The disagreement here arose only because of His words, “at every mosque,” unlike His words, “So set your face towards the religion, inclining to the truth.”

Thus, His words, “Everything will perish except His Face,” mean His religion, seeking Him, and worshipping Him. A verbal noun is sometimes attributed to the agent and sometimes to the object of the action. This is expressed in their saying, “Whatever is intended to seek His Face.” It is analogous to His words:

“Had there been gods in the two of them besides Allah, both would have fallen into ruin.”

Every object of worship besides Allah is false, and everything that is not for His sake is perishing, corrupt, and false. The context of the verse indicates this, and it also encompasses the other meaning, for divinity necessarily entails lordship. Hence His words:

“Judgment belongs to Him, and to Him you will be returned.”

There is another view on this, held by many scholars: that “face” in such expressions as “submits his face,” “set your face aright,” and “I have turned my face” means the outward, physical face, just as it does, by common agreement, in His words:

“We have indeed seen you turning your face towards heaven”; “So turn your faces towards it”; and “Wash your faces.”

The Face is also mentioned among Allah’s attributes in various passages of the Quran and Sunnah, but this is not the place to discuss them.

They explain, however, that when the face is directed towards something, the rest of the person follows; when it is submitted, the rest of the person has been submitted; and when it is set aright, the rest of the person has been set aright. This is because, of the outward bodily members, it is the face that turns first towards what a person intends and seeks. For this reason, the face is often mentioned with the rest of the person necessarily implied,