God has a face, argued Abu’l Hasan al-Ash‘ari (873–935), founder of the Ash‘arite school, because the Quran says so (“the face of your Lord will endure forever”; 55:27), and it is not our place to ask how or why. Indeed, the Ash‘ari often responded to the rational incongruities and internal contradictions that resulted from their rigid interpretation of religious doctrine by cultivating a formula of bila kayfa, loosely translated as “Don’t ask why.”
