, for you are not calling upon one who is deaf or absent; you are calling upon One who hears and is near. The One upon whom you call is closer to each of you than the neck of his mount.”

The Prophet, may Allah bless him and grant him peace, also said:

“When one of you stands to pray, he must not spit in front of him, for Allah is before him, nor to his right, for there is an angel to his right, but to his left or beneath his foot.”

This hadith is recorded in the authentic hadith collection through more than one chain of transmission. He, glorified be He, is above His heavens, upon His Throne, separate from His creation. Nothing of His essence is in anything He has created, nor is anything He has created in His essence. He, glorified be He, has no need of the Throne or any other created thing. He depends on nothing He has created; rather, by His power He upholds the Throne and its bearers.

He Most High has arranged the world in layers, without making its higher levels dependent upon its lower ones. The sky does not depend upon the air, nor does the air depend upon the earth. Thus the Most High, the Highest, the Lord of the heavens and the earth and all that is between them, who described Himself in His words:

“They have not esteemed Allah as He deserves, while on the Day of Resurrection the whole earth will be in His grasp and the heavens will be folded up in His right hand. Glory be to Him! Exalted is He above what they associate with Him!”

is far too majestic, great, self-sufficient and exalted to depend upon anything to support Him or in any other way. Rather, He is the One, the Eternal Refuge, who neither begets nor is born, and to whom none is comparable. Everything other than Him depends upon Him, whereas He has no need of anything other than Himself.

These matters have been discussed at length elsewhere, where the affirmation of Allah’s oneness in word and deed, with which Allah sent His Messenger, has been explained. Affirming His oneness in words is exemplified by Sūrat al-Ikhlās:

“Say, ‘He is Allah, the One.’”

And affirming His oneness in practice is exemplified by:

“Say, ‘O disbelievers.’”

For this reason, the Prophet, may Allah bless him and grant him peace, would