al-Muhāsibī, Abū al-‘Abbās al-Qalānisī, al-Ash‘arī, and his early followers, such as Abū ‘Abd Allāh ibn Mujāhid, Abū al-Hasan ibn Mahdī al-Tabarī, the judge Abū Bakr ibn al-Tayyib, and others like them ن. This is also the position of Abū Bakr ibn Fūrak, who reported his fellow adherents’ consensus on affirming the attributes reported in revelation, such as the face and the hand. It is likewise the position of Abū al-Qāsim al-Qushayrī and Abū Bakr al-Bayhaqī, as well as that of the judge Abū Ya‘lā, Ibn ‘Aqīl, al-Sharīf Abū ‘Alī, Ibn al-Zāghūnī, Abū al-Hasan al-Tamīmī, and members of his household, such as his son Abū al-Fadl, Rizq Allāh, and others. It is also the position of all those who identify with the people of the Sunnah and hadith.

Al-Ash‘arī himself did not hold two different positions regarding the affirmation of the attributes of the face, the hand, and rising over, and the figurative interpretation of the texts concerning them. Rather, his position was consistent: he affirmed them without suspending judgment concerning them, and he refuted the figurative interpretations offered by those who denied them. Abū al-Ma‘ālī and his followers, however, deny them. They then hold two positions: figurative interpretation and leaving the matter to Allah. Abū al-Ma‘ālī’s earlier position was figurative interpretation, as he stated in al-Irshād; his later position was leaving the matter to Allah, as he stated in al-Risālah al-Nizāmiyyah. He also reported the consensus of the early generations that figurative interpretation is prohibited and unlawful.