Yousuf Raza – Quran Daily Surah alFatiha Rabb
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Alright people, Assalamualaikum and hello to all of
those watching.
This is Yusuf Reza.
This is Let's Grow Qur'an Daily.
We're moving on in Surah Al-Fatiha with
Rabbil Alameen.
In fact, we're not going to talk about
the entire phrase today.
Today, we're just going to focus on Rabb.
So Alhamdulillah Rabbil Alameen.
We spoke about Alhamdulillah in considerable detail.
Now we're going to move on to the
understanding of the word Rabb.
And typically, as has been popularized, the understanding
of Rabb has become that of a master.
So when you conceive of a human being
and Allah, Allah's relationship, it becomes that of
a master-slave relationship.
I have issues with that.
I have serious issues with that because the
popular understanding that you're putting out to the
world is the very recent understanding of what
masters were and what slaves were.
And even when we do go on to
elaborate and justify religiously why this relationship is
the relationship, the only defining relationship that we
need to understand, our relationship with Allah is
when we go ahead and say that, oh
look at Bilal's relationship with his master.
How in pre-Islamic Arabia, a slave was
the property of his master and the master
could do with the slave whatever they wanted
to and nobody could question them.
And that's practically what it is and how
it is supposed to be understood in this
day and age with respect to our understanding
or our relationship with Allah.
This kind of dictatorial, tyrannical, slave driver kind
of an understanding is incredibly dangerous with respect
to how and incredibly inadequate with respect to
how the Quran represents Allah as the loving,
caring being that he is.
Right?
So to reduce the understanding of Rabb to
just master is problematic at multiple levels.
It would be very difficult for me to
develop a personal relationship with him considering for
him to be a pharaoh, like a Fir
'aun, like a creator, a ruler like that.
So that's not something incredibly beneficial, let's say.
So what we have to conceive of and
if we have to use that master-slave
analogy, then I think the best representation of
that is the relationship that Muhammad Rasulullah sallallahu
alayhi wa sallam had with Zaid bin Haritha,
that he was given to him as was
customary in that particular society 14 centuries ago.
He owned him as a slave.
But the Messenger sallallahu alayhi wa sallam, even
before the beginning of prophethood, did not treat
Zaid the way slaves would typically be treated
there.
So he has one and that is customary
to have one.
Khadijah radhiyallahu ta'ala had gifted him one.
But he never gains to the level of
treating him the way that everyone else treats
their slaves, to the point that Zaid had
been, there's a whole history to it, which
you find in the books of Sira, as
to how Zaid had been kidnapped by his
own family, by his mother's side of the
family to get back at his father's side
of the family, there was like some kind
of tribal warfare going around, sold as a
slave, eventually ends up in the household of
Rasulullah sallallahu alayhi wa sallam.
So the Messenger sallallahu alayhi wa sallam takes
care of him and that's something you do
not expect for a master to be taking
care of a slave.
And of course the slave that he was
supposedly performs his duties and responsibilities as well.
Now there comes a time where his uncle
and his father, I'm talking about Zaid, Zaid's
uncle and father come to know of where
he is and they come back to purchase
him because even they understand that they're bound
by that social law to purchase even though
he is their son, they want to buy
him back.
And when they come, the Messenger sallallahu alayhi
wa sallam completely refuses and says, no, there's
no buying and selling going on.
If he wants to go, he's free to
go.
He's your son, right?
It's his choice.
And this is the critical matter here.
This is where this relationship ideally represents for
us what we need to understand of Allah's
relationship with us as human beings and the
choice that Zaid freely makes at this particular
juncture where he says, no, I am not
going back with my own father and my
own uncle.
I am going to stay with Muhammad ibn
Abdullah.
And he's not even Muhammadur Rasulullah at that
point.
His character, the way with which he carries
himself in relationship to someone who is in
complete ownership, that he has complete ownership over
according to the social laws, it is so
immaculate.
It is so incredibly inspirational that Zaid himself
says, no, I am not, I don't want
freedom.
I want to stay with him.
And responding to that, Rasulullah sallallahu alayhi wa
sallam says that from this day onward, Zaid
is no longer my slave.
He is my adopted son.
And there's an entire story as to what
goes on as to how the Quran doesn't
allow for this adoption at a legal level,
at least.
To take place that you can't give them
your names.
The rest of the treatment may be the
same.
Of course, they're not going to be legal
inheritors unless you choose to do that.
But that's a different discussion to be had
when we get to that part in Surah
Ahzab.
But the idea being here, the choice that
Zaid makes freely to remain with Rasulullah sallallahu
alayhi wa sallam because of the treatment that
Rasulullah gives him, that of love, that of
nurturing, that of care.
Yes, that involves Zaid fulfilling certain responsibilities.
But from this day onward, especially after this
father and uncle incident has taken place, it
is going to be completely of his own
free choice.
That's the kind of understanding of Allah's relationship
with us is what we're supposed to nurture
within ourselves.
So when we talk about Allah as Rab,
yes, he is owner.
Yes, he is master.
But the kind of loving and caring that
you would see the Messenger sallallahu alayhi wa
sallam embody in his own attributes, in his
own behavior, which is perhaps one of the
reasons why his character, his khuluq, his personality
became that personality that that revolutionized humanity for
as we know it ethically.
Right.
So that's what we understand of Allah's being
Rab of Alameen.
And we're going to talk about that more
in detail.
But just very, very briefly, it is a
nurturing relationship.
It is a relationship of love and care,
where the Rab looks to bring whatever is,
whatever comes, whatever is encompassed in their Raboobiya,
to become the best version of themselves.
That's what the Rab, understanding of Rab would
be that the Rab, their concern and love
for each other.
Their love for all of their Ibad, all
of what falls in their control, so to
speak.
And that would necessarily entail, yes, controlling, but
also letting go.
Controlling and channeling and directing in the right
directions, forcibly even at times.
But not the kind of forcibly you would
imagine slaves who are chained and being forced
like cattle.
No, but the kind of forcibly the way
you handle children, you're carrying them, you're strolling
them, right, you're canoodling them, you're holding their
finger and taking them.
That kind of control.
And then letting go, as in when you
let a child go, with respect to letting
them know how to learn to walk.
Because if you keep holding on, that's not
going to happen.
So that kind of a nurturing relationship, that
true embodiment of love, right, to the extent
that the love of the Rab, and love
is very integrally part of the understanding of
what a Rab is.
That love leads you, inspires you to love
him back.
And what would loving him back entail?
And we'll talk about that.
It is to become what he wants you
to become after he has let you go.
After he has given you your freedom to
make your choice to choose to come back
to him freely, looking to do what he
would want for you to do.
And then he would honor what you want
for yourself as well.
He would honor and respect your will at
that level of when you return to him.
So really, these are stages of our relationship
with Allah Subhanahu wa ta'ala.
And this is real love.
This is real love in a divine context,
right?
And in any loving relationship between human beings,
interpersonal relationship, whether it is a father-child
relationship, husband-wife relationship, brother-sister relationship, whatever
relationships, even between friends, whatever relationship you can
conceive of, if it is to really embody
love within itself, then it has to embody
within itself this understanding of nurturing the other
person, of leading them to become the best
versions of themselves, acknowledging them for who they
are and who they can be.
And incidentally, this happens to be the definition
of love that Viktor Frankl gives, that love
is to acknowledge the other person for who
they are and for who they can be.
And in this acknowledgement, you will accept them
and you will facilitate them in becoming who
they can be.
And that's Rab to you.
And in living that love interpersonally in a
human-to-human relationship, we are embodying a
divine characteristic, a sunnah of Allah Subhanahu wa
ta'ala, which we see Rasulullah Sallallahu Alaihi
Wasallam embodying even before the onset of prophethood
with respect to his relationship with Zaid Radhi
Allahu Ta'ala Anhum.
And with that understanding being relived in every
rak'ah of prayer when we recite Fatiha,
it is the filling of your emotional need
of love that is so desperately needed for
everyone.
And you have a real source to turn
to, to reiterate to yourself, to remind yourself
of every time that you pray.
So with that, we end today's reminder and
insights.
Jazakumullahu khayran for watching.