193 – Anas (may Allah be pleased with him) reported that the Messenger of Allah ﷺ said, “When any one of you is in prayer he is conversing privately with his Lord, so he must not spit in front of him nor to his right; rather, he should do so to his left, beneath his foot.” Agreed upon. Another wording states: “or beneath his foot.” (1)

Vocabulary of the ḥadīth
– “yunājī rabbahu” (he converses privately with his Lord): from najā – yunājī (munājah), meaning to address someone and speak to him; the root denotes confidential speech, as in, “O you who believe, when you confer together in private, do not confer in sin and aggression” (al-Mujādilah 58:9). Here it refers to turning wholly toward Allah, like the ḥadīth, “Two should not hold a private conversation to the exclusion of a third.”
– “yabṣu-qanna” (let him certainly not spit): the second consonant may be ṣād, sīn, or zāy, letters that share a close point of articulation and belong to the group of whistling sounds. Grammatically the verb is in the subjunctive but bears a fatḥah because it is attached to the heavy emphatic nūn (nūn al-tawkīd al-thaqīlah). “Baṣq” is the expulsion of saliva from the mouth; while it remains inside it is called “riqq” (spittle).

Lessons derived from the ḥadīth
1 – Prayer, whether obligatory or voluntary, is a time of munājah—intimate discourse with Allah—and of the servant’s connection with his Lord. Allah the Exalted said, “Establish the prayer for My remembrance” (Tā Hā 20:14). It is therefore unfitting for the worshipper to spit in front of him, for one directs confidential speech to the One who is before him. Hence another narration in al-Bukhārī (417) says, “For indeed his Lord is between him and the qiblah.” This is a special divine accompaniment (maʿiyyah) granted to the servant during his munājah, just as another ḥadīth states, “The closest a servant comes to his Lord is while he is in prostration.” Despite His nearness and intimacy with the servant, He—glorified be He—remains exalted above all.