Concerning the affirmation of the attribute of the Face for Allah, Mighty and Majestic.

The Shaykh : And what is meant by the Face here is His Essence, in the sense that the Face is used to refer to the Essence, and it is not as the people of misguidance say that the Lord, Mighty and Majestic, ceases to exist except for His Face. I seek refuge in Allah; this is a denunciation of speech. Allah, Mighty and Majestic, refers to His Face by the station of praise, as He the Exalted said: So these are in contrast to . The expression of the Face for the Essence does not mean that we have departed from the intended meaning, for the expression of the Face for the Essence indicates that Allah has a Face, and this is what is required. Allah, Mighty and Majestic, has a Face described by majesty and honor, by greatness and honor and kindness to creation, and honoring those who deserve honor. This Face is real, but its modality is not known, for Allah informed us of His Face but did not inform us of the modality of His Face. And just as there is no modality for His Essence in terms of the whole—and we do not say "the whole" in relation to Allah—so too there is no modality for His attributes, for the discussion of attributes is a branch of the discussion of the Essence. For this reason, some scholars said: If the Jahmi says to you, "You have affirmed a Face for Allah, so what is the modality of His Face? You have affirmed a Hand for Allah, so what is the modality of His Hand?" say to him, "You affirm an Essence for Allah, so what is the modality of His Essence?" If you say this, he will be at a loss, for it is not possible to define the modality of His Essence. So we say to him: If you do not define the modality of His Essence, then we do not define the modality of His attributes, for the discussion of attributes is a branch of the discussion of the Essence. And some scholars said regarding the hadith of the descent: If the one who denies attributes says to you, "Allah descends to the lowest heaven, how does He descend?" say to him, "Allah informed us that He descends, but He did not inform us how He descends." All these are clear, explanatory answers that do not require contrivance. The Face for Allah is a real, established attribute, described by majesty and honor, but its modality is not known to us. We do not know the modality of this Face, for it is too great for our minds or understandings to encompass it. The people of the Sunnah and the community, in their manner and on their path, say that it is a real Face befitting Allah, Mighty and Majestic, and its modality is not known. This type of attributes is called the attributes of report, for their affirmation is by mere report; the intellect does not guide to them. But hearing and seeing are conceptual attributes to which the intellect guides; it knows that it is not valid for one to be a Lord unless he is Hearing and Seeing. For this reason, Ibrahim said to his father: But the Face, the Hand, and the like cannot be affirmed by the intellect; they are contingent upon hearing and report. For this reason, they are called attributes of report. Their connection is that their referents, in relation to us, are parts and components, not meanings. The Face, the Hand, the Eye, the Shin, the Foot, the Finger—all these we call attributes of report. The people of distortion, who call themselves the people of interpretation, say that Allah does not have a Face, for affirming a real Face necessitates ascribing a body to Allah, and those who ascribe a body to Allah are disbelievers in their view. So we do not say that Allah has a real Face. So what is meant by the Face? They say the meaning of the Face is direction, or the meaning of the Face is reward, and the real Face is not meant. It is said that this is distortion. What meaning does direction have in the saying of Allah the Exalted ? What meaning does this have? For example, if it were valid or correct to take direction as the meaning in the saying of Allah the Exalted: , if affirming the Face here as meaning direction were valid, it would not be correct for the saying of Allah the Exalted: . They say, then, we change the meaning to reward, meaning except for His reward, for His reward does not cease, for Paradise is eternal, eternal of eternities. But all this is deviation from the straight path, the cause of which is returning to the intellect. If a person were to be well-mannered with his Lord and his Prophet and not let his intellect judge what came from Allah and His Messenger, he would be safe from these problems. What harm is there if he says Allah has a real Face, but it does not resemble faces, it does not resemble the faces of the created, and we do not know its modality? What harm is there? So the correct, certain, and necessary belief is to affirm for Allah a real Face, described by what? By majesty and honor , but we do not define its modality and we do not liken it to His creation. Then the author cited a hadith mentioning the Face, which is the saying of the Messenger (peace and blessings be upon him) . He said this at the saying of Allah the Exalted , "from above you," meaning occurring from the sky, like lightning and other things that destroy people. , the sinking and the earthquake. The Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him) said: . The Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him) said: or he said: , meaning in relation to the others, for the first cannot be defended against, and the second cannot be defended against, and the third can be defended against by reconciliation among people; it is defended by reconciliation among people.

The questioner : Shaykh, may Allah preserve you, regarding the saying of the people of distortion that the Face is direction and reward, you said that what prohibited this was resorting to the intellect as a judge.

The Shaykh : Yes

The questioner : Shaykh, if we said resorting to the corrupt intellect, for if we judged by the sound intellect, it would not indicate to us anything but that this Face is in its reality.

The questioner : Yes, correct. They resorted to corrupt intellects. We say that returning to the intellect in these matters is contrary to the intellect. Merely returning to the intellect in these matters is contrary to the intellect, for these are matters of the unseen, and the intellect necessitates that matters of the unseen be referred to the report, the correct report.