Explanation of the author's statement: ". . . . Chapter Fourteen on Affirming the Face of Allah the Exalted

The Shaykh :"Chapter Fourteen on Affirming the Face of Allah the Exalted", affirming the Face of Allah the Exalted is what the people of the Sunnah and the community hold. "That Allah has a real Face befitting Him, described with majesty and honor". Who are the people of the Sunnah and the community? They are those who agreed upon the Sunnah and adhered to it without splitting over it. Some of the later scholars have claimed that the description "people of the Sunnah and the community" applies to three groups: the Athariyyah, the Asha'irah, and the Maturidiyyah. They have asserted that the Asha'irah and the Maturidiyyah are among the people of the Sunnah and the community. However, this is not correct, because we say that the description does not apply to them. For they are people of the Sunnah, but where is the Sunnah in the Asha'irah, and where is the Sunnah in the Maturidiyyah? And they say "people of the community," yet now you acknowledge that these are three sects, and the community cannot be more than one sect. Therefore, this description is true only of the Athariyyah. For this reason, al-Safarini (may Allah have mercy on him) said in *al-Durrat al-Mukhtar* when he mentioned the division of this Ummah into seventy-three sects:
"And this text is not considered decisive *** for a sect except for the people of the Athar"
Except for the people of the Athar, the Athariyyah, because the Athariyyah are one sect that takes hold of the Sunnah and is united upon it.