Clarifying the meaning of the hadith in which the Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him) said to the girl: “Where is Allah?” and she replied, “In the sky.”

The Shaykh : Where did this girl get this answer? From what we recite every night, from those who care about preserving the prescribed daily remembrances that the Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him) used to maintain and teach his Ummah. Among these is that he would not sleep until he had recited Surat al-Baqarah. In this surah, He (Mighty and Majestic) says: . So the girl’s answer matches what Allah (Mighty and Majestic) described of Himself in the Noble Qur’an. Allah (Mighty and Majestic) is the One who affirmed for Himself the attribute of being in the sky by the verse of Tabaarak. By this verse, that girl was educated and guided to the correct answer to her Prophet’s question: . So she said: “In the sky.”
But here is something that must be clarified, first from the linguistic perspective, and second from the legal perspective: “fi” (in) is a preposition in the Arabic language that usually indicates a location. So when this verse uses this expression: “Allah is in the sky,” someone might say that the verse supports the claim of those who say that Allah (Mighty and Majestic) is everywhere. The answer is from two aspects: First, the verse did not affirm for Allah the attribute of being everywhere; rather, it affirmed for His Essence (Blessed and Exalted is He) that He is in the sky. And the sky is a creation among Allah’s creations; the sky is not all of Allah’s (Mighty and Majestic) creation. So if a Muslim must affirm a place for Allah, clinging to this Qur’anic text, then it is the sky. As for “everywhere,” that is a statement for which Allah has not sent down any authority. We say this for the sake of argument, not as a creed, as will be clarified shortly, if Allah wills. This is because “fi” here is not locative. This is now from the linguistic perspective, because linguists say that prepositions can take the place of one another, and this is a known style in the Arabic language, and thus the Noble Qur’an came.
So when He (Mighty and Majestic) said in this verse: ; it is like His saying (Blessed and Exalted is He): . The Arab does not understand from such a Qur’anic expression to mean: “inside the earth,” but rather “on the earth.” From here they said: “Prepositions take the place of one another.” Exactly like what our Lord (Mighty and Majestic) related of the debate that took place between the magicians who believed in the Lord of Harun and Musa and confronted Pharaoh, who had said to his people: . They confronted him with the truth that they had believed in the Lord of Harun and Musa, so he threatened them by saying in the verse, and in it: : It does not mean that he opens the trunks of the palm trees and crushes them in the middle of the trunk and crucifies them, but the intended meaning is “on the trunks of the palm trees.”
Finally, this same style comes in a hadith from the authentic, famous hadiths on the tongues of people, while authentic, famous hadiths on the tongues of people are few, because the majority of them are weak and invalid. But this is from the authentic hadiths. What is it? His saying (peace and blessings be upon him): : ; does this mean: the insects and worms that are not seen and it is not possible for a person to include those insects in his mercy? Or is the intended meaning these animals that we live with on the face of the earth, as came in some authentic hadiths: that a man said: “O Messenger of Allah, I slaughter the sheep and I show mercy to it.” He said: .
means: those on the earth from these animals that Allah (Mighty and Majestic) has tamed for us and subjected for us so that we may ride them and enjoy their meat and mention Allah (Blessed and Exalted is He) over them. So , no one understands: “inside the earth,” but rather “on the earth.” The complete hadith is: ; so the meaning of “who is in the sky” is: “who is on the sky.”