Praise be to Allah, and peace and blessings be upon the Messenger of Allah. To proceed:
It is obligatory to believe that Allah تعالى is above the Throne and established upon His Throne in a manner befitting His Majesty. It is also obligatory to believe that He has a real Face that befits His Majesty, without comparing it to the faces of His creation. There is no contradiction between Allah’s تعالى exaltedness and His saying: ﴿So wherever you turn, there is the Face of Allah﴾.
The basic principle when the word “Face” is attributed to Allah تعالى is that it refers to the Face of Allah سبحانه وتعالى, and that it is one of His Attributes, as in His saying:
﴿And do not drive away those who call upon their Lord morning and evening, seeking His Face﴾
[Al-An‘am: 52]
And His saying:
﴿And no one has any favor with him to be repaid, except seeking the Face of his Lord, the Most High. And he will surely be satisfied﴾
[Al-Layl: 19–21]
The basic principle is therefore to understand the expression according to its known meaning, while believing that the Face of Allah تعالى is not like the faces of His creation.
He سبحانه says:
﴿There is nothing like unto Him, and He is the All-Hearing, the All-Seeing﴾
[Ash-Shura: 11]
The scholars of Qur’anic interpretation differed concerning the meaning of “the Face of Allah” in this verse.
It has been said that what is meant by the Face is the direction, meaning that wherever a person turns, there is the direction toward which the worshipper is facing. This is consistent with Allah’s saying:
﴿And for everyone there is a direction toward which he turns﴾
[Al-Baqarah: 148]
It has also been said that what is meant is the Face of Allah تعالى itself. This was the view preferred by Shaykh Ibn ‘Uthaymeen, may Allah have mercy on him, because Allah سبحانه وتعالى encompasses everything, and because it is authentically established from the Prophet ﷺ that when a worshipper stands for prayer, Allah is before his face; therefore, he prohibited spitting in front of oneself during prayer.
According to this interpretation, whichever direction a servant faces when excused and making his best effort to determine the direction of the qiblah, Allah سبحانه وتعالى is before his face. This does not mean that Allah تعالى is contained within directions or inside created things.
Some people may think that affirming Allah’s تعالى exaltedness necessarily means that He must be far away from the worshipper, and therefore it would not be correct to say that He is before his face.
This arises from comparing the Creator to the creation.
Allah سبحانه وتعالى is unlike anything else, and His Attributes cannot be compared to the attributes of created beings.
Thus, He سبحانه is established upon His Throne above His creation, and He is before the face of the worshipper, and there is no contradiction between these two matters. Allah تعالى is not like a created being whose existence is restricted by directions and dimensions in the way that we know them in created things.
Allah تعالى says:
﴿Everything will perish except His Face﴾
[Al-Qasas: 88]
The meaning is that everything will perish except Allah تعالى, whose Essence is described as having the Face.
This is one of the matters in which what Allah has affirmed for Himself should be affirmed, while declaring Him free from resembling His creation.
Likewise, human beings cannot encompass Allah تعالى through their imagination or description. He سبحانه says:
﴿He knows what is before them and what is behind them, but they cannot encompass Him in knowledge﴾
[Ta-Ha: 110]
Therefore, whatever image a person imagines concerning Allah تعالى, Allah سبحانه وتعالى is greater and more exalted than that.
The same misunderstanding can occur concerning some other Attributes, when a person compares Allah’s تعالى actions with the actions of created beings.
For example, regarding Allah’s descent to the lowest heaven during the last third of the night, someone may say: night moves from one country to another, so how can the descent take place?
The answer is that this objection is based on comparing Allah’s Attribute with the attributes of created beings.
The obligation is to believe in what has been authentically reported from the Prophet ﷺ and affirm the Attribute in a manner befitting Allah تعالى, without attempting to determine how it occurs.
The Prophet ﷺ informed us that Allah تعالى descends when the last third of the night remains and says:
“Who calls upon Me so that I may answer him? Who asks Me so that I may give him? Who seeks My forgiveness so that I may forgive him?”
We believe in this as it was reported, and we do not ask: How does this happen?
Allah’s saying:
﴿So wherever you turn, there is the Face of Allah﴾
does not indicate that Allah تعالى is everywhere or that Allah is contained within directions.
Rather, it is necessary to affirm that Allah تعالى is above the Throne, established upon it in a manner befitting His Majesty, and that He has a real Face befitting Him, which is not like the faces of created beings.
The verse does not contradict Allah’s تعالى exaltedness, because the Attributes of Allah سبحانه وتعالى cannot be compared to the attributes of created beings, and we must not imagine the manner of His Attributes in a way resembling created things.
And Allah knows best.