he should be told: ‘Allah forbid! Rather, He is established upon His Throne, as He has stated in His Book, saying: “The Most Merciful is established upon the Throne.” {5} [Tā Hā 5] Allah Most High also says: “To Him ascends good speech, and righteous work raises it.” [Fātir 10] And He says: “Do you feel secure that He who is above heaven will not cause the earth to swallow you, whereupon it would quake?” [Al-Mulk 16]’”

He said: “If He were everywhere, He would be inside a person’s belly and mouth, in latrines, and in places one recoils from mentioning. He would necessarily increase as places increased, whenever He created places that had not existed, and diminish as they diminished, whenever places that had existed ceased to be. It would also be necessary to turn to Him in supplication toward the earth, behind us, to our right, and to our left. Yet the Muslims have unanimously agreed to the contrary and have declared anyone who says this to be mistaken.”

This explicitly states that hands are raised only toward Allah Himself, that it must be valid to raise them toward Him wherever He is, and that raising them is confined to the upward direction only because Allah is there. For if raising them in His direction were not necessarily valid,