QUESTION:
What’s the philosophy behind raising the hands to the sky or looking at it while praying or when we say
Ya Allah ?
Especially that the Creator, the Mighty and Sublime, is not limited by space nor time and He’s closer to us than the jugular vein?
ANSWER:
In the Name of Allah, the All-Beneficent, the All-Merciful.
May Allah bless Muhammad and his Family and damn their enemies.
The philosophy behind that is that we face the qiblah of the people of the heavens in prayers, and it’s al-Bait al-Maʻmūr, just as we face the qiblah of the people of the earth, and it’s the honored Kaaba; by that, we were commanded.
And the meaning of the first case is not that Allah, Glorified and Exalted be He, is in the sky, just as the meaning of the second case is not that Allah is inside the Kaaba, for He, holy is His Name, is greater than to be contained by space.
The Office of Sheikh al-Habib
