Servants of the Most Merciful
1 / 10
Episode 1: The Benefits of Being Called Servants of the Most Merciful
What is the significance of being called the servants of the Most Merciful? Sh. Omar Suleiman kicks off the first late night reflection in this special 10 day series.
Graphic Notes
Transcript
This transcript was auto-generated using AI and may contain misspellings. Allahumma salli wa sallam wa baraka al abdika wa rasulika Muhammadin salallahu alayhi wa sallam wa ala alihi wa sahbihi wa sallim tasliman kathira. So I figured for this series, inshaAllah ta'ala, I'm kind of sick of sitting at my desk. And I think you guys are probably sick of seeing me at my desk too. So I figured I'd just sit on the floor and talk from here inshaAllah ta'ala, just reflect the way that we would in the last 10 nights in the masjid where we'd all kind of gather around and then we'd have our late night reflections. So I didn't bother making it pretty. I just decided I'll just sit on the floor and just literally move everything down here. So I hope you all don't mind inshaAllah ta'ala a little bit of a change. But this is something I'm looking forward to. And my recommendation to you inshaAllah ta'ala would be to situate this, you know, 20 minutes every night just between your prayers inshaAllah ta'ala. So I'm going to try to keep myself to a short, you know, 15, 20, 25 minutes max per night inshaAllah ta'ala and just reflect on these traits. So we get to ibadur rahman, the servants of the most merciful, the worshippers of the most merciful, and what the qualities of the servants of the most merciful are. And this is one of the most beautiful portions of the Qur'an that sort of described a manual for how the believer is to live their lives. And it encompasses multiple elements and encompasses dimensions of worship, dimensions of family life, dimensions of character, dimensions of community. Everything from how you would deal with prayer at night, qiyam al-layl, in the corner of your room, to how you would deal with testimony in a courtroom, to how you would deal with someone mocking you or someone being rude to you as you're driving. Everything is really encompassed in these verses, and it's very beautiful for that reason.
However, I wanted to actually start off with something that I feel like people gloss over when they're doing the tafsir of these verses. So there are 11 or 12 qualities in total that are mentioned here inshaAllah ta'ala, which we'll cover over the next 10 nights. But, you know, typically what ends up happening is, وَعِبَادُ الرَّحْمَٰنَ الَّذِينَ يَمْشُونَ فِي الْأَرْضِ هَوْنَا وَإِذَا خَطَابَهُمْ الْجَاهِدُونَ قَالُوا سَلَامًا People will start with verse 63, and they will glance over the fact that Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala calls these people ibadur-rahman. So what is the significance of being called the servants of the most merciful? And so even when you read the classical tafsir, you'll almost immediately get into الَّذِينَ يَمْشُونَ فِي الْأَرْضِ هَوْنَا Those who walk humbly on the earth, or على الأرض هَوْنَا Those who walk humbly on the earth, and what that means, right? So I want to start with ibadur-rahman, just this concept of being called ibadur-rahman and what that actually means. So all of us, of course, by birth, by virtue of our existence, are the ibad of Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala. We're the slaves of Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala. And whether we are conscious or not, you know, we are in that slavery and obedience to Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala. But obviously, there are those that willingly embrace the position of servitude to Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala and exert themselves to their Lord in demonstrating to him the way that they want to be in accordance with how he wants them to be. And so ibadur-rahman are the people that are mentioned here. And of course, previous surah, surah al-mu'minoon, the first part of surah al-mu'minoon matches up. The first few ayat of surah al-mu'minoon, the description of the believers there matches up with the last part of surah al-furqan here. And they're in the same chapter of the Quran.
So what are the characteristics and how is it that Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala classifies us as ibadur-rahman here? And what's the significance of that? Well, for one, Allah azza wa jal here cites the prominent observable characteristics of the believer. Allah cites the observable characteristics of the believer in a manner of saying, look at the way that the believers carry themselves versus the way that the disbelievers and hypocrites carry themselves. Right. So the impact of being servants of al-rahman, servants of the most merciful on the observable behavior. And of course, as we said, the ultimate servant of the most merciful is Muhammad sallallahu alayhi wa sallam, is the Prophet Muhammad peace be upon him. The way that he carries himself with such dignity is inspiring, and it shows the effect of revelation on the person of the Prophet sallallahu alayhi wa sallam. And that is to say that the character of the Prophet sallallahu alayhi wa sallam should be enough to warrant an investigation into what's making him so spectacular. كونوا دعاتاً لله وأنتم صامتون As Umar radiyaAllahu anhu said that you're callers to Allah even as you're quiet. How? With your good character. Right. So people should see the qualities of the believer and should want to investigate what they believe in just by that, in a way that would help them discover how pristine this guidance is. So some of the scholars say, you know, Allah azzawajal lists the most prominent characteristics, the outward characteristics of these people so that every objective eye can easily discern the difference in the character between the Prophet sallallahu alayhi wa sallam and his followers and the Abu Jahls and the Abu Lahabs of the world and their followers. And then you make up your mind. Right. You can see the difference between the two.
But I want to start with what it means to be servants of the most merciful before we get into any of the qualities. Just why? Allah could have said, Allah could have said, you know, any one of his names. Why the servants of the most merciful? Ar-Rahman is a very special name of Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala. They're all special, but Ar-Rahman has certain connotations that other names do not have. One of them, Allah azzawajal mentions, hal ta'lamu lahu samiyya, do you know of anyone else named that? The idolaters did not have an idol that was named Ar-Rahman. No one was using the name Ar-Rahman. It is a name that was only reserved for Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala and that is only reserved for Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala. So hal ta'lamu lahu samiyya. Some of the scholars say, have you ever heard of any name like Ar-Rahman or anyone that calls upon him the most merciful, the way that the believers call upon him the most merciful? And some of the scholars, they mention here, samiyya is likeness, right? Is there anyone like him subhanahu wa ta'ala, like Ar-Rahman? Now, anytime Allah attributes you to him, that is a means of honoring you. The greatest honor is to be a abdu of Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala, to be a slave of Allah. That is how Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala elevates you. But to be abdu ar-Rahman is another level. So, what is the difference between Ar-Rahman and the other names? Well, for one, it is one of those names that cannot be given to anyone but him. So there are names of Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala like Al-Ahad As-Samad, Qul Huwa Allahu Ahad, Allahu As-Samad. The unique, the self-sufficient master whom all creatures need, who does not have any human likeness. These are names, Al-Ahad As-Samad, that can only be given to Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala. There are names that are like Al-Mutakabbir, the one full of majesty. In the human connotation, Mutakabbir is horrible, it is someone who is boastful, right?
But it is a name that only belongs to Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala and only has certain connotations with its name as it is attributed to Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala. Ar-Rahman is one of those names. It is inappropriate to say to someone Rahman, okay? Or to call someone Rahman without having a abd in front of it. That is not the case, for example, with names like Kareem, generous. Or Hakim, someone who is wise, or Rashid, someone who is guided in their actions. These are names that belong to Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala. But at the same time, we are allowed to name ourselves with these names. Rahman is one of those special names that only belongs to Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala. Not because we are not capable of having mercy, and I will get to that in a minute. But because the mercy of Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala or the connotations of His being Ar-Rahman are completely removed from anything that human beings could ever be capable of. And the scholars talk about this from numerous perspectives. One of them is that the Prophet salallahu alayhi wa sallam, he said, أحب الأسماء إلى الله تعالى عبد الله وعبد الرحمن. The most beloved of names to Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala are Abdullah and Abdur-Rahman. These are the most beloved two names to Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala. And obviously we only name our children in a certain way so that they can aspire to have those qualities. And so when the Prophet salallahu alayhi wa sallam says these are the two most beloved names to Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala, that's special. Another thing that the scholars mention as a benefit is that everything that is going to be defined as the qualities of Ibadur-Rahman, of the servants of the most merciful, is an implementation of mercy within that particular domain. So merciful in your relationships, merciful in the way that you treat others,
merciful in not having a heavy presence or making people feel like they have to serve you, merciful in that people don't fear the harm of your tongue, they don't fear the harm of your hands or your bad akhlaq, merciful in that people can trust you. These are all qualities of Ibadur-Rahman. So every one of the qualities is laced with the rahma of Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala in some way. And the Prophet salallahu alayhi wa sallam said, Ar-Rahimun yarhamuhum ar-Rahman, those who have mercy, the most merciful, ar-Rahman shows mercy to them, irhamu man fil ard, yarhamukum man fil sama, show mercy to those on the earth, and ar-Rahman in the heavens, the most merciful in the heavens will show mercy to you. Rahman is all-encompassing. And this is why it's not something that human beings can have. Ar-Rahman encompasses the believer and the disbeliever, the seen and the unseen, it encompasses this dunya and the akhira. Rahim is a specific type of mercy that is exclusive. So rahim is Allah's exclusive mercy that only belongs to some, Rahman is the mercy that encompasses everyone in some capacity. So Allah is ar-Rahman to people that believe in him and people that disbelieve in him. He's Rahman to the one who rejects him by delaying his punishment and giving him a chance to repent. His being ar-Rahman, the connotations of that in this world are the way that animals treat one another, or when an animal shows mercy to another animal, when a bird shows mercy to her baby. All of the rahma, all of the mercy that we have, that which we attribute to him and not, all of it is from the implications of his being ar-Rahman. So that's something that belongs to him subhanahu wa ta'ala. And from our perspective, to have rahma, to have mercy, it's important for us to think about in any one of our interactions,
what does it mean to be a merciful person? What does it mean to bring mercy to a discussion or to a domain? And if there were no qualities that were listed here, okay, in the ayat to follow, if a person was just to take and to do tadabur, which is what we do, reflect and to say, what does rahma look like when someone owes me money? What does rahma look like when I come across someone's shame, something that people don't want to be known about them and I come across it? What does rahma to that person look like? What does rahma to a setting look like? What does rahma look like when I walk into a community gathering? What does rahma look like when I walk into my home? What does rahma look like when I'm in a discussion? What does rahma look like when someone who I don't like or someone that's been abusive towards me shows an opening and I have a way to pounce and I don't? All of this is rahma. Rahma in your financial transactions, rahma in your societal transactions, rahma in everything, right? So if Allah did not even list ibadur rahman, the qualities of ibadur rahman, just by Allah saying they are ibadur rahman, we should be able to try to reflect on what rahma looks like in all of these different circumstances and situations. And so the most comprehensive way that Allah refers to the Prophet salallahu alayhi wa sallam, وَمَا أَرْسَلْنَاكَ إِلَّا رَحْمَةً لِلْعَالَمِينَ We did not send you except as a mercy to the worlds. The Prophet salallahu alayhi wa sallam is a mercy, not just in the way that the Prophet salallahu alayhi wa sallam treated people, he's a mercy in the way that he smiled at people. He's a mercy in the way that he built up people's self-esteem. He's a mercy in the way that he gave charity to whoever asked of him and who did not ask of him. He's a mercy in the way that he treated his enemies. He's a mercy in the way that he treated his family and he's a mercy in that Allah chose him to be a vehicle of clarity and guidance to us. That too is rahma because it would be cruel for us to be
left without guidance and clarity and purpose. And so the Prophet salallahu alayhi wasalam is the channel of that rahma, revelation is the rahma as well through the Prophet salallahu alayhi wasalam. And so as servants of ar-Rahman and as followers of rahmatan lil'alameen and Allah subhanahu wa'ta'ala says, we did not send you except as a mercy to the world. Meaning the entire mission of the Prophet salallahu alayhi wasalam could be described as being a mercy. Okay, all of it has an element of mercy that everything about him is mercy salallahu alayhi wasalam. Allah did not send him except as a mercy to the world. And so what do we do with ourselves? We ask ourselves in every situation. How am I being merciful? How is my presence mercy? How are my interactions with people mercy? How do I be abdur-Rahman? How do I be the most beloved person to Allah subhanahu wa'ta'ala because the implication of the Prophet salallahu alayhi wasalam saying the most beloved of names to Allah subhanahu wa'ta'ala Abdullah and abdur-Rahman is that I want to be that quality because the blessing of the name is the intention of the quality that the person lives up to be of that caliber and subhanAllah in that situation, I would then ask you, you know, what does it look like to show rahma in all of the initial interactions that Allah is going to mention in the next set of verses without even telling you the way that Allah subhanahu wa'ta'ala specifies how we respond in those situations, right? Just giving you the situations. Why is this so important inshallah ta'ala and I'll close with this and then tomorrow we'll start with you know, the very specific qualities inshallah ta'ala. Why is this so important? Because sometimes the Quran does not give a situation that is exactly analogous to a situation or one that is applicable to us now.
Sometimes you'll come across a situation in the Quran that is frozen in time and Allah subhanahu wa'ta'ala praises the quality of a person or Allah subhanahu wa'ta'ala highlights a negative quality of a person or a group of people in that situation. The goal of us as we're reading the Quran and we extol what Allah azawajal extols in these virtues and these qualities of Ibadur-Rahman is not to come away from this and just to have a checklist and say this situation, this situation, this situation, I match this, I match this, I match this only. The goal of it is for us to take those qualities and to apply them to evolving situations without getting away from the identity of rahmah, without getting away from the identity of mercy and our mercy does not just meet the standards and this is the last implication of Ibadur-Rahman by the way. We don't just meet the standards of mercy that other people set. All right. So if other people or our society or our culture says this is what mercy looks like in this situation, we go above and beyond because we're servants of the most merciful and so the standard of rahmah, the standard of mercy that we show is beyond what other people define even as mercy. We go the next level and that's the Prophet salallahu alayhi wasalam, right? If you think about the Prophet salallahu alayhi wasalam, he didn't just meet excellence as it was defined by people of his time. He redefined excellence altogether. He didn't just meet the standard of mercy. He redefined it by going to lengths that other people had never seen before. So it was completely unprecedented and inshallah ta'ala the first way that that's shown is in the quality of الذين يمشون على أرض هون وإذا خاطبهم الجاهلون قالوا سلامة. It's the way that you deal with people with bad character. It's the way that you deal with people with bad character. It's the way that you deal with people of no mercy.
It's the way that you deal with people who do not give you any worldly reason whatsoever to be nice. Okay, but you still choose to show mercy and to demonstrate a higher level of character, higher standard for the sake of Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala. So inshallah ta'ala we'll go ahead and we'll stop there. We'll get deep into these qualities inshallah ta'ala. I'm actually really looking forward to it. One of the reasons why I didn't want to get into الذين يمشون على أرض هون وإذا خاطبهم الجاهلون قالوا سلامة is because of how rich some of the stories of the Salaf of the pious predecessors are in these particular ayat. So inshallah ta'ala I'll look forward to seeing you all tomorrow inshallah and please keep us in your dua. Wassalamu alaikum wa rahmatullahi wa barakatuhu
Welcome back!
Bookmark content
Download resources easily
Manage your donations
Track your spiritual growth
1 items
1 items
1 items
25 items
50 items
9 items
