The Salaf’s Position on the Ambiguous Verses of the Attributes

Question:
Among the ambiguous matters are the verses of the attributes, such as “The Most Merciful settled upon the Throne” and “Everything is perishing except His Face.” Also included are the hadiths of the attributes. The methodology of the people of the Sunnah, among whom is Sufyan al-Thawri, is that it is obligatory to believe in them, to attribute their intended meanings to Allah the Exalted, and to reject figurative interpretation while purifying Him from their literal reality, because it is impossible for Him to be likened to created things in their occurrences.

Answer:
This is false speech from beginning to end. This is their speech, and this statement is quoted from their beliefs. It is false. The names and attributes of Allah are not among the ambiguous, but rather they are clear and decisive in meaning, with no doubt in them. Only their modality and reality are ambiguous, but their meaning is not ambiguous. No one from the Salaf counted them among the ambiguous. This is a lie against Sufyan and others; this is a lie against them. And his saying “the people of the Sunnah” refers to the Asha'irah, because they call themselves the people of the Sunnah. The Asha'irah call themselves the people of the Sunnah, so this is an error. They are not from the people of the Sunnah, and their sources and principles are not like the principles of the people of the Sunnah. Their sources of receiving knowledge are different from the sources of receiving knowledge of the people of the Sunnah. So they are not from the people of the Sunnah. This naming of them as the people of the Sunnah is a lie, because it contradicts their reality and what they are upon. There is a difference between their methodology and the methodology of the people of the Sunnah in many aspects. So this statement is quoted from the beliefs of the Asha'irah, and it is false. The Salaf do not delegate the attributes, because their meaning is clear to them. For this reason, when Malik was asked about istiwaa' (rising above the Throne), he said, “Istiwaa' is known,” and he did not say, “Istiwaa' is delegated.” He said, “Istiwaa' is known,” meaning its meaning is known, and its modality is unknown. So he distinguished, may Allah have mercy on him, between the meaning and the modality. The meaning is known, the modality is unknown, belief in it is obligatory, and asking about it is a bid'ah (religious innovation), meaning asking about the modality, because the questioner asked him, “How did He rise?”
He asked him about the modality, not about the meaning of istiwaa'. He only asked about the modality. No one from the people of the Sunnah and the community, from the Salaf to those who came after them, is one who delegates the attributes or any of them. Rather, they interpret them by what they indicate and believe in their meanings. They only delegate the modality.