The fourth point:

This question is not confined to these people. Rather, the early generations of the Muslim community and its leading authorities in jurisprudence, hadith, Sufism, and spiritual knowledge agreed on affirming this category of attributes, as did the leading speculative theologians of the Kullābī, Karrāmī, and Ashʿarī schools. All of them affirm for Allah the attributes of the face, the hand, and the like.

Al-Ashʿarī stated in his book al-Maqālāt (The Doctrinal Positions) that this is the position of the scholars of hadith, and declared that he himself held it. In summarizing the position of Ahl al-Sunnah and the scholars of hadith, he wrote:

“The position of Ahl al-Sunnah and the scholars of hadith, in summary, is to affirm such and such; that Allah rose over His Throne; and that He has two hands, without specifying how, as He says:

‘I created with My two hands,’

and as He says:

‘Rather, both His hands are outstretched’;

and that He has two eyes, without specifying how, as He says:

‘Sailing under Our eyes’;

and that He has a face, as He says:

‘And there will remain the Face of your Lord, Owner of Majesty and Honor.’”

We have already explained that all the leading authorities of these groups are among those who affirm the divine attributes. There is nothing that Abū al-Faraj or others have mentioned as occurring among the Hanbalīs—whether the truth lies with the one who affirms it or the one who denies it, or whether the matter requires distinctions—that is not also found among as many as Allah wills