On the Face of Allah, the Exalted

Among the attributes affirmed by the Quran and Sunnah is the Face of Allah (wajh Allah). Ibn Khuzaymah devotes careful attention to this attribute, collecting the textual proofs with rigorous hadith documentation and affirming the Athari position: the Face of Allah is a real attribute, established by revelation, affirmed without likening it to anything created and without denying its reality through figurative reinterpretation.

Allah says in the Quran: 'Everything will perish except His Face.' (Al-Qasas: 88). He says: 'The Face of your Lord will remain, full of majesty and honor.' (Al-Rahman: 27). He says: 'We feed you only seeking the Face of Allah — we desire from you no recompense or gratitude.' (Al-Insan: 9). In these verses the attribute of Face is affirmed directly and unambiguously. The Salaf understood them as referring to a real attribute of Allah — His actual Face, befitting His majesty, not a metaphor for His essence or His reward.

The hadith evidence is equally explicit. The Prophet, peace be upon him, said: 'Allah said: I have prepared for My righteous servants what no eye has seen, no ear has heard, and no human heart has conceived.' (Bukhari and Muslim). The scholars noted that the supreme and crowning experience of the people of Paradise is seeing the Face of Allah — something beyond all other blessings, incomprehensible to the mind in this life.

Ibn Khuzaymah's approach follows the principle established by Imam Malik ibn Anas, may Allah have mercy on him, who said when asked about Allah's attribute of istawa (rising above the Throne): 'The rising is known, the how is unknown, belief in it is obligatory, and asking about it is an innovation.' This principle applies to all the divine attributes, including the Face. The attribute is known from the text; the manner of it is unknown; affirming it is obligatory; and questioning its modality is an impermissible innovation.

The Jahmiyyah and Mu'tazilah rejected the literal affirmation of the Face, arguing that it implied resemblance to created beings. The scholars of the Sunnah responded that this argument commits a logical error — it assumes the rules governing created faces must apply to Allah's Face. But Allah says: 'There is nothing like unto Him.' (Al-Shura: 11). This verse itself refutes the fear of tashbih (likening): if we truly accept that nothing is like Allah, then affirming His Face does not require any likeness to created faces. The attributes of the Creator are befitting the Creator; the attributes of creation are befitting creation.

Among the supplications of the Prophet, peace be upon him, is: 'I ask You by Your Face, the Mighty.' (Abu Dawud). The Prophet himself called upon Allah through His Face, demonstrating that the attribute is real and that invoking it in supplication is proper. The Prophet would not supplicate through a metaphor or a figurative expression — he supplicated through a genuine divine attribute.

The Athari position is a middle path between two extremes. It refuses tashbih — comparing the Face of Allah to the face of any created being. It equally refuses ta'til — stripping the attribute of its meaning by reinterpreting it as something other than a real attribute. We affirm what Allah affirmed about Himself, as He affirmed it, in the manner befitting His majesty and incomparable perfection.