in heaven while He is on the Throne at the same time; for “heaven” here only connotes height. The meaning, therefore, is that God is above, not below. Muslims also know that His kursiyy (Footstool) has embraced the heavens and the earth, that the Footstool compared with the Throne is like a ring flung onto a vast desert plain, and that the Throne itself is merely one of God’s creations, entirely disproportionate to His power and majesty. How, after all this, could anyone imagine that a created thing could confine or contain Him?

The Exalted has said, “I will surely crucify you upon the trunks of palm-trees” (Qur’an 20:71), and He has also said, “Travel in the earth” (Qur’an 3:137). In both verses the particle fi (“in”) carries the sense of “upon” and the like. This is plain Arabic speech, not figurative language—something evident to anyone who understands the true functions of the prepositions and realizes that, for the most part, their meanings are univocal rather than ambiguous.

The same principle applies to the Prophet’s ﷺ words: “When one of you stands to pray, God is before his face; so let him not spit in front of his face.” The report is true according to its outward wording: God is above the Throne and at the same time before the worshipper’s face. Indeed, even created things can be described in this way, for if a person were to address the sky, the sun, or the moon, the sky, the sun, and the moon would be above him and yet also before his face.