord”, the word “Face” is an extra connective with no meaning. The sense is simply: your Lord will remain.
Its origin The Jahmiyyah, who denied every attribute; al-Dārimī records Bishr al-Marīsī interpreting the Face away.
The response
Among their interpretations of the Face is that they say of “and there will remain the Face of your Lord”: the Face here is an added word, a ṣilah with no meaning, and the meaning is “and your Lord will remain”. On this saying, removing the word would be better for the speech — exalted is Allah above that.
The Arabs add particles for emphasis, such as mā and min; they do not add a noun in the construct and then describe it with an attribute of its own. The verse describes the Face with dhū al-jalāli wa-l-ikrām, in the nominative, as shown in the first issue. A word that is described is not a word without meaning. These interpretations are vain and tasteless, and the only thing that compels them is their false foundation: the denial of the attributes of the Lord. Having laid down the false foundation, they had to take a position on these texts that would push away their opposition to their school, and so they distorted them.
“The Face means the Essence” or “the reward”
The claim
Said by the Muʿtazilah, and after them by the later Ashʿarīs and Māturīdīs
By the Face of Allah is meant His Essence, or the reward He gives.
Its origin Bishr al-Marīsī, the Jahmī: the Face is the reward and the favour — recorded and refuted by al-Dārimī.
The response
Others among them say: the Face means the Essence itself — “there will remain the Face of your Lord” means the Essence of your Lord; or it means the reward — the reward of your Lord will remain. These are their two remaining interpretations, and neither has any basis in the language or the Sharīʿah.
The reward is created, and created things perish. The verse says the Face remains while everything else perishes, so the reward cannot be what is meant. As for the Essence, the Face is an attribute of the Essence and is not identical to it. Saying “the Face is the Essence” in order to empty the word of meaning is a denial that only looks like an explanation.
None of this has any basis in the language or in the explanation of the Companions. It comes from one false premise, that Allah has no attribute subsisting in Him. Once that premise is accepted, every text that says otherwise has to be bent.
“Affirming a Face is likening Allah to creation”
The claim
Said by the Jahmiyyah, the Muʿtazilah and those who followed them
Affirming a Face for Allah makes Him like His creatures. It must therefore be denied, although His knowledge, power, hearing and sight are affirmed.
Its origin The premise of Jahm ibn Ṣafwān that every attribute affirmed is a likening.
The response
Whoever thinks carefully about what these people affirm and what they deny will find no difference between the two. Creatures also have knowledge, power, hearing and sight. If affirming a Face entails likening, then affirming hearing and sight entails it as well. If they can affirm hearing and sight without likening, then the Face can be affirmed without likening in the same way. A person who denies the Face and keeps knowledge has contradicted himself, and a person who denies both has denied the Lord altogether.
Sources
- Abū Dāwūd, al-Sunan, ed. al-Arnaʾūṭ
- An answer of the imams of the Najdī daʿwah preserved in al-Durar al-Saniyyah, Kitāb al-Asmāʾ wa-l-Ṣifāt
- Ibn Fāris, Maqāyīs al-Lughah
- Ibn Khuzaymah, Kitāb al-Tawḥīd
- Muslim, al-Ṣaḥīḥ, ed. ʿAbd al-Bāqī
- Qurʾān
- al-Bukhārī, al-Ṣaḥīḥ (al-Sulṭāniyyah), Kitāb al-Tawḥīd
- al-Ṭabarī, Jāmiʿ al-Bayān
- ʿUthmān ibn Saʿīd al-Dārimī, Naqḍ al-Imām Abī Saʿīd ʿalā al-Marīsī