The meaning of Allaah’s ma’iyyah (Allaah’s being “with” someone)

With regards to the ma’iyyah of Allaah (Allaah’s being “with” someone), Shaykh Muhammad ibn Saalih al ‘Uthaymeen rahimahullaah states:

The ma’iyyah is divided into two types: that which is general and that which is specific.

And the specific is (sub) divided into two types: that which is restricted to a person and that which is restricted to a description.

As for the general, then this includes everyone – from the believer and the disbeliever, the righteous one and the wicked one. And the proof for it is His statement, He the Most High:

All that is in the heavens and the earth proclaims Allah’s purity, and He is the Mighty, the Wise. (1) To Him belongs the Kingdom of the heavens and the earth. He gives life and brings death, and He is Powerful to do any thing. (2) He is the First and the Last, and the Manifest and the Hidden, ¹ and He is All-Knowing about every thing. (3) He is the One who created the heavens and the earth in six days, then He positioned Himself on the Throne. He knows whatever goes into the earth and whatever comes out from it, and whatever descends from the sky, and whatever ascends thereto. He is with you wherever you are, and Allah is watchful of whatever you do. (4) [Soorah al Hadeed (57) aayah 4]

As for the specific (type) restricted to a description: then an example is His statement, He the Most High:

Surely, Allah is with those who fear Him and those who are good in their deeds. (128) [Soorah an Nahl (16) aayah 128]

As for the specific (type) restricted to a particular person: then an example is His statement, He the Most High, about His Prophet صلى الله عليه وسلم :

When he صلى الله عليه وسلم said to his companion Aboo Bakr (Allah be pleased with him), “Do not grieve; indeed Allaah is with us. "If you do not help him, (it makes no difference to the Prophet, because) Allah has already helped him when the disbelievers expelled him, and he was the second of the two, when they were in the cave, and he was saying to his companion, “Do not grieve. Allah is surely with us.” ¹⁵ So, Allah caused His tranquility to descend on him, and supported him with troops that you did not see, and rendered the word of the disbelievers humiliated. And the word of Allah is the uppermost. Allah is Mighty, Wise. (40) (QS. Tawbah 9 : 40)

And He said to Moosaa and Haaroon:

He said, “Do not be afraid. I AM surely with you both. I hear and I see. (46) (QS. TaaHaa (20) : 46)

And this (ma’iyyah restricted to a person) is more specific than that which is restricted to a description.

So the ma’iyyah is of levels: that which is general and unrestricted, and that which is specific and restricted to a description and that which is specific and restricted to a person.

So the most specific of the types of ma’iyyah is that which is restricted to a person, then that which is restricted to a description, then that which is general.

The ma’iyyah which is general necessitates (Allaah’s) encompassing the creation with knowledge and ability and hearing and seeing and authority, and other than that from the meanings of His Ruboobiyyah.

And the ma’iyyah which is specific, with its two types, necessitates (along) with that nasr (aiding) and ta-yeed (giving support).

(Sharh of waasitiyyah of Shaykh Muhammad ibn Saalih al ‘Uthaymeen rahimahullaah , quoted in Mu’jam at Ta’reefaat p387, translated by Nasser ibn Najam)

http://qalaallah.wordpress.com/2014/04/17/the-meaning-of-allaahs-maiyyah-shaykh-muhammad-ibn-saalih-al-uthaymeen/