They went on to say, “How can He say, ‘Indeed, I am with you both,’ while in another verse He says, ‘Indeed, We are with you, listening’?”—and for that reason they cast doubt upon the Quran1.
As for His words, “Indeed, We are with you,” this is a figurative usage in Arabic2: a man may say to another, “We will provide for your sustenance, we will do such-and-such for you.”
And as for His words, “Indeed, I am with you both; I hear and I see,” that too is acceptable in the language: a single person may say to another, “I will grant you provision,” or “I will do good to you.”3
Imam Ahmad—may Allah have mercy on him—said, “In the same way, Jahm4 and his followers lured people to the ambiguous passages5 of the Quran and the hadith; they themselves went astray and led others astray with their speech.”
(1) Shaykh al-Shanqiti (may Allah have mercy on him) comments on the divine statement: "qala kallā fa-idhhabā bi-āyātinā innā maʿakum mustamiʿūn" (al-Shuʿarāʾ, 15); he explains that the plural form "innā maʿakum mustamiʿūn" is employed as a mark of majesty.
(2) See: al-Shanqiti, Manʿ Jawāz al-Majāz fī al-Munazzal li-l-Taʿabbud wa-l-Iʿjāz, appendix to Aḍwāʾ al-Bayān, vol. 10, pp. 237–265.
(3) See: al-Tabari, Tafsīr, 16/170 and 19/65; Ibn Kathir, Tafsīr, 3/164 and 3/347.
(4) Al-Jahm is Ibn Ṣafwān al-Rāsibī, Abū Maḥraz. Al-Dhahabi writes: “Abū Maḥraz al-Samarkandi, a deviant innovator, head of the Jahmiyya; he perished while the younger successors (al-tābiʿūn) were still alive. I do not know of him transmitting anything, yet he sowed immense evil.” (Mīzān al-Iʿtidāl, 1/426, no. 1584).
(5) ʿUmar b. al-Khaṭṭāb (may Allah be pleased with him) said: “People will come to you arguing with the ambiguous parts of the Quran; counter them with the sunnahs, for the people of the sunnahs know Allah’s Book better.” Reported by al-Dārimī, no. 121; Ibn Baṭṭa, al-Ibāna al-Kubrā, nos. 62–63; and al-Lālakāʾī, no. 203. The expression “ambiguous parts of the Quran” refers to the mutashābih, as opposed to the muḥkam. Compare the hadith of ʿĀʾisha: “When you see those who pursue what is ambiguous of it, they are the ones Allah has named, so beware of them,” recorded by Muslim, no. 2665.