The Ruling on the Ash'ari School

Question:
Honorable Shaykh (may Allah preserve him), what is your view of the Ash'ari sect, who do not affirm more than seven attributes? Are they considered among the people of the Sunnah and the community? Please shed some light on this topic with some detail.

Answer:
No, the matter does not allow for detail. The Ash'ari are not among the people of the Sunnah. Even if they call themselves by that name, they resemble the Jabriyyah in one respect, the Jahmiyyah in another, and the Mu'tazilah in yet another. So their school is a mixture; it can be said that, in general, they are closer to the people of the Sunnah than the other sects of theologians. They are certainly closer than the Jahmiyyah, and closer than the Mu'tazilah, and they refute the Mu'tazilah, because their Imam (may Allah have mercy on him) was originally a Mu'tazili, then he turned to the Sunnah. Shaykh al-Islam said that Imam Abu al-Hasan al-Ash'ari returned to the school of the people of the Sunnah, but some of the principles of the Mu'tazilah remained with him.
Among the false matters held by them is their denial of most of the attributes; they do not affirm more than seven of them. And among their falsehoods is that they do not say that the speech of Allah is a revealed, uncreated thing, from which it began and to which it returns. Rather, they say it is with the soul, and so on, of falsehoods and contradictions. So they are not among the people of the Sunnah and the community, but they claim affiliation with the Sunnah. It is said that they claim affiliation with the Sunnah. Yes.