and exegesis, irrespective of their respective schools, who cited it as evidence in any branch of the Sharia; for one cites as evidence only what one considers authentic. This includes Imam Malik in al-Muwatta’ (3/5–6), al-Shafi‘i in al-Umm (5/266), Ahmad in Masa’il ‘Abd Allah (101/363) and Masa’il Salih (3/74/1374), al-Tahawi in Sharh al-Ma‘ani (1/258), Ibn ‘Abd al-Barr in al-Isti‘ab, Ibn al-Jawzi in Daf‘ Shubah al-Tashbih, al-Nawawi in al-Majmu‘, Ibn al-Wazir in al-‘Awasim wa al-Qawasim (1/379–380), and many, many others—far too numerous to enumerate. Among them are even some innovators known for their hostility toward Ahl al-Sunnah. Several treatises have been written in refutation of them, including one by Shaykh al-Sabuni. For he followed al-Hafiz Ibn Kathir in citing this hadith as evidence, including it in two places (1/421 and 523) in his abridgement, in which he stipulated that he would include only authentic hadiths.

As for the extremist innovators and the Jahmites of this age, some of them have openly declared this hadith weak and denied the authenticity of the Prophet’s words, “Where is Allah?” and of the slave-girl’s reply, “In heaven.” Foremost among them are Shaykh al-Kawthari and his imitators. I had already refuted him in my book Mukhtasar al-‘Uluww (p. 82), in a manner that makes it unnecessary to repeat it here. That refutation concerned only this hadith of Mu‘awiyah, before I was enabled to compile the corroborating reports mentioned above from Abu Hurayrah, Abu Juhayfah, and Ibn ‘Abbas. Then some brethren drew my attention to a fifth hadith, narrated by Ibn Shahin with his chain of transmission from ‘Ukashah al-Ghanawi, in Usd al-Ghabah and al-Isabah; its chain is good.

I then found in Ibn Hajar’s Talkhis (3/223) a sixth hadith from Yahya ibn ‘Abd al-Rahman ibn Hatib—the trustworthy narrator—reported as mursal. Abu Ahmad al-‘Assal narrated it in al-Sunnah by way of Usamah ibn Zayd. Both hadiths contain: “Where is Allah?” She replied, “In heaven.”