What is the ruling on saying: "Allah is present in every place," meaning by that that Allah is in every place with His knowledge?

The questioner : ... .

The Shaykh : The brother here—may Allah bless him—draws attention to an issue in itself. I fear that the brothers here will get tired of hearing a discussion that, as some say, is dry because it is scientific, so we vary things a bit, like this and that, so that we do not get bored.
It is necessary to distinguish in the previous topic when some people say: "Allah is present in every place, Allah is present in all existence." When they hear this explanation, it becomes clear to them that this statement is wrong. But some of them, who have some intelligence and acumen, say: "Oh teacher, we do not mean that Allah is in every place with His essence, but rather that He is in every place with His knowledge." We say: "Fine, if you mean by your repeated statement, 'Allah is present in every place,' that He is there with His knowledge, we agree with you on that, and this is what we referred to earlier when we recited the verse: . But unfortunately, it will soon be revealed that this figurative interpretation is for the sake of escape, so that the argument is not established against them with the evidence we mentioned. That is, they do not adopt this figurative interpretation to show that their belief is sound and their understanding of the Shari'ah is correct. The proof is that we tell them repeatedly: "Fine, this figurative interpretation that Allah is in every place with His knowledge; no Muslim disagrees with this at all. But come, let us delve into the research, which is what the brother here wants us to draw attention to."
From another angle, we can say to those who hear such a discussion and realize that the statement that Allah is in every place with His essence and attributes is great misguidance, and therefore they disavow it with that figurative interpretation, saying: "No, we mean Allah is in every place with His knowledge." We say: "Fine; this means that Allah is not in every place as their phrase suggests, but rather He is in every place with His knowledge. So we must take a second step. The research now is not about knowledge and that it encompasses a place, but the research now is about the Divine essence, the essence of Allah, that He is described with all attributes of perfection, as we said, and is free from all attributes of deficiency. Where is this Allah whom we worship? Here the truth becomes clear and it is revealed whether behind that figurative interpretation there is a correct belief or a deviant one. At the very least, the position of all the responsible parties with this question will be confusion. If they are told, "We all believe that Allah's knowledge is in every place, so where is the essence of Allah?" Their eyes wander... we do not know. Here my previous statement applies: How do you not know? You read every night: to the end of the verse, and you say on every occasion and off-occasion: . Why do you not give an answer within the limits of what you read? This specific question: We agree that Allah is in every place with His knowledge. His essence—Blessed and Exalted is He—where is it? You find that confusion, a darkness, dominates the hearts of these Muslims, unfortunately. And the truth is clear and evident in the Book and the Sunnah.
The brother here—may Allah reward him with good—answered with what is in the Qur'an: . This is a verse mentioned in many surahs, more than five times or so. They also recite it. So where are they? And the answer to this question: Where is Allah? . And among the wonders observed by the researcher is that we live today in an Islamic world numbering eight hundred million, nine hundred million, or more, and you find them confused like the Jews, unfortunately, in this issue. They do not answer; they are confused in answering the question: Where is Allah? While a shepherdess in the time of the Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him) answered as if she understood the Qur'an. Certainly, she was not a jurist of the Qur'an, but the difference is that this slave girl lived in an Islamic atmosphere where knowledge was inherited from the pure source, which is the Messenger of Allah (peace and blessings be upon him). If the Islamic atmosphere today inherited this belief from successor to predecessor, you would find the shepherdess giving the same answer that the shepherdess in the time of the Messenger (peace be upon him) gave. But how different that time is from this time! In that time, revelation was descending, and the Messenger of Allah (peace and blessings be upon him) was conveying and educating, and his Companions received knowledge from him and then transmitted it to their homes, to their wives, to their children, to their servants who served them, and to their shepherds who grazed their sheep for them.
It is narrated in "Sahih Muslim" from the report of a man from the Companions named Mu'awiyah ibn al-Hakam al-Sulami, who is not Mu'awiyah ibn Abi Sufyan, the first ruler of the Banu Umayyah in Islam. Mu'awiyah ibn al-Hakam al-Sulami tells us about himself and says: "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' during the prayer. And this is what you will hear that tells you that the man had recently embraced Islam and did not yet know the rulings of prayer and its etiquettes, and so on, unlike those around him. So when the person next to him sneezed, he said to him: 'May Allah have mercy on you.' They looked at him like this from around him, so he was distressed by these disapproving looks, and he raised his voice in the prayer saying: 'Woe to my mother! What is wrong with you that you are looking at me?' He was a poor soul, not doing anything in his opinion, meaning that he did not know that, for example, he spoke and invalidated the prayer. And so he protested with his shouting..."