Thus, the Ashʿarīs, as well as the Māturīdīs, deny many of Allah’s attributes of perfection established in the Quran and Sunnah, such as istiwāʾ, descent, coming, anger, pleasure … and others. These are attributes that Allah affirmed for Himself and that His Messenger (may Allah bless him and grant him peace) affirmed for Him, yet these people deny that He possesses them—contrary to the writer’s claim that they affirm for Allah the attributes He has affirmed for Himself.

The writer’s inclusion of the Ashʿarīs and Māturīdīs among Ahl al-Sunnah wa-l-Jamāʿah is a manifest error, for they are followers of innovation and their own desires. Ahl al-Sunnah wa-l-Jamāʿah, by contrast, are those who adhere to the Sunnah and follow it in what they deny and affirm.

For the Sunnah means the Prophetic way followed by Allah’s Messenger (may Allah bless him and grant him peace), his noble Companions, and those who followed them faithfully, before innovations emerged and became widespread. Anyone influenced by such desires who clings to them cannot rightly be accorded this noble designation.

Shaykh al-Islām Ibn Taymiyyah (may Allah have mercy on him) said: “The imams of the Sunnah are not like the imams of innovation. The Sunnah is associated with its imams because they are its exponents, through whom it became manifest; innovations are associated with their imams because they are their sources, from whom they originated …”1.

This makes clear who the people of the Sunnah are and who the people of innovation are.

21 The writer said on p. 38: “Likewise, laughter cannot fittingly be attributed to Allah in a literal sense; it can only be attributed to Him figuratively. Scholars interpret it as pleasure or mercy. Thus, when a hadith states that Allah laughs at someone, what is meant is that He is pleased with him and has mercy on him, and so on.”

I say: The writer’s teacher in this false interpretation is Bishr ibn Ghiyāth al-Marīsī,