The hadith of the maidservant and some of its benefits.

The Shaykh : He said: “O Messenger of Allah—and here is the point— I have a maidservant who tends my sheep at Uhud—the mountain of Uhud is well known—and one day a wolf attacked my sheep and tore them apart severely. I am a human being, and I get angry as other humans do, so I struck her a blow, and I vowed to free a slave. A man is a believer, and a believer makes mistakes, but he is one who turns back in repentance; so he knew what the maidservant’s sin was when the wolf attacked her? She could not resist the wolf; so my striking her and slapping her on the cheek was injustice on my part toward her. O Messenger of Allah, I have vowed to free a slave; is it sufficient for me to free this maidservant whom I slapped with that slap?” He said: . So she came. Now pay attention.
He—peace be upon him—said to her: . She said: “In the sky.” He said to her: . She said: “You are the Messenger of Allah.” He turned to her master and said to her: .
The point of this hadith, as I mentioned at the beginning of the speech: The Messenger of Allah (peace and blessings be upon him) established for us this question: , and he established for us, by his approval of the maidservant’s answer, the first part. Pay attention, because this issue is subject to a great deal of misguidance and concealment by some shaykhs here, and in other Islamic countries. The Messenger (peace be upon him) established for us in this hadith that we should ask: “Where is Allah?” and that we should answer such a question with the maidservant’s answer. How did he establish that for us? As for the fact that he said: , this is an establishment by his action. As for how he established for us that our answer should be: “Allah is in the sky?” It is from two aspects:
The first aspect: The Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him and his family) approved the maidservant’s statement: “In the sky.” If it had been a matter of negation, the Messenger of Allah (peace and blessings be upon him) would have hastened to deny it to her, and at least to teach her, as he did with her master in the story of the prayer and his error in it. But he approved her, so his approval (may Allah’s prayers and blessings be upon him) of her is evidence that her answer is correct according to the Shari'ah.
The second thing—and it is more important: The Messenger (peace be upon him) did not only approve her of this answer, but he considered her answer as evidence of her faith, and that her master, if he freed her, had fulfilled his vow; because he had vowed to free a believing maidservant. So when the Messenger (peace be upon him) testified to her, based on her answer that Allah (Mighty and Majestic) is in the sky, that she was a believer, he freed her for the face of Allah (Blessed and Exalted is He).
What is the position of the scholars, formerly, let alone their position today, regarding the question and the answer together?
You will find the majority of the Islamic sects, including some Islamic sects like the Asha'irah and the Mu'tazilah—excuse me, like the Asha'irah and the Maturidiyyah; let alone the Mu'tazilah; all of these deny that the maidservant’s answer: “Allah is in the sky” is an error. And, oh, how wondrous is Allah! They do not limit themselves to this error, but they add error upon error; when it is said to them: How is it that believing that Allah (Mighty and Majestic) is in the sky is an error, and the Messenger of Allah (peace and blessings be upon him) approved the maidservant’s statement: “Allah is in the sky?” They answer: He approved her because she was a non-Arab! Meaning, ignorant. And they cling to some narrations that she was black, a black maidservant; meaning, a non-Arab. Do you think it befits one of us—students of knowledge—that if he hears a foreign maidservant answer with a wrong answer, but she is a Muslim, that he should approve her, or should he correct her answer? Without a doubt, he corrects it. So how do we permit and justify for the Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him), who is protected from error, what we do not permit for any one of us, while we are not protected from error?
Then they missed another thing that I mentioned earlier: The Messenger (peace be upon him) testified to her faith based on her statement: “Allah (Mighty and Majestic) is in the sky.” So these sects of the Mu'tazilah, the Maturidiyyah, and the Asha'irah do not believe, not only in the maidservant’s statement, but they do not believe in what came in the Book and the Sunnah in a mass-transmitted manner. Because the maidservant’s statement: “Allah is in the sky”; I say to these people who have deviated from the Shari'ah in the name of the Shari'ah—and this is one of the most dangerous matters—I say: The Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him and his family), when he approved this maidservant of her statement, it was not because she was ignorant, but because she was educated, cultured, and graduated from the school of Muhammad (peace and blessings be upon him), as they express it today in the language of the present age. Look at the difference now between that society and this society. In that society, the maidservant tending the sheep knew her creed better than the great scholars and the committee—as they say today—the Committee of Senior Scholars in many Islamic countries; because they do not believe that Allah is in the sky on the pretext that the Prophet approved her because she was a non-Arab, black maidservant who understood nothing. But in reality, she either read the Qur'an or at least heard of the Qur'an from her master, from her Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him); for this reason she answered with the answer that matches the Qur'an; where He (Blessed and Exalted is He) said in Surat al-Tariq: ; so the maidservant said what Allah (Mighty and Majestic) explicitly stated in the Qur'an.