Nouman Ali Khan – Master & Slaves – That’s Messed Up

			How are you? How's it going, man?
		

			I gotta tell you this question I got this week. So awesome. That comes up to me. He says, Why can't
Allah guarantee me a perfect life? a happy life? If he's in control of everything? Why does he have
to give me a hard life? Wow, that's right. So
		

			I was like, wow. And, you know, this was piling on my head because I talked to another young man
recently.
		

			And I was asking him about religion, he wasn't even Muslim.
		

			And he said, You know, when I was raised, I was raised in a pretty religious family, until I got to
college. And then I stopped kind of practicing religion has exploded, you have stopped practicing
religion, because why? Like, I look, I look at all these other different religions, but I don't
really subscribe to any one of them. And the reason for that was when I got to college, I realized,
man, I'm stressed out about an exam, and I'm praying, and I'm praying, and I'm praying, but I'm not
doing better on my tests. So I should have not been wasting my time praying, I should have been
like, spending my time studying for the test instead. So I realized that I don't need religion. I
		

			don't need God, I just need to do the right thing. And that's it. Right? So I've just become more,
you know, rational about it. And, you know, I don't think I need religion in my life. And a lot of
people feel that way. Right? And people who are on the verge of heading in that direction, say
things like, you know, and he says, when I used to have problems in my life, I used to say, Why are
you doing this to me, God, I wish I pray, I pray to you so much. I pray every single day I asked for
this, I do that I give charity, and all these rituals. And for Muslims, it could be five times
prayer for a Hindu could be going to the template or something else, right? So I do my part, why
		

			aren't you doing your part? You have the power to change everything in my life? Why am I still
having a hard time? Right? So it's this idea of this exchange I gave you Why aren't you giving me
this is not a good deal. Just similar to this guy who says Allah is in control of everything? Why
can he give me a perfect life? Right? Yeah. The problem with dislike, fundamentally from an Islamic
perspective, because I can't answer that from other religious perspectives. Yeah. Is that in Islam?
our fundamental relationship with Allah is a rub. Yeah, and,
		

			and Rob is Master, and slave, right? Now think about a master is you don't negotiate with a master.
		

			you negotiate with an employer, you can also negotiate with a partner, like a business partner. You
can negotiate with a family member, hey, I'm gonna come home at this time. Don't come at that time.
Okay, fine. No problem. There's negotiations. But when you have a master and a slave, who dictates
all the terms that the master does, and the slaves only position is to follow all those terms. Now,
the other thing about a master is that if he gives you something, it's a bonus. And if he doesn't
give you something he didn't have to, because you're not salaried. You're a slave. Yeah, slaves
aren't salaried. Right. And usually, when you think of masters, they're oppressive. And they're,
		

			yeah, you think of chains and like, you know, beatings and things like that. But that's human
masters. Allah is a different kind of master. Right? And this is the only kind of master like Fatiha
tells us that hamdulillahi Rabbil alameen wa Rahim Fatiha itself tells us this is the kind of master
that before you even know that he's your master, you know that he deserves praise and gratitude.
Like No Other master deserves praise and gratitude. Right off the bat, the first thing you think of
a master is something someone you should praise and someone you should be grateful for. The only
thing a slave would think is when can I get free of this guy, you know, but for a lie. All you have
		

			is praise and gratitude. Now, coming back to this idea of why isn't Allah giving me a perfect life?
		

			The question assumes that Allah owes you something,
		

			isn't it? Yeah. Okay. Your employer owes you something. Yeah. paycheck paycheck. Your business
partner owes you something your cut? Yeah. Your parents owe you something, they're responsible to
raise you, your children or you something, your wife or your husband, they owe you something. Allah
owes you nothing.
		

			He doesn't owe you anything.
		

			As a matter of fact, you owe him every breath.
		

			So when you phrase this question, I should have a perfect life.
		

			You've already kind of undercut the idea that Allah is your master and Uranus some sort of position
to make demands.
		

			Right? And when you take that away,
		

			it's an uncomfortable thing. I want God to be my friend. I want him to be someone who helps me like
I pray to him, you know? You want to dictate what these relationships what this relationship should
look like. You know, like any relationship friendships, there are different kinds of friendships,
right? Yep.
		

			So and some pizza friends I have, the way I talk to them is not the way I talk to some other friends
is different.
		

			So in every relationship, you can
		

			Figure out what's going to be the give and take. So some people figured they should figure out what
their relationship with God is going to be like, Yeah, right, this, they're gonna figure out well,
I'm gonna do this for him he better do this for me, etc. Right the give and take. It's pretty one
sided. It is. But the biggest problem with it is you're deciding what the terms are.
		

			Now that put it in perspective, who should decide what the terms are between you and the Supreme
Being?
		

			Probably the one that knows me, the one who knows everything. So is his terms override yours, like
what you have in mind is less relevant, what he dictates is far more relevant. Now, when I say that
it sounds harsh, but when you give his terms a chance. So this is the last part right? If you
actually study revelation, study Quran Koran is his terms. Here's what it means to be my slave,
isn't it?
		

			When you said you couldn't you find it's not a book of rules. It's not a book of do this. Or if you
don't do this, this is going to happen. That's going to happen actually very few rules. For the most
part, it's a relationship of loyalty, gratitude, love, friendship, remembrance, longing, like it's a
really beautiful relationship. This master wants me to be a slave who loves him, who's friends with
him who talks to him all the time, remembers him all the time. He says first colonias God called,
remember me, I'll remember you. Like, who's who talks like that, like, that doesn't sound like a
master. Right? So the Quran shatters your view of what it for what does Allah mean? As he's a
		

			master, he wants you to be or he wants to be your friend, he wants you to be his friend. But first,
understand that he's your master, then understand, he's your friend. He wants to be a giver of gifts
to you. But before he gives gifts to you, He wants you to understand he's your master. You're the
same any house wants to give gifts to you. He wants to show you love. He wants to show you mercy. He
wants to give you forgiveness. He wants to give you all this stuff. He wants to give you guidance,
he wants to give you wisdom, he wants to give you knowledge. He wants to teach you he wants to be
your teacher too. He wants all of these things, these relationships with you. It's not one
		

			relationship. It's lots of relationships. But at the at the helm of them all his master, and your
slave, which means no matter what happens in this relationship, your humility should never go away.
Because the idea of slavery is it's the most humble job description in existence, there is no more
humbled a job than slave. You can't get lower than that. If these questions don't they lack
humility. Because the smell of the reek of entitlement i want i want i want, you can still want, but
if you want as a slave is different than when you want as someone who's entitled. Right. Yeah, let's
not saying you can't ask. You can. But that's he will decide when to give and what to give, you
		

			know, so he knows about so you know, the answer to this question isn't actually in what Allah
decides to or not to do, but actually how we perceive ourselves. It's our perception where the
problem lies. And once you get that the problem is solved. You know, at the end of the day, or this
is probably one of the most fascinating things I ever learned about the people around the Prophet
Shannon who didn't believe the crash.
		

			If you were to ask them who made the skies in the earth, they will say Allah,
		

			in the Quran, Allah,
		

			Allah personality without leopoldina Allah, you were to ask them who created the skies in the earth,
they'll just say Allah.
		

			Like, they have no problem accepting a lot. So that was the problem. Ah, but they haven't they have
no problem accepting a lot as the creator.
		

			He made it fine. Good, he made it. But if you were to ask them what Rob was, somehow it will ask
them who the master is. Your silence. Denied request submission requires that I have to be a slave
because if I call the master that makes me slave that makes me humble.
		

			Like if you ask you, who do you think made this car? And you say Lexus did or you know Jaguar did or
somebody did? Fine, I can accept that they made it.
		

			Who is your boss?
		

			Who is your ultimate authority?
		

			Why don't you just take a step back here second, hold on a second. In a car. That's my car.
		

			So that's the that's the line that has to be crossed. When somebody enters into Islam. They have to
actually accept not only Allah as Rob, as Master, they also have to accept themselves as slave. I'll
see you next time.