MY LIFE PROJECT – WHO IS MY RABB?

The “MY LIFE PROJECT” encompasses five things we need to reach Allah!!

1. Al Insaan – Who am I?

2. Man Rabuuka? Who is my Rabb?

3. Who are my enemies?

4. What is my goal?

5. What must I do?

Man is weak...

The first important matter we need to know is who we are exactly and

what is our reality!!! Surah Nisa’a 28 is the first place in the Quran that the

human is mentioned, and from this we learnt that:

Allah created man daeef (weak).

Where do we get strength from?

Allah created man weak and the weaknesses we have are good for us to

attach to Allah more strongly, in order for Him to give us strength/power.

Our strength is then not physical but measured by how strongly we attach

to Allah, our connection with our Lord!!

That why we need to ask ourselves:

Man Rabbuki? Who is your Rabb?

We know all about ourselves but this can make us very miserable because

we know all our sins, defects and weaknesses. Allah subhana wa ta'ala in

the Quran tells us that to know ourselves we need to go down very deep,

we need to know our weaknesses but for strength we need to know the

answer to Man Rabbuki? We need to know Who is our Rabb and for that

we need to consider all instances of Rabb, Rabbihi, Rabbihum –anything

about Rubbubiyat Allah in the Quran.

Man Rabbuki?

Man Rabbuki is an important matter as this will be the first question in the

grave. We all will be asked: “Who is your Rabb?” in the grave.

Rabb in the Quran

The name Rabb is mentioned more than five hundred times in the Quran.

Although we can learn this in a general way from the Rubbubiyat; we can

answer this important question: “Man Rabbuki?” in the best way by tracing

this from the tafseer of every ayat in the Quran which mentions Rabb from

the beginning to the end.

The first ayat of the Rubbubiyat

The first place in the Quran where Allah mentions Rabb is the first ayat of

the first Surah Al Fatiha. Allah says:

Alhamdulilahi Rabbil Aalameen

This is the first place Allah mentions about Rabb. We are learning about the

name Rabb because when we know Allah as our Lord, our Rabb, it will

make us attached to Him.

Insaan has been created weak, so don't worry and submit to the Lord

Before we reach the other ayats teaching Allah’s attributes, actions as Rabb

etc the very first ayat says Alhamdulilah Rabb.

Allah has told us that He has created us weak but here He is telling not to

worry, He is the one who will take care of us, our weaknesses, our faults,

we don’t need to do anything except be grateful to Him, accept Him,

recognise Him and submit to Him as our Rabb.

This is the first place mentioning about the lordship of the Creator, the

Rubbiyat of Allah in the Quran. It starts with praise. All praise and thanks

are due to Allah because Hua Rabbil ala min - He is the Lord of Creation.

The name Ar Rabb comes from verb Rabba which means to nurture, to

bring up.

We can split this into three:

Rabba tarbiyatan which means to nurture, care etc,

Rabba min aslaahaa or islaah which means to reform and

Af'aaal lillah – Actions of our Lord

What does Rabba Tarbiyatan Islaha mean?

Rabba means taking care and nurturing.

Rabba Tarbiyatan Islaha means to change from one condition to another,

from ignorance to knowledge, from weakness to power, to reform, to raise

to a greater position, to change from one situation to another best situation.

Therefore education, or tarbiya in Arabic, means to improve someone

gradually to attain perfection.

We should look for this name in Quran and trace it in the Quran by doing

tafseer, it will really help in our tarbiyah.

What does Af’aal lillah mean?

These are the actions of Allah. When we are dealing with our Rabb, we

should deal in relation to the actions, attributes and names of our Lord.

Af'aaal lillah is not something abstract. It starts with Alhamdulilah, there is

no action here but it means Ath' thana Allah - praising Allah.

Why do we need to praise Allah first?

Before we can know the actions, He Creates, Sustains, gives us everything.

We need to know the first thing is to praise Allah, to say Alhamdulilaih.

Why do we have to praise Allah?

Due to Li Kamaalihi -His Divinity and His Perfection - Lilahi

Due to Li Af'Aalihi – His Actions, this is Ar Rubbubiyah – His Lordship

So in the beginning of Surah Fatiha, all the praises is due to Allah subhanaa

wa ta'ala.

Alhamdu lilahi – All praise is due to Allah. We Praise Allah due to His

Divinity, His Perfections and Rabbi al amin -His actions towards us,

towards His creation, His Lordship.

One of the biggest blessings for which Allah deserves praise is Rabbi Al

amin, He is Lord of Al amin – All Creation.

How does Allah nurture?

The Rububiyah(reforming), that is, Allah's actions, His nurturing ,His

lordship, how He is dealing with us can be generally split into three things:

He is the nurturer in three things:

1. Khaliqihi Lahum - The Creation:

We Praise our Lord as He has Created us–actions of Allah.

2. AL Mulk:

Allah is the Owner and has the Kingship.

3.Ad Tadbeer:

Disposer of Affairs & the Provider.

To surmise: The Rububiyah is the creation, the Kingship or Ownership and

the disposing of affairs. The provision and guidance is included in these

three.

All actions of Allah will revolve around the above three as categorised by

scholars. In order that we can utter the answer the question of the grave we

need to live this Name, we need to know Allah, He reforms the creation by

Creating them, He is the Only King and the Only Owner of us, the Only

Mudabbir - the only Disposer of affairs.

How does Allah reform?

ALLAH's Nurturing/reforming are of different kinds:

The types of Rububiyah(Anwaan ar Rubbiyah) are:

1.General Nurturing - Rububiyah Aam

2.Special Nurturing - Rububiyah Khaas

The more we know about this the more we will know Allah.

General Nurturing

Who will benefit from this? Kul makhluqat - all of Allah's creations will

benefit from this. Everyone Allah created will enjoy this nurturing. He will

Create His creations, Guide them, Reform them, take care of their affairs, all

creation will be benefitted from this nurturing.

This general nurturing can be split into two types:

Le salaah ad duniya - To reform the duniya:

General Lordship is to reform the dunya, if Allah has created you He

will take care of you by guiding you, disposing your affairs and every

benefit in the Duniya. To reform the Duniya.

Le salaah al badan :

Everything thing related to the body is related to the general

nurturing. Everybody will enjoy it.

The reason for the duniya is Al Rububiyah aam

Special Nurturing

Allah will reform the momineen, the believers, and the auliya of Allah.

Those people who have faith in Allah will be close to Allah. The closer

people are to Allah, the more Allah will nurture them specially.

Why does Allah reform the believers specially?

To make their religion perfect, Allah will reform the religion. This is known

as salaah u din or salaah ul kalb and is anything involving the soul, anything

related to heart. This is the special nurturing -Ar Rubbuibiya Khaasaah and

is for the believers, to reform the heart, to make their religion perfect.

To gain this we need to know who is our Rabb!!!

Man Rabbuki?

We can go back to the Ayah of the Quran in Surah Fatihah to know who our

Lord is.

Alhamdulilah hi Rabbil Aalameen -All praises to our Lord as He is the Lord

of all the kingdom, His kingship is perfect, His disposing of affairs is

perfect, He knows every creation and what should be provided to whom for

reforming. Human beings are daeef -weak, so all strength and everything is

from Allah...so Alhamdulilah hi Rabbil Aalameen..

The first place is Alhamdulilahi Rabbi Al Ameen

When we say this, it fills the heavens and earth. We are saying Allah is my

reformer, He takes care of me. It will fill the balance on the scales!!!

The first place for the Question of “Who is My Rabb?” is Alhamdulilahi

Rabbi Al Ameen.

In future classes we will learn of different actions of our Rabb in shaa Allah.

Oh Allah we ask you the good beneficial knowledge, good provision, and

acceptable deeds.