We have established in numerous articles previously that the early Kullabi Ash'aris affirmed the sifat khabariyyah (face, hands, eyes) in opposition to the Jahmiyyah and Mu'tazilah who charged them and the Righteous Salaf of Tajseem and tashbih. This was rebutted by the Salaf who said that there is absolutely no tashbih in affirming whatever Allaah affirmed for Himself, and that tashbih is to liken the realities of Allah's attributes to the realities of those of the creation. Likewise, the likes of al-Baqillani, al-Ash'ari, al-Bayhaqi all rebutted the ta'wils of the Jahmiyyah and Mu'tazilah. Refer to these articles:

Confirmation from the Later Ash'aris

The following quotes have been used in other articles on this site in the course of addressing separate issues, and for the sake of ease of reference and future reference, we are reproducing them here. These quotes contain a confirmation from the later ones that the earlier Ash'aris did indeed affirm the attributes of face, hands, eyes for Allah, without tashbih, takyif, ta'wil, ta'til and tafwid, following the way of the Salaf.

So here are the quotes, first from al-Ash'ari who cites this as the view of all of Ahl al-Sunnah wal-Hadith, in al-Maqaalaat (tahqiq Muhammad Muhyi al-Din, Egypt, 1950):

In the above passage al-Ash'aris says about the Ahl al-Hadith wal-Athar that they affirm a face for Allaah, two hands and two eyes, bilaa kayf (without a how), and this is ithbaat (affirmation) with negation of takyif.

Abu Mansur al-Baghdadi said in his book Usul al-Din (p.111-112):

And some of our associates claimed that two hands (yadān) are two attributes for Allāh, the Sublime and Exalted, and al-Qalānisī said they are one attribute and some of our associates made ta'wil of them to mean qudrah (power) ... and this is correct in the madhhab ... and some of our associates claimed that His two hands are two attributes and al-Qalānisī claimed that they are just one attribute.

Note how al-Baghdadi (d. 429H) made a sharp departure from the belief of the earlier Ash'aris and united with the Jahmiyyah and Mu'tazilah on this issue. And note also that al-Bayhaqi did not agree with his Shaykh (al-Baghdadi) and affirmed two hands as attributes of the essence without ta'wil and tafwid.

And then we have al-Juwayni (d. 478H) stating in al-Irshad (p. 155):

Chapter: Two hands, two eyes and face. Some of our leading scholars (a'immah) have gone to the view that the two hands, two eyes and face are established attributes for the Lord, the Exalted, and that the path to affirming them is the revealed texts, without entering the realm of reason (ʿaql).

Sayf al-Din al-Aamidee (d. 631H) wrote in his book Ghayat al-Maraam (p. 135)

And from the associates (of the madhhab) are those who added to this, and affirmed knowledge of the existence of attributes additional to what we have mentioned, and this is the likes of al-baqā' (lasting, remaining), wajh (face), ʿaynān (two eyes), yadān (two hands).

From all of these quotes it is clear that today's Ash'arites are hypocrites (in action) of the worst kind, and they are in reality with the Jahmiyyah and Mu'tazilah in this matter, and they fail to distinguish between:

• The Mujassimah and Mushabbihah from Ahl al-Kalam, like the Raafidi Hishamiyyah and the Hanafi Karraamiyyah, who are in reality their brethren in ilm al-kalam, who affirmed Allaah to be a human with limbs and the likes, and they arrived at these views through the language and terminology of al-ajsaam and al-a'raad common to all the Mutakallimin, this group likened Allah's essence (dhat) to the essences of the creation, a consequence of which was that they also made likeness between Allaah's attributes and those of the creation.

• Those who exaggerated in ithbaat (affirmation) and said, "hand like my hand, face like my face, and hearing like my hearing and seeing like my seeing", this group likened Allah's attributes with those of the creation.

• Ahl al-Sunnah, and the early Kullabis who made ithbat of the text and its indication of the attribute in its meaning, but denied any likeness in its reality with the creation, except that the way of the Salaf is to make general negation and say "we affirm hand, face, hearing, seeing, will, power without takyif and tashbih" and the way of those early Kullabi Ash'aris was to make specific, detailed negation such as their saying "we affirm hands which are not limbs and eyes which are not pupils" and so on. This opposes the manhaj of the Salaf in the corroboration of their belief, even if the meaning is nevertheless correct. And the way of the Salaf was to strictly adhere to the Book and the Sunnah in both ithbaat (affirmation) and nafi (negation). But both groups affirm the meaning (ma'naa) and negate the kaifiyyah, one (the Salaf) negate in a general way, and the other (the Kullabi Ash'aris) negate in a specific detailed way. And this is entirely different to the way of the Ash'aris be that ta'wil or tafwid.

Through this, the academic and intellectual fraud of today's Ash'arites and their slanders and lies against Ahl al-Sunnah and the early Kullabi Ash'aris are made apparent. And when they make this accusation of tajsim, they are in reality, making it also against al-Ash'ari, Ibn Mahdi al-Tabari, al-Baqillani, al-Bayhaqi and others.