The account of the Companion Mu'awiyah ibn al-Hakam (may Allah be pleased with him) and his slave girl whom the Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him) asked: (Where is Allah?)

The Shaykh : This is a hadith narrated by the Imam Muslim in the Book of Prayer; because the man, as he relates about himself, was one of the Companions, Mu'awiyah ibn al-Hakam al-Sulami, who said: "I prayed one day behind the Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him), so a man next to me sneezed, and I said to him: May Allah have mercy on you. So they looked at me like this," meaning to silence him. It seems the man was a recent convert to Islam and had not yet received the rulings appropriate for prayer. When they cast their eyes at him to silence him, he was fed up with them, so he raised his voice shouting: "Woe to my mother! What are you waiting for from me?!" He did not do anything wrong in his opinion!

The questioner : ... .

The Shaykh : Yes, he said: "So they began hitting their thighs with their hands," meaning, be quiet, this is not the place! He says: "When the Messenger of Allah (peace and blessings be upon him) finished the prayer, he turned to me." Here he is depicting the etiquette, gentleness, and humility of the Messenger, and how he would treat him after he became aware of this great mistake. How would the Messenger punish him and deal with him? And he found the exact opposite. He expresses this psychological state by saying: "When the Messenger of Allah (peace and blessings be upon him) finished the prayer, he turned to me, and by Allah, he did not humiliate me, nor did he force me, nor did he hit me, nor did he insult me, but he only said to me: - here is the point - why did the Imam Muslim bring this hadith in the Book of Prayer? Because of his saying (peace be upon him): , and the story ended with just this, meaning he taught him the best teaching.
It seems that when the man felt the gentleness in the teaching, he hoped to increase his knowledge, and he knew that he was ignorant, so he began asking the Messenger question after question. He said: "O Messenger of Allah, some of us take omens?" He said: . He said: Some of us visit the fortune-tellers? He said: . He said: Some of us draw lines in the sand? He (peace be upon him) said: . The scholars and commentators say in their notes that this is impossible, a miracle, and never, never!! . As if he is saying: Is it sufficient for me to free her as expiation for this hitting? He said: . He went and brought her, and the Messenger (peace be upon him) immediately addressed her by saying: . She said: In the sky. He (peace be upon him) said: . She said: You are the Messenger of Allah. So he turned to her master and said to him: .
This hadith is the backbone-breaker for the people of figurative interpretation who, out of their misguidance and deviation from the Book and the Sunnah, say: Allah is present in every place, Allah is present in all existence!! This one says: Allah is in the sky! The brother Ali, and we know this Shaykh Abdullah is an Ash'ari, and he has a book he named according to a principle they call by a name other than its true name. What did he name his book? "The Straight Path," and in it is a great deviation from the Book and the Sunnah, especially regarding creed in general, and more specifically regarding the attribute of Allah (Mighty and Majestic) that He is the Most High, the Most Exalted. So they deleted this hadith, as he says, so that the proof would fall, but this is extreme foolishness; what is the reason? The reason is that it seems they do not know that this hadith exists in dozens of books. So even if Muslim were to leave the entire world, this hadith exists in "Muwatta Imam Malik," which is two degrees higher than Muslim; meaning Muslim narrates from Imam Ahmad, and Imam Ahmad narrates from al-Shafi'i, and al-Shafi'i narrates from Malik, so Malik is among those who narrated this hadith in his book "al-Muwatta," and the same Ahmad is in his book "al-Musnad." What do they gain from this deletion other than proving their misguidance and foolishness.
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I say on this occasion that this slave girl... I say on this occasion, the thing that draws attention is how this slave girl knew her Lord and that He (the Exalted) is in the sky, and today if you ask the sheikhs of the world, except for a few whom Allah wills, the question the Messenger (peace be upon him) directed to the slave girl, you do not hear anything but the answer that deviates from the Book and the Sunnah: Allah is present in every place?! How did the slave girl hit the mark and these sheikhs miss? The slave girl - here the topic comes - lived in a pure Islamic society, the society of Muhammad (peace be upon him), there is none purer than it. So, although she was unlettered, and Allah knows best, she received this creed from her master, from her master's children, from her neighbors, and so on. So when she was asked, she answered correctly. It is not necessary for her to have a PhD, but today if you ask the doctors of the end times, you do not hear this answer that you hear from this slave girl!! The reason is that the study today is not one hundred percent Islamic study; let alone the society, so we seek help from Allah.