Transcription
Oh Professor, I didn't want to do this, Mama! Network, network! Mama, Mama! Network! What happened, Mama? Nothing happened, Mama. Nothing happened... Mama, nothing happened, just the network! Calm down, calm down, it's a network thing. It's a network thing. Mama, can you hear me? Calm down, calm down, my dear. Mama! Nothing happened, Mama. Mama, Mama! Mama! Mama, can you hear me? Mama can't hear you, Mama! You are the reason, by God, you are the reason! You, you are the reason, by God, you are the reason! Oh God, Mama! Mama! Stop the car, stop! Stop the car! What's the matter with you? I'm the reason for what? For taking you out of the ruin you were living in and building your future? I left my job, which is the most important thing in my life, for you and your mother! No one asked you for this, people? Nor do I want you? Come back! Come! Adam! Where are you going? Come! Adam! Adam! Do you ever want to talk to your mother again or you want to run away? Good boy. A hero. Yes, a hero, but at least I don't abandon my family to become like foreigners, or do you not understand me, should I say it in English? No, my dear, your mother and I will sit and wait for a shell to come and take us. What's wrong with you? What do you mean? What, what do you mean? What do you mean? What, what do you mean by talking like this? Calm down, calm down. What do you mean by talking to me like this? It's our signal. What is this? What is this? The problem was from us. It's our signal. I didn't mean it. I know you're afraid for her. By God, me too. But believe me, your mother is different from everyone. Your mother is the most optimistic person I've ever seen in my life. When we were young, she didn't see war as a curse. And strangely, she... she was right. And I am proof of that. The war was my chance to... become something. Your mother is giving you a huge chance. But you have to accept that you can't be a child anymore. This country will allow you to dream for once in your life. And if you work hard for it, that dream can come true. Your mother saved my life once. She's just trying to save yours. You don't only want to be His friend. You want to belong to Him. Because friendship brings comfort, but servitude brings purpose. And servitude to Allah is not humiliation. It's actually the purest kind of honor. Allah is Ar-Rabb, the Master who raises. If you look at the Qur'an, it begins with "Praise be to Allah, Lord of the worlds," and then it ends with "Say, I seek refuge in the Lord of the dawn" and "Say, I seek refuge in the Lord of mankind." From opening to closing, Allah frames your life through His Lordship. Everything starts with praise for the Rabb of the worlds, and then it ends by seeking refuge in the Rabb of every creation. He is the Lord of all that exists, Master of the world in the grandest sense. But He's also your personal Lord. And when Allah Subhanahu wa Ta'ala says, "Mention the mercy of your Lord to His slave Zakariyah," He didn't say "his Lord" or "their Lord," He said "your Lord," so that you wouldn't turn Him into a Lord of the past who only was close to a select few in history. Throughout the Qur'an, the supplications that you hear are "my Lord" and "our Lord." Notice you don't hear "my god" because the worshipper seeks a god, but the beloved servant longs for his Rabb. He is the Rabb of all places and all times and of you throughout your entire existence. And the Day of Judgment will either be a reunion with a loving Lord or the moment when false masters disown the followers who worship them and stand alone in front of a Lord that they ran away from. But as Ibn al-Qayyim Rahimahullah said, "Everything you fear in life, you run away from. But with Allah, you run to Him." "So flee to Allah," flee to Allah even if you fear Him. As the Prophet صلى الله عليه وسلم used to say, "O Allah, I seek refuge in Your pleasure from Your anger," "and in Your pardon from Your punishment." "and I seek refuge in You from You." This is the language of someone who knows that refuge is only found in the very one he fears to disappoint. The name Rabb means you don't have a cold master, but you have a loving Lord involved in your life, arranging your growth, helping you realize your bigger purpose, and giving meaning to every small act that you do. Rabb carries the meaning of nurturing, which is to nurture something, to grow something, and to bring something to its potential. And the root of the verb refers to a farmer planting a plant. And think of that image of the farmer measuring the soil and then measuring the water and then shielding that plant from harsh wind and constantly giving it its nutrients and exposing it to sunlight so that it doesn't just survive, but it bears its maximum potential in terms of fruit. And then think of a nurturer who mentors you and who gives you the right advice that you need to refine your character. And then he checks on you, or she checks on you constantly to make sure that you're getting to where you need to be. Or a mentor who you invite to critique you so that you can be the best version of yourself. Think of a mother as a nurturer who calibrates the sleep and diet of the child and then teaches her child basic manners and letters and numbers and knows when to be firm and knows when to be soft, knows not to break the child, but to build the child. You see, your Rabb commands everything outside of you, from nature to the people around you to everything that goes inside of you as well. And then He grows you to your potential. And only He has that full command over you. So the Prophet ﷺ said, "Don't call anyone my slave, for all of you are the slaves of Allah." And let not the servant say 'my Lord' to anyone, but let him say 'my master,' which could mean my master or my leader. 'Mawla' and 'Sayyid' can describe people, especially the Prophet ﷺ, but 'Rabb' exclusively belongs to Allah ﷻ. And that's why when Salman al-Farisi radiyallahu ta'ala 'anhu was describing how he was sold from slave owner to slave owner before being freed by the Prophet صلى الله عليه وسلم, he said, "I went from master to master, from one master to another." And Abu Hurairah explained that he didn't yet know that we don't use that word for anyone but Allah because you're not slaves in the holistic sense of the word to anyone but He who is the only master in the true sense of the word. But the image of a master who has complete control over you shouldn't cause you despair or make you feel restricted. He's a loving Lord who wants to grow you, not break you. And He's a Lord who laughs when you think you have no one to save right before He actually does. The Prophet صلى الله عليه وسلم said, "Our Lord laughs at the despair of His servants while relief is near." And the Prophet صلى الله عليه وسلم was asked, "Wait a minute, does the Lord laugh?" And the Prophet صلى الله عليه وسلم said, "Yes." And the man replied, "Then how can we be deprived of goodness by a Lord who laughs?" Now someone might think, why would Allah laugh at the despair of the servant? To Allah belongs the highest example. But I want you to imagine a child walking in the mall who loses sight of his mother. In that instant, his whole world crashes and he cries uncontrollably as if he can't breathe. Then his mother appears laughing softly, not in mockery, but in mercy, almost to say, "Did you really think that I was going to leave you? I'm right here." We're that child. We despair when we can't see our Lord's plan at times, though He never leaves us. And to Allah belongs the highest example. So He laughs not to mock you, but because you don't know what mercy awaits you. He's a different type of Master. And servitude to Him is of the type that liberates you. And that's why Rabi' ibn 'Amir radiyallahu ta'ala 'anhu, when he entered into the palace of Rustam, he says in the face of that pompous ruler, "We are a people who were sent to take people from being slaves to other slaves to being slaves to the Lord of all slaves." "And from the suffocation of this world to the vastness of this life and the next." "And from the oppression of all other ways to the justice of Islam." Slavery to Allah is freedom from everything else. And that's why Allah says, even the Messiah and the angels nearest to Allah are not too proud to be His slaves, to be His slaves. And every time you testify, "I bear witness that Muhammad صلى الله عليه وسلم is His slave and messenger," you're not insulting the Prophet صلى الله عليه وسلم, you're actually praising him. And when you trust His care as your Lord, He protects you from all other than Him. Hence the name Mawla, the Master who's on our side. Now the word Mawla can be applied to many different people. As Ibn al-Athir Rahimahullah mentions, it can refer to the Lord, to an ally, the lover, the freed slave, and so many more categories. But with Allah Subhanahu wa Ta'ala, it has a very specific connotation. Mawla is close in meaning to Wali, but it usually appears in contrast to those who have no other protector. So when Allah Subhanahu wa Ta'ala says, "that is because Allah is the protector of those who believe, while the disbelievers have no protector." At Uhud, do you remember when Umar radiyallahu ta'ala 'anhu, replied to Abu Sufyan after the battle and he said, "Allah is our Mawla and you have no Mawla." And this is what the people of Gaza have been saying to their enemies all along. The Mawla is the one who is exclusively on the side of the believers. "You are our protector. So grant us victory over a disbelieving people." So think of it this way. When you need help, you look first to whoever is closest and most capable. The Mawla says, "I've got you in a way that no one else can." So when Az-Zubayr, radiyallahu 'anhu, was dying and he feared these massive debts he'd leave behind, he told his son Abdullah, "To pay off as much as you can. And if you struggle to pay off what I owe, seek help from my Mawla." So Abdullah said, "By Allah, I could not understand what he meant until I asked him, 'O my father, who is your Mawla?' And he said, 'Allah is my Mawla.'" So he said, "After he died, whenever I struggled to pay his debts, I would make this supplication and I would say, 'O Master of Az-Zubayr, pay his debts on his behalf.' And Allah would open a new door for me." And it got to the point where so much money came back to his estate that where he died leaving nothing, his estate was full of wealth."What an excellent protector He is and what an excellent helper He is," which takes us to this name. When you find comfort in Him being on your side, He shows you His power to help. Allah is An-Naseer, the helper who loves to aid you. Now what's the difference between Mawla and Naseer? Because they come right next to each other and they seem very similar. Think of Al-Mawla as the one who is with you even in defeat and An-Naseer as the one who guarantees you victory at the end. An-Naseer speaks to decisive outcomes and promised victory. And when an oppressed person calls out, Allah Subhanahu wa Ta'ala answers, "I swear I will deliver for you even after some time." But He is Al-Mawla with you throughout that process, An-Naseer to give you the promised outcome. So does Allah Subhanahu wa Ta'ala give victory only to those whom He loves? Sometimes Allah gives victory because of a circumstance, not because of the person. So for example, when the Prophet صلى الله عليه وسلم, says, the prayer of the oppressed, has no barrier between it and Allah, even if the one making the prayer is a disbeliever. Allah Subhanahu wa Ta'ala is not granting victory to that person because He loves them, but because He hates injustice. But when He is both your Mawla and your Naseer, His help comes to you both from His love as well as His sense of justice. So think of when Nuh (AS) said, "O my Lord, I am overpowered. So help me." And help came in forms he never imagined. Sometimes Allah Subhanahu wa Ta'ala changes the world around you and sometimes He changes you from within. But His help always arrives in the way that saves you best. And when you're obeying your Rabb and you're loving your Mawla and you're trusting your Naseer, you submit to His perfect authority and you see others as legitimate only to the extent that He recognizes them. And that's when you know Him as As-Sayyid, the Master of all masters. Now a Sayyid could also be a person. And unlike Mawla, which has many connotations in the human sense, Sayyid always comes with some connotation of leadership or honor. We call the Prophet صلى الله عليه وسلم, our Sayyid Muhammad. Umar (RA) said, "Abu Bakr is our Sayyid and he freed our Sayyid," meaning Bilal. And the Prophet (SAW) held Al-Hasan (RA), and he said, "This son of mine is a Sayyid." Yet interestingly enough, even with the Prophet صلى الله عليه وسلم, when a delegation came to him and said, "You are our Sayyid," he said, "As-Sayyid, the Sayyid, is Allah Subhanahu wa Ta'ala," and he cautioned them, "Say what you will or part of it, but do not let Satan carry you beyond bounds." Now again, perhaps the Prophet صلى الله عليه وسلم, recognized that maybe they meant something beyond when they said that to him. Among people, Sayyid means leader, but for Allah it means unmatched mastery. Every leader leads only by the light that he lends. And every ruler rules only within His kingdom. Knowing that truth frees you from fearing people or wanting too much from them because you see that all commands ultimately returns to Him. Yahya ibn Mu'adh Rahimahullah said, "The slave estranges himself from his master through his own sin. Yet he never leaves his doorstep knowing that a slave's honor lies only in the shade of his master." Then he recited, "The coolness of my eyes, I cannot live without you, even though my slips have estranged me from you. The coolness of my eyes, I am the one that's drowning. So grasp the hand of a drowning man who depends only on you." Al-Muzani Rahimahullah used to say, "Who is like you, O child of Adam? Whenever you wish, you purify yourself and whisper to your Lord with no veil and no interpreter. But who is like you, O our Lord? You look at this slave of yours with a mercy and majesty that does not alienate, but only draws near." O Lord, "Raise me the way You raise every seed from the soil. Shape my growth with all You continue to give. Let every season You place me in become a lesson in Your care. O Mawla, be my protector when I have no one else to stand up for me. Take charge of my affairs when I lose control of them. Hold me near when fear surrounds me and make Your guardianship always enough for me. O Naseer, help me in every battle I cannot see. Grant me triumph without arrogance and victory only in a way that brings me closer to You. O Sayyid, teach my heart that true honor is to only serve You. Let my dignity be in humility, my leadership in obedience, and my freedom in surrender." And to Allah belong the most beautiful names, so call on Him by them.