MY LIFE PROJECT – WHO IS MY RABB?

In our way to Allah subhana wa ta'ala, we need this project to do whatever

Allah decrees and decides to reach to Allah inshallah.

We are taking all the ayats from the Quran to know our way for each part of

this project.

An important matter in the way to Allah is we need to know is who we are

exactly, our reality, what we are, and our history.

Allah displayed in front of us the covenant or al Amanah (trust) and all of

us carried the covenant, we can’t deny it.

In Surah Ahzab 33:72:

“We did indeed offer the Trust to the Heavens and the Earth and the

Mountains; but they refused to undertake it, being afraid thereof: but man

undertook it; - He was indeed unjust and foolish.”

The Amanah is `if you do good, you will be rewarded, and if you do evil, you

will be punished.’ So Adam took the Amanah and bore it, and this is what is

referred to in the Ayah:

But man bore it. Verily, he was unjust and ignorant.”

In the last sentence of verse 72: Surely, he was unjust (to himself) unaware

(of the end), the word: ‘Dhaluma’ means one who is unjust to himself,

wrongs himself, and ‘jahul’ means one who is ignorant, unaware of the end,

that is, so ignorant was man that he went ahead inflicting injustice upon

himself by accepting to carry such a big burden of responsibility, something

beyond his power.

Everybody wants to take themselves out of dhaluma and jahula!!!

How can we take the dhaluma and jahula ouside ourselves?

Man has these two characteristics and to remove these we need to ask

ourselves “Man Rabbuka?” We cannot take ourselves out of these, we

cannot do this; we need Allah subhana wa ta'ala,!!! When we know our

reality and who we are, we will know we really need Ar Rabb for this, the

Rabb meaning actions, He is the one taking care of us; we really need the

actions of our Rabb for this!!

The rububiyat talks of the actions as reforming and nurturing and we will

now look at the second place where Ar Rabb is mentioned in the Quran. The

more we will study Ar Rabb in the Quran the more we will know what the

actions of our Rabb are.

The second place where Ar Rabb is mentioned...

The second place in the Quran where the rububiyat is mentioned is

Surah baqarah Ayat 5 where Allah says:

بهم ن ر ئك على هدى م ئك هم المفلحونأول وأول

he successful.They are on (true) guidance from their Lord, and they are t

Here, in the beginning of the ayat, Allah mentions Olaa eeka: those (those)

ism ishara ba’eed, showing the exalted state, elevate the ranks of some

group of people.

Who are these Olaa eeka?

To know who are these people we need to look at the previous ayats.

Look at ayat number 2-4

2. This is the Book (the Qur'an), whereof there is no doubt, a guidance to

those who are Al-Muttaqun [the pious and righteous persons who fear Allah much (abstain from all kinds of sins and evil deeds which He has

forbidden) and love Allah much (perform all kinds of good deeds which He has ordained)].

3. Who believe in the Ghaib and perform As-Salat and spend out of what we have provided for them [i.e. give Zakat , spend on themselves, their parents, their children, their wives, etc., and also give charity to the poor and also in

Allah's Cause - Jihad, etc.].

4. And who believe in (the Qur'an and the Sunnah) which has been sent down (revealed) to you (Muhammad Peace be upon him) and in [the

Taurat (Torah) and the Injeel (Gospel), etc.] which were sent down before you and they believe with certainty in the Hereafter. (Resurrection,

recompense of their good and bad deeds, Paradise and Hell, etc.).

5. They are on (true) guidance from their Lord, and they are the successful.

From ayat 2 we understand who those people Allah is referring to are -

Dhalika kitabu la raiba fihi huda lil mutaqeen. It is the mutaqeen!!!

Our job in life is to make taqwa, to be within the boundaries, to follow

Allah’s rules and refrain from sins.

Who are these mutaqeen in Surah Baqarah?

They are the ones with several characteristics.

From Ayat 3:

1) al mutaqeen yuk minima bil gaib – they believe in the unseen

2)Yu ki muna salat –they establish the prayer

3)mim ma zrazaqrqna yun fiqun – they will spend from whatever Allah gave

them.

Gaib

1) al iman bil Quran -They believe in what is revealed to them;

and – al iman bil kutub - what was revealed before them.

This is a type of gaib - belief in Quran and the books

2) Al yaqeen bil youm il akhirat -Belief in the day of Judgement.

Al Mutaqeen

Those al mutaqeen whom Allah refers to with olee eeka are those who

believe in the gaib, establish prayer and give zakat, and from the gaib, they

have to believe in the Quran, the other books given to the other Prophets

and the day of judgement.

Olee eeka alah hudan min Raabi him

We have mentioned all these characteristics in order to realise the

importance of the actions of Allah, to explain Olee eeka and understand

about the mutaqeen, and now when we go back to the ayat number 5, it is

mentioned Olee eeka alah hudan min Raabi him. So now this is about the

Rabbi Him. Olee eeka –this means those who have all the three

characteristics, they are the mutaqeen and are on ala hudan!!!

What does this mean? They have actually been guided, that is, to be on top

of the guidance!!!

Those people who have all these three characteristics of the mutaqeen have

actually been guided. The people who are mutaqeen are the ones who are

guided in this life – ala hudan. This is a characteristic of the mutaqeen and

this is what will cause them to have great guidance – hidayaat adheem and

real guidance - hidayaat al haqiqiya.

Do you want the guidance?

We all want the guidance. What kind of guidance do we need? We need

hidayaat al hiqiqiya , the real guidance which consists of two parts:

1) Hidayaat al bayaan – which is knowledge. We need a manual to base our

life on and which will enable us to reach paradise. We cannot reach without

this, we would be guided.

2) Hidayaat al toufeeq -The guidance of the actions.

We can have knowledge, but this is not complete guidance. To act upon this

(knowledge) is complete guidance. Both of these together are hudan – the

real guidance!!!

How can we have real guidance?

We can have complete guidance, the real guidance, all of these

characteristics with taqwa!!!

If we look at the ayat - to be mutaqeen, to have the three characteristics we

need to have taqwa and then we will have a complete guidance - hudan!!!

That is why within the characteristics there are some things related to the

heart – the belief and some things related to the limbs. They believe in their

hearts and it shows in their actions. So if we want guidance, lazim we need

taqwa. We cannot have guidance without taqwa!!!

How can we attain taqwa?

From the ayat:

Olee eeka hudan –we need the taqwa and the guidance from min Rabii

him!!! We cannot do this alone!!!

The guidance and taqwa we need and want is actually a reforming and

nurturing from our Rabb –Allah!!! No one can say they can atain taqwa on

their own or do this on their own or reach to the guidance. Actually it is

All Hudan Min rabbi him -It is exclusively from our Rabb, a total special

nurturing and reforming in order that we attain the taqwa and we get the

complete guidance. This is one of the actions of Allah.

Who will take care of us?

We all took a covenant/pledge with our Rabb and this is a big responsibility

on us. It is a responsibility to not wrong ourselves and to reach paradise.

We cannot reach paradise without guidance and we don’t want to be

dhalim and jaahil. Who is the one who will guide us, who will take care of

us? It is our Rabb!!! He is the One who takes care of us, our lives. That is

why the Rububiyaat is about the actions of Allah, it is not our actions. Allah

is the One who guides, it is Allah who bade us to believe in the gaib by

showing us what the gaib, through the ayats in the Quran, is, Allah is the

One who gave us the knowledge, Allah is the One who is showing us to

establish prayer, giving zakat. It is all a nurturing from our Rabb –Allah.

It is all min Rabii him –all actions of our Rabb.

Min Rabii him

From Min Rabii Him we find:

1)Khaliqum al mudabbir li umurihim - These are the actions of Allah. He is

the Creator – He will take care of us, He is the Creator - He will dispose of

all the affairs. One if the most important and biggest affair is to be guided to

reach paradise and to gain taqwa. Taqwa is like a boat taking us to

paradise. Who will give all of this, who disposes our affairs, to go to

paradise, get taqwa, who makes it all happen? Our Rabb!!! Knowing His

actions will make us attach to our Rabb. Look at His actions!!! Even to gain

guidance, attain paradise, it is all His actions.

2) Tarbiya Khaasa - Sometimes the guidance comes in such an amazing

way, a dream, from a book, advice or something which someone says or

just like that, because it is the way our Rabb reforms and nurtures us. This

is a special nurturing – tarbiya khaasa – anything related to the akhiraat is

called this.

All Insaan are burdened and heavy with the amana, if we want to take

ourselves out of dhaluma and jhaliliya, we need our Rabb to reform us,

guide us, purify us and nurture us in order that we get the taqwa and

guidance. We cannot get the guidance and taqwa until Allah reforms us.

How does Allah reform us?

Allah reforms us by disposing the affairs to make it happen – He takes care

of our guidance. Every good characteristic, any good attribute and

manners, anything we want to achieve in life - the success generally, we

cannot be guided to the success without the reforming and nurturing of

Allah. Allah is actually elevating us by reforming us. When we go through a

decree of Allah and Allah specially reforms us is known as bil aqdaar

(decree of Allah).

Types of Nurturing

Whatever decree we go through is special to us, everybody will go through

different situations and circumstances – It is just the way Allah nurtures

and reforms us and is suited to us. If we like advice, the reforming is

through advice and vice versa. The decree of Allah is a way of reforming us

and when we know this we will be pleased with our Rabb and then Allah

will reform us. No one will go to paradise by reforming themselves. We

need reforming from Allah but it needs us to observe, understand and

accept that this is a reforming/nurturing from our Rabb, upgrading we will

be pleased that Allah is our Rabb.

That's why in morning and evening adhkar we say:

نا سالم دي اال ا وب هلل رب ا يت ب ض ر

محمد لى وب ص هللا يه ل لم ع س يا و ب سول ن ور

I’ve accepted Allah as my Lord and Islam as my way of life

And Muhammad – may Allah’s peace & blessings be upon him

As Allah’s Prophet and Messenger

This is Man Rabbuka!!! Our Rabb knows the way to reform us. The

nurturing from Allah is so amazing but human beings most of the time

don’t realise this is a nurturing. So when we accept it, we will benefit from

the tarbiya, it will help us to be better. If we reject it and complain it there

is no solution. So don’t think about the other side, everyone is responsible

for themselves and we don’t want to carry the burden for anyone else. So

every situation is a reforming for us. For guidance and success we need the

reforming only from our Rabb– olee eeka ala hudan min rabii him and

then...

Wa ulaika hum ul mufliho’on

They are the ones who are the real successful ones – the mufliho’on – they

are the ones who get that success. They are successful because of their

acceptance. Allah’s actions, nurturing is all for our betterment, for our

reforming. So what is our duty?

To accept the nurturing!!!

The mufliho’on accepts all the nurturing. If we accept in our hearts it will

nurture and reform us beyond our imaginations. We can’t estimate or

imagine Allah and His nurturing is beyond our imagination. So all we need

to do is accept Allah as our Lord in our heart and be pleased with Allah as

your Lord. This is an action of the heart, and Allah will appreciate our little

action of the heart and then He subhana wa ta'ala will cause us to really

change from outside and make us reach real success.

al kabool wal Rida

He is the one who has power over your actions, and guidance is in His

hands, all we have to do is accept and be pleased -al kabool wa Rida.

Man rabbuka from this ayat

As a definition of man rubbika what we learn from this ayat is at –tareq.

It is our Lord who guides us to the way to success – at-tareq ilal falah uby

giving us tarbiya khaasa till we reach the success – nasl al falah

What this ayat teaches us is:

1) Who our Rabb is,

2) We need to accept our lord

3) and be pleased with our Lord!!!

4) And He will guide us to the real success

Every ayat gives us a different way in which to look as our Rabb!!

Here: Our Rabb is the one who guides and reforms, not us. It is only Our

Rabb who nurtures us and takes us to paradise but we need to accept and

the guidance will come.