Discussion of Sahih Muslim, the edition of Abdullah al-Habashi, and mention of the hadith of the slave girl.

Al-Halabi : ... Some of the brothers, approximately, published Sahih Muslim and removed the hadith of the slave girl from it.

The Shaykh : Who published it?
Al-Halabi : It was the group of al-Habashi.

The Shaykh: Allahu Akbar.
Al-Halabi : Yes, and I also saw an edition of al-Asma' wa al-Sifat by al-Bayhaqi by them. In every place where there is a problem, they did so and said, "Al-Hafiz al-Abdali said..." They engage in concealment (tadlis) under the name of their Shaykh, al-Harari al-Habashi. Al-Hafiz al-Abdali said that some students of knowledge in Qura' read it. Al-Hafiz al-Abdali meant that it was al-Habashi, but he himself was 'Abd al-Rabb al-Dar or something like that.

The Shaykh : I mean, it is concealment by euphemism.
Al-Halabi : I mean, how they distort the truth greatly.

Another questioner : What is the hadith of the slave girl?

The Shaykh : Where is Allah? She said, "In the sky." This hadith was narrated by 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. He said, "I prayed one day behind the Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him), and a man next to me sneezed, so I said to him, 'May Allah have mercy on you.' They looked at me like this, meaning... He had recently embraced Islam and had not yet learned the proper rulings regarding prayer. So when they cast their eyes at him to silence him, he was distressed by their silence. What he did was raise his voice and shout, 'Woe to my mother! Why are you looking at me?' He didn't know anything; the poor man in his opinion... He said, "So they began hitting their thighs with their hands, meaning, be quiet, this is not the place for it now." When the Messenger of Allah (peace and blessings be upon him) finished the prayer, he turned to me. Here is the image of the Prophet's etiquette, his gentleness, and his humility, and how he dealt with him after noticing this great mistake. How did the Prophet punish and treat him? And when he found the exact opposite, he expressed this psychological state by saying, "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 oppress me, nor did he hit me, nor did he curse me. He only said to me: ; Here is the point: why did Imam Muslim bring this hadith in the Book of Prayer? Because of his saying (peace and blessings be upon him): And the story ended with just this, meaning his teaching was the best teaching. It seems that when the man felt this gentleness in the teaching, he hoped to gain more knowledge, and since he knew he was ignorant, he began asking the Messenger of Allah (peace and blessings be upon him) question after question. He said, "O Messenger of Allah, among us are people who take omens." He said: He said, "Among us are people who are fortune-tellers." He said: He said, "Among us are people who draw lines in the sand." He (peace and blessings be upon him) said: This; the scholars and commentators said in their notes that it was possible that a prophet among the prophets would draw a miracle, and whoever matched his drawing, that was it. But no, no... He said, "O Messenger of Allah, I have a slave girl who tends my sheep in one of the valleys. One day a wolf took one of my sheep, and I am a human being who gets angry as humans get angry, so I hit her a blow, and upon me is the freeing of a neck as expiation. As if he was asking, 'Will it suffice for me to free her as expiation for this hitting?' He said: ; He went and brought her. The Messenger of Allah (peace and blessings be upon him) preempted her with his saying: She said: "In the sky." He (peace and blessings be upon him) said: She said: He turned to her master and said to him: ; So this hadith means it is the backbreaker for the people of figurative interpretation (ta'wil) who say, out of their misguidance and deviation from the Book and the Sunnah, that Allah is present in every place, that Allah is present in all of existence. This one says Allah is in the sky; so the brother Ali, and we know this...The 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 name. What did he name his book? "The Straight Path." And in it, there 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 Elevated. So they removed this hadith, as they say, so that the argument would fall; but this is extreme foolishness. What is the reason? The reason is as if they do not know that this hadith exists in dozens of books... So even if Muslim were to leave the world entirely, this hadith exists in the Muwatta of 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, the Muwatta. And Ahmad himself has it in his book, the Musnad. What do they gain from this removal other than proving their misguidance and foolishness? What is this, Professor?

The questioner : This is very fresh.

The Shaykh : It is all of one type.

The questioner : Of one type.

The Shaykh: In the name of Allah.

The questioner : Well, if they removed it, my master, if they removed it, meaning the Book of Allah... they removed from the verses.

The Shaykh : This is from their ignorance and foolishness. I say on this occasion that this slave girl, the thing that draws attention is how this slave girl knew her Lord and that He (Glorified and Exalted is He) is in the sky. And today, if you ask the Shaykhs of the world—except for those whom Allah wills, and they are few—the question that the Messenger of Allah (peace and blessings be upon him) directed to the slave girl, you will not hear an answer 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 Shaykhs miss? The slave girl is here, the topic comes up; she lived in a pure Islamic society, the society of Muhammad (peace and blessings be upon him), none purer than it. So, despite being illiterate, and Allah knows best, she transmitted this creed from her master, from her master's children, from her neighbors. So when she was asked, she answered correctly. It is not necessary for her to have a doctorate. But today, ask the doctors of the end of times, you will 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. And Allah is the Helper. In the name of Allah.