an absolute sense, and thus it is not His actual hand. His saying,

“Whoever clasps it and kisses it, it is as though he has shaken hands with Allah and kissed His right hand,”

explicitly indicates that whoever clasps and kisses it is neither shaking hands with Allah nor kissing His right hand. For the thing compared is not the thing to which it is compared. He used the expression “it is as though,” which explicitly conveys a comparison. Since the wording explicitly indicates that it has been accorded the position of the right hand, not that it is the right hand itself, anyone who believes that its apparent meaning is that it is the actual right hand is uttering a manifest falsehood.

All of this is on the supposition that the Throne is spherical, whether it is the ninth celestial sphere or something other than the ninth celestial sphere. It has become clear that its surface is the roof over created things, that it is above them on every side, and that nothing in the heavens or the earth can be above it. On this supposition, anyone directing himself toward what is above the Throne directs himself only upward. Neither innate disposition nor revealed law allows him, when fully intent on this, to turn toward any other of the six directions. Rather, he also faces Him, although He is above him, as the Prophet, may Allah bless him and grant him peace, illustrated through the example of the moon—and to Allah belongs the highest description. He explained that if such a thing is possible in the case of the moon, which is one of Allah Most High’s signs, then the Creator is more exalted and greater.

If, on the other hand, the Throne is supposed not to be spherical, but to be above the world on the side corresponding to the earth’s surface, and above the spherical celestial spheres—just as the earth’s surface, laid out for mankind, is above half of the spherical earth—or if any other configuration is supposed in which the Throne is above everything else without being spherical, then under every such supposition we turn toward Allah only upward, not toward any other direction.