The Answer to the Objection of the Jahmiyyah Citing the Verse of Allah the Exalted: "And He is with you wherever you are."
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The Shaykh : If someone were to ask: How do we respond to the statement of Allah, Blessed and Exalted is He: [Al-Mujadila 58:7] and to His statement:
The answer is that we say: There is no contradiction between "He is with us" and "He is above the heavens." There is no impediment, for Allah is not like anything else. He is High in His Highness, and He is with His servants, but He is not inside them with His servants. Have you not seen, O people, that in the Arabic language, a traveler says, "I have been traveling, and the moon is with me until it set"? So where is the moon? The moon is in the sky. Glory be to Allah! Is the moon at the wheels of the car?
The student: ...
The Shaykh : No, no. He says "with me," but it is on his camel, at the camel's hoof, in the car, at the car's wheel. Is that reasonable? Look, the moon, which is one of the smallest of created things, is in the sky, and the Arabic language allows one to say "it is with us." So, is that acceptable?
So-and-so is a poor woman, so-and-so is a poor woman, so-and-so is a poor woman. Her husband divorced her, and the second man said, "I have never divorced her; she is with her husband." Her husband is in Makkah, and she is in Madinah. Is that statement correct or not? She is with him, meaning she is accompanying him, not that she is in the same place as him. So, companionship (mu'ayyah), O my brothers, means in the absolute sense in the Arabic language: accompanying. And it takes on the meaning appropriate to each context. That is why among the supplications for travel is:Sunan an-Nasa'i 5501Hasan (Darussalam) What is it?
The student: Travel
The Shaykh : It combines this and that, for Allah the Exalted encompasses everything. Glory be to Allah! Those who cite the verse of companionship to prove that Allah is in every place with His essence are among those who followed the ambiguous parts of the Qur'an and left the clear parts. For combining this and that is clear: He is above everything, but He is with the creation. Does Allah know about you?
There is in no private conversation three but that He is the fourth of them, nor are there five but that He is the sixth of them - and no less than that and no more except that He is with them
مَا يَكُونُ مِنْ نَجْوَى ثَلَاثَةٍ إِلَّا هُوَ رَابِعُهُمْ وَلَا خَمْسَةٍ إِلَّا هُوَ سَادِسُهُمْ وَلَا أَدْنَى مِنْ ذَلِكَ وَلَا أَكْثَرَ إِلَّا هُوَ مَعَهُمْAnd He is with you
وهو معكمThe answer is that we say: There is no contradiction between "He is with us" and "He is above the heavens." There is no impediment, for Allah is not like anything else. He is High in His Highness, and He is with His servants, but He is not inside them with His servants. Have you not seen, O people, that in the Arabic language, a traveler says, "I have been traveling, and the moon is with me until it set"? So where is the moon? The moon is in the sky. Glory be to Allah! Is the moon at the wheels of the car?
The student: ...
The Shaykh : No, no. He says "with me," but it is on his camel, at the camel's hoof, in the car, at the car's wheel. Is that reasonable? Look, the moon, which is one of the smallest of created things, is in the sky, and the Arabic language allows one to say "it is with us." So, is that acceptable?
So-and-so is a poor woman, so-and-so is a poor woman, so-and-so is a poor woman. Her husband divorced her, and the second man said, "I have never divorced her; she is with her husband." Her husband is in Makkah, and she is in Madinah. Is that statement correct or not? She is with him, meaning she is accompanying him, not that she is in the same place as him. So, companionship (mu'ayyah), O my brothers, means in the absolute sense in the Arabic language: accompanying. And it takes on the meaning appropriate to each context. That is why among the supplications for travel is:
Allahumma, antas-sahibu fis
اللهم أنت الصاحب فيThe student: Travel
The Shaykh :