04-05-2004, 08:51 AM
as salam alykom akhi
may be it is a late reply but better than nothing
I know the quote u made that Allah is above His creation is based on a hadeeth when a young girl embraced Islam and came to see the Messenger of Allah, he asked her where is Allah, she said above, so he said correct. What he was referring to is that he is not one of the idols.
However, the meaning of Allah is in front of u is something like that Allah descends in the last third of the night to the lowest sky and ask His servants is there anyone who wants to repent so I accept and so forth. However, as for spitting on the left hand side, it is according to the hadeeth which means if u r troubled during Salah by Shaytan to spit on your left hand. The same thing when u wake up after a night mare.
In my very humble opinion, and I am not near a scholar but what I understand is that when we say Allah u Akbar in initiation of prayer we become in front of Allah, talking to Allah, this is what i understand brother wallah u a`alam