Muqatil Bin Suleiman, one of masters of corporalists, aimed at solving the Verse perplexity by restricting the broad generality of the Verse; 'Everything'. However, this was useless for Wahabists.
AmMizi's TahdibulKemal part 28 page 437:
Mekki Bin Ibrahim: Yahya Bin Shibl: "What for do you ignore Muqatil?", Ebbad Bin Kutheir asked. "My people hated him," I answered. "Do not hate him. None more knowledgeable than him in field of Quranic and prophetic texts, is enduring," asserted Ebbad.
Yahya Bin Shibl: A young man cited the following question before Muqatil Bin Suleiman: "What is your opinion regarding God's saying, (Everything is perishable except His face)?" "This is Jahmite!", spoke Muqatil. "What is Jahmite?", asked the young and added, "If you have an information about this, you should say it, otherwise, you may confess of your unfamiliarity." "Woe is you!", Muqatil said, "Jahm had neither pilgrimaged to this House nor had he attended at the scholars' sessions. He was only given an eloquent tongue.
Regarding your question, God intends only the souled substances. About Queen of Sheba, He says, (And she has been given everything. 27:23), while she was given nothing more than royalty of her kingdom. The same thing is cited about God's saying, (And granted him means of access to everything. 18:84). That man was given nothing more than restricted royalty. God has showed, in detail, what is described by 'everything'."
Unfortunately, this exegesis is useless for Wahabists, since it is reckoned with interpretation which is deemed forbidden according to Wahabism. They should adopt for the extrinsic general meaning of 'everything'. This means that they should refer to the whole beings including Allah, the Exalted. We seek Allah's protecting us against such matters! They would be conceding the base upon which they founded their Wahabism if they take in Muqatil's exegesis. Nevertheless, Muqatil himself conceded the base upon which he founded his trend, when he was encircled by the impending questions of that asker.
Secondly, Muqatil's exegesis is not accurate. The Quranic expression 'everything' regarding beings, is usually used for expressing perfect enduring general meaning or relative general meaning. For instance, the following 'everything' mentioned in God's saying, (Nay! It is what you sought to hasten on, a blast of wind in which is a painful punishment, destroying everything by the command of its Lord; so they became such that naught could be seen except their dwellings. 46:245), cannot be explained by the perfect enduring generalization, since it is quite manifest that their dwellings were not destroyed by that wind. The meaning of God's saying, (Do you not know that Allah has power over everything? 2:106), and many similar ones, cannot be explained by the relative general meaning. It is unacceptable to exclude some things from God's absolute power or knowledge. In the same time, we may explain the forecited Verse by the relative general meaning; by saying that 'everything' includes only what is enjoying existence and potentiality.
Back to the Verse engaged. It is unacceptable to explain God's saying, (Everything is perishable except His face), by the relative general meaning intended by Muqatil, since, if perishability is dedicated to souled beings only, it will comprise Allah, the Elevated, for His being a divinely souled Being. Then, why is it only His face, not other organs and limbs, that is excluded. In addition, Muqatil and his pupils opted for the relative general meaning of 'everything' for finding a solution for that perplexity they were facing. They should have interpreted 'His face' of the same Verse into 'His Person' so that the total perplexity should be null! The factual general meaning is extrinsic, and, as they claim, the material meaning is also extrinsic. Why was it lawful to interpret one of them, while it is unlawful to do the same thing with the other?
The Verse is dealing with termination of this world before Resurrection Day. Occasion or discernment and subject of the Verse imposes the factual general
meaning and, in turns, leads to nullity of excluding anything other than that excluded by Allah, the Exalted. It also imposes that Allah, the Exalted, is out of the Verse subject since it deals with termination of creatures, not the Creator. This conclusion allows to interpret 'His face' into 'certain creatures' or 'His Person' since the exception of the Verse is interrupted the excluded substance is of the same species of the general matter from which it was excluded.
Muqatil, the inheritor of the Jew corporalists, proved his lack to harmonize between his dialect and the Verse. He failed to seize out the enduring general meaning of 'everything' and restricting its meaning to the souled creatures.
