The mention of the hadith of the maidservant to whom the Messenger of Allah (peace and blessings be upon him) said: “Where is Allah?” She said: “In the sky.”

The Shaykh : But when we return to the righteous Salaf, we find a maidservant who may have been a non-Arab, and may have been Black. I say: she may have been a non-Arab, and may have been Black; because some of the narrations stating that she was a non-Arab and Black are not authentic, but it is possible that she was. However, she was a gentle woman and a shepherdess of sheep. You find her in this creed to be more knowledgeable than the great scholars; those who engage in figurative interpretation, such as the Maturidiyyah and the Asha'irah. Perhaps you will remember with me the story of this maidservant whose master was Mu'awiyah ibn al-Hakam al-Sulami. He narrates his story himself, and there are lessons in it, including what we are discussing. Mu'awiyah said: “I prayed one day behind the Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him), so a man next to me sneezed during the prayer, and I said to him: May Allah have mercy on you. They looked at me. I raised my voice and said: Woe to your mother! Why are you looking at me? It is very clear that the man was a recent convert to Islam and had not learned what speech is permissible in prayer and what is not. He said: So they struck their thighs to silence him. When the Messenger of Allah (peace and blessings be upon him) finished the prayer, he turned to me. Imagine the state of this person after it became clear to him that he had committed a grave error in prayer; he thought he would be rebuked, or perhaps beaten or cursed, if that is what he deserved. This is how such a man imagines it, and unfortunately, this is what happens today! But the Messenger of Allah (peace and blessings be upon him), whom Allah (Mighty and Majestic) rightly described with His saying: did not verify what might have been in this person's mind. He said: When the Messenger of Allah (peace and blessings be upon him) finished the prayer, he turned to me. By Allah, he did not humiliate me, nor did he overpower me, nor did he beat me, nor did he curse me. He only said to me: . This is all the advice the Messenger (peace be upon him) gave him in response to that sin he committed in prayer.
There is no doubt that a rational person, when tested with a guiding teacher of great character, hopes to learn something new after realizing he was in deep ignorance. So he seized the opportunity and began asking the Messenger (peace be upon him) question after question. He asked him, saying: O Messenger of Allah, some of us are people who visit fortune-tellers? He said: . He said: Some of us are people who take omens. He said: . He said: Some of us are people who draw lines in the sand. He (may Allah's prayers and peace be upon him) said: . Then he said: O Messenger of Allah—and here is the point—I have a maidservant who shepherds my sheep in al-Uhd. One day a wolf raided my sheep, and I am a human being who gets angry as humans do, so I struck her a blow, and I am obligated to free a slave. It seems he was saying... and he admitted his mistake; is it sufficient for me to free her? He said: . When she came, he (may Allah's prayers and peace be upon him) said to her: . She answered; she did not hesitate as the people of figurative interpretation hesitate. . She said: In the sky. He said to her: . She said: You are the Messenger of Allah. He said to her master: .
I say: this woman was a maidservant shepherding sheep, and what is required of a shepherdess is that she be ignorant. But I believe that this woman lived in a pure Muslim environment. Why not, when the Messenger of Allah (peace and blessings be upon him) was reciting to them morning and evening what Allah (Mighty and Majestic) was revealing to them of the verses of Allah?
In short: this woman lived in a Muslim environment in creed and practice, and this is natural. Likewise, the Muslim scholar should live in such an environment completely. But how can he do so when they have divided into many paths and schools, and split into sects, seventy-three sects? Where can they find this environment that was provided for that maidservant, so that our women, like our men, understand the creed that every Muslim must believe in? Where can they find that? And we find those who hold the pen and write in some magazines whatever comes to mind, and these writings fight the creed of the Salaf under the claim that the Salaf did not believe in this creed! This is the most dangerous thing a person hears in this present age; that someone comes to the creed of tawhid (the oneness of Allah) and dilutes it... and it is enough to say...