Explanation of the hadith of Mu'awiyah al-Sulami (may Allah be pleased with him) (the story of the slave girl who said that Allah is in the sky).

The Shaykh : And finally, we narrate the following hadith to affirm this belief, namely the belief in the rising of the Lord above His Throne and His exaltation over all His creation, and as evidence to refute the figurative interpretation (ta'wil) whose end is the denial of divine realities. Imam Muslim narrates in his Sahih from Mu'awiyah ibn al-Hakam al-Sulami (may Allah be pleased with him) that he prayed one day behind the Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him), and a man beside him sneezed, so he said to him, "May Allah have mercy on you." Mu'awiyah ibn al-Hakam al-Sulami said to the man who sneezed beside him, "May Allah have mercy on you," as if he were outside the prayer, not knowing that this is speech and that it is not permissible for the one praying to speak. So the one who was on his side looked at him with a look of silence, but this only made him more agitated than before, and he said, "Woe to your mother, what is wrong with you that you look at me...?" The poor man, due to his distance from knowledge, did not realize his mistake, that he had spoken in prayer, and that speech invalidates it, even if it were just the word "May Allah have mercy on you, O sneezer." So the Companions took to hitting their thighs to silence him. Mu'awiyah said, "When the Messenger of Allah (peace and blessings be upon him) finished the prayer, he turned to me." Imagine the state of this man who, after a delay and some time, realized that he had made a mistake, and the Messenger came to him. What did he expect? He thought he would be rebuked, that he would be humiliated, "O ignorant one," just as our shaykhs do, except for a few of them. That is, if a person commits a grave sin, the person who rebukes him is so severe that one wishes the earth would swallow him. Perhaps Mu'awiyah imagined that the Messenger (peace and blessings be upon him), who came to him... would point out his mistake and rebuke him. Mu'awiyah said, "When the Messenger of Allah (peace and blessings be upon him) finished the prayer, he turned to me. By Allah, he did not hit me, nor did he oppress me, nor did he insult me, but he only said to me: ." When Mu'awiyah saw the Messenger of Allah (peace and blessings be upon him) with this gentle and soft character, it was as if he returned to himself and held himself accountable, realizing that he was ignorant and that he had to learn. So he began to throw question after question at the Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him). He said: "O Messenger of Allah, among us are people who visit the fortune-tellers", meaning the astrologers and diviners. He said: He said, "O Messenger of Allah, among us are people who take omens and consider themselves unlucky." He said: Meaning, if one of you takes an omen, do not respond to it; continue on your way. And these are, of course, quick words that need explanation, perhaps in another occasion, if Allah wills, we will explain them. He said: "O Messenger of Allah, among us are people who draw lines in the sand". He (may the prayers and peace of Allah be upon him) said: He said, "O Messenger of Allah, this is also a phrase that needs explanation later." He said: "O Messenger of Allah—and here is the point—I have a slave girl who grazes my sheep. One day, a wolf pounced on my sheep. When she informed me, and I am a human being, I became angry as humans become angry, so I struck her a blow", meaning he regretted what he did, so he said: "And upon me is the freeing of a slave", as if he was asking the Messenger whether it would suffice for him to free this slave girl as expiation for his injustice to her due to... striking her with that blow. He (may the prayers and peace of Allah be upon him) said: When she came, the Messenger (may the prayers and peace of Allah be upon him) asked her: She said, "In the sky." He said to her, "Who am I?" She said: He said to her master: This hadith is in Sahih Muslim. So take heed, O you who have eyes to see. Although it is in Sahih Muslim, many shaykhs today deny the authenticity of this hadith in terms of its chain of narration, and its chain is one of the most authentic chains. Some do not deny it because the chain is authentic; what do they say? They say the Messenger (peace and blessings be upon him) accommodated the culture of the slave girl. This slave girl was Bedouin, so he accommodated her concepts. She meant that Allah is in the sky, meaning not the idols that are on earth, which are the ones who created the creatures, but rather, apart from the idols, Allah... They say that when she said He is in the sky, she did not mean above, but rather she meant merely affirming that this universe has a Creator, and not the idols that the people of the pre-Islamic age of ignorance (jahiliyyah) worshipped. We say to them, first, the Messenger of Allah does not approve of falsehood. Even if it were a slave girl, even if she were Bedouin, it is obligatory upon the Messenger (peace and blessings be upon him) to teach the ignorant or to teach the unlearned. So if you assume that this slave girl was ignorant and spoke falsehood in your opinion, that she did not say "Allah is in the sky," when you see this answer from the slave girl, you say the slave girl is mistaken in this. How is she mistaken, and the Messenger approved of her? I mean, he approved of her because she meant an absolute, abstract meaning, devoid of affirming that Allah has the attribute of exaltion. So we say to them, the slave girl, in truth, it seems to me from behind these long centuries that she is more knowledgeable than these scholars for two reasons. First, she affirmed what Allah affirmed in His Book, where He said: So its meaning is that the slave girl was cultured with the culture of the Qur'an, so she affirmed and testified to what the Qur'an testified to. How can you say that she was mistaken in saying that Allah is in the sky? This is first. Second, do you believe that the Messenger (peace and blessings be upon him) approves of falsehood? Say no. So how did he approve of this slave girl on this statement which you deny? The slave girl says that Allah is in the sky, and you say Allah is not in the sky. So how did the Messenger (peace and blessings be upon him) stand toward this slave girl in a position of approving the falsehood which you believe is false? This is your faith in the Messenger of Allah (peace and blessings be upon him), who does not speak from desire; it is only a revelation that is revealed. This hadith is in Sahih Muslim. So the people today who deny the exaltion of Allah above His creation are either those who deny it despite its authenticity, or those who approve that the slave girl was mistaken and the Messenger accommodated her in her speech because she intended only to affirm that Allah is the Creator. This is from the evil consequences of the figurative interpretation (ta'wil). The one who studies the topic of ta'wil finds for it dangers that are almost endless, from denying verses and denying authentic hadiths. Either if the text is a verse, then by ta'wil, or if the text is a hadith, either by the way of denial, as is the case with this hadith, or by the way of ta'wil, as some do.