What is meant by "face" in the saying of Allah the Exalted: (Every thing will perish except His Face)?

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Question:
He says: Honorable Shaykh, may Allah grant you success. Regarding the saying of Allah

Everything will be destroyed except His Face

كُلُّ شَيْءٍ هَالِكٌ إِلَّا وَجْهَهُ

[Al-Qasas 28:88]

, what is meant by "face" here? Is it the attribute or the essence? And if it is said to be the essence, is this considered ta'wil (figurative interpretation)?

Answer:
This is like the saying of Allah the Exalted:

⁽²⁶⁾ Everyone upon the earth will perish, ⁽²⁷⁾ And there will remain the Face of your Lord, Owner of Majesty

كُلُّ مَنْ عَلَيْهَا فَانٍ وَيَبْقَىٰ وَجْهُ رَبِّكَ ذُو الْجَلَالِ

[Ar-Rahman 55:26-27]

and the expiation is the same in that Allah (Mighty and Majestic) is the One who remains. In describing Him with the "face" (Mighty and Majestic), He has a face, He has a hand, He has a foot, and He has a shin. We affirm all of these. He has fingers. We affirm all of these for Allah (Mighty and Majestic). He has two eyes. We affirm all of this for Allah (Mighty and Majestic) without any doubt or ambiguity.
And there is no difficulty for us in this. Because this has come from Allah and His Messenger, so we believe in it. Yes. And do not think in your heart that these are like the attributes of the created beings. Never. These are the attributes of the Creator (Mighty and Majestic). Yes.

Source قناة «العلامة الدكتور صالح الفوزان»، [379 -1024] ما المراد بالوجه في قوله تعالى: (كل شيء هالك إلا وجه)؟ - الشيخ صالح الفوزان — youtube.com

The Arabic text is a machine transcription of the audio recording.

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