92 — Raising the Hands to Allah Is Evidence That He Is Above

The preceding discussion concerned what is indicated by raising the hands when supplicating Allah, and how this entails affirming Allah’s oneness and venerating Him, believing that He is above His creation and completely independent of them, and recognizing their utter dependence upon Him in every respect. It has already been noted that this belief—namely, that He is above—is something all people find within their innate nature, young and old, learned and ignorant alike.

Imam Abū Bakr Muhammad ibn Ishāq ibn Khuzayma says in The Book of Monotheism: “It is ingrained in the innate nature of Muslims—their learned and ignorant, their free people and slaves, their males and females, their adults and children—that whoever supplicates Allah, Glorious and Exalted, raises his head toward heaven and extends his hands upward to Allah Most High, not downward.”1

Imam Abū Muhammad Abd Allah ibn Muslim ibn Qutayba—may Allah have mercy on him—says: “Had these people—that is, those who deny that Allah is above—returned to their innate nature and to the knowledge of the Creator, Glorious is He, upon which their constitution was fashioned, they would have known that Allah Most High is the Most High, the Highest. Hands are raised to Him in supplication, and all nations, Arab and non-Arab alike, say, ‘Allah is in heaven,’ so long as they are left to their innate nature.”2 End quote.

Thus, belief that Allah is above His creation is firmly rooted in sound natural dispositions and affirmed in