of people, or in a conveyance of some kind, and so forth, that in which he comes must be something that can be termed a locative adjunct in grammatical usage. It is not enough for it merely to be something brought.

This is made clear by the fact that passages in the Quran and hadith employing the preposition of attachment, bāʾ (“with”), cannot instead employ the preposition of containment, fī (“in”), unless containment is intended. Thus, one cannot say, “Perhaps Allah will come to me in them all,” “Only Allah will come to you in it,” or “that Allah should strike you in a punishment from Himself.” As for His statement:

“We will surely come against them with forces.” [al-Naml 37]

One could say, “We will surely come against them among forces,” if the speaker himself were going among those forces, for they would then surround him. Such a meaning is expressed by fī. But if he sends the forces without going himself, one cannot say, “We will surely come against them among forces”; rather, one says, “We will surely come against them with forces.” This is a familiar feature of the language, known to scholars of Arabic generally.

Accordingly, this interpretation distorts not only the hadith but also the Quran. For His statement, Most High:

“Are they waiting for anything but that Allah should come to them in canopies of clouds?” [al-Baqarah 210]

cannot mean that He sends those canopies without Himself coming, as explained above.