2 – Nor may he spit to his right, for the rigorously authenticated wording states, “for indeed, on his right there is an angel,” while Ibn Abī Shaybah records: “for on his right is the recorder of good deeds.”

3 – Likewise, on his left there is a noble angel. Allah the Exalted says, “When the two receivers receive—one on the right and one on the left—seated” (Qaf 50:17). Al-Baghawī relates in his Tafsīr, on the authority of Abū Umāmah, that the Messenger of Allah ﷺ said, “The recorder of good deeds is placed in command over the recorder of evil deeds.”

If it be asked: How, then, may he spit to his left when an angel is there?—the answer, and Allah knows best, is as follows:
(a) The worshipper does not spit during prayer except out of necessity, and necessity permits what is otherwise disliked.
(b) The right side is more honorable than the left; hence the right is kept for agreeable matters, the left for repulsive ones.
(c) The angel stationed on the right is more distinguished than the angel stationed on the left.
(d) The Lawgiver directed the worshipper to spit beneath his left foot; thus he is not spitting toward the angel, but lower than him and under the foot. The Muslim fears Allah as much as he can.

4 – Elevation (ʿulū) is affirmed for Allah—glorified be He—by the Qur’an, the Sunnah, and the consensus of Ahl al-Sunnah wa-l-Jamāʿah, those who follow the transmitted reports and care for the prophetic narrations. Absolute exaltedness is established for Allah in a manner befitting His majesty and greatness: He is established over His Throne, distinct from His creation, encompassing everything. Affirming “direction” for Allah does not mean that direction contains or confines Him; rather, Allah is far greater, more exalted, and vaster than that—His Footstool has encompassed the heavens and the earth. “The earth, all of it, will be in His grasp on the Day of Resurrection, and the heavens will be folded up in His right hand” (al-Zumar 39:67).

5 – What is negated for Allah, exalted is He, is the direction of below; it is therefore impermissible to ascribe it to Him. To Him alone belongs exaltedness.