Our Servitude to God: Station versus Speech

Occasion: A transcription of a lecture delivered at Masjid al-Qassam in Florida on October 11, 2025Source: A transcription of a video lecture by Dr. Ahmed Abouseif — Watch the original video on YouTube

Dr. Ahmed opened his talk with praise: Praise be to Allah, who created and proportioned, who decreed and guided; praise be to Allah, who brought forth the pasture; praise be to Allah in all our affairs. To Him belongs praise in this life and the next, and to Him belongs praise on the day the heavens and the earth stand before Him on the Day of Resurrection. «اللهم لك الحمد حمدًا كثيرًا طيبًا مباركًا، اللهم لك الحمد على ما أنعمتَ وعلى ما تفضّلتَ، لك الحمد حتى ترضى، ولك الحمد إذا رضيتَ» (O Allah, to You belongs much praise, good and blessed; O Allah, to You belongs praise for what You have bestowed and what You have granted; to You belongs praise until You are pleased, and to You belongs praise when You are pleased).

Then he greeted those present, saying: May Allah bless these good and blessed faces. I ask Allah to place your steps to this place in the scales of your good deeds, to record your footprints, and to make your reward complete and undiminished; to grant us a sincerity with which we meet Him on the Day of Resurrection; to bestow on us well-being in our hearts, minds and bodies; and to make our feet firm on His straight path. «نعوذ بالله أن تزيغ القلوب، أو أن تضطرب العقول، أو أن تُعطَّل الأقدام عن طاعة الله تبارك وتعالى» (We seek refuge in Allah from hearts going astray, minds being thrown into turmoil, or feet being held back from obeying Allah, blessed and exalted).

Station and Speech

«العبودية بين المقام والمقال» (Servitude between station and speech). As for the station (maqām), he meant by it, and Allah knows best, the station of servitude in itself: where it stands within us and what rank it holds; then its station in our own lives: how we regard it, and how we make excuses to it. As for speech (maqāl), it is the mere claim. All of us claim to be servants of Allah, all of us claim to belong to Islam, and all of us claim to be sincere in our servitude to the One God: ﴿قُلْ هُوَ اللَّهُ أَحَدٌ ۝ اللَّهُ الصَّمَدُ ۝ لَمْ يَلِدْ وَلَمْ يُولَدْ ۝ وَلَمْ يَكُن لَّهُ كُفُوًا أَحَدٌ﴾ [الإخلاص: 1-4] (Say: He is Allah, the One; Allah, the Eternal Refuge; He neither begets nor is born; and there is none comparable to Him) [al-Ikhlāṣ: 1-4].

But a very brief comparison between the servitude of the people of Islam and that of the people of disbelief shows you how servitude is realized in a Muslim. The polytheists, ﴿وَلَئِن سَأَلْتَهُم مَّنْ خَلَقَ السَّمَاوَاتِ وَالْأَرْضَ لَيَقُولُنَّ﴾ (if you ask them who created the heavens and the earth, they will surely say), ﴿وَلَئِن سَأَلْتَهُم مَّن نَّزَّلَ مِنَ السَّمَاءِ مَاءً لَيَقُولُنَّ﴾ (and if you ask them who sends down water from the sky, they will surely say) [al-ʿAnkabūt: 61, 63]. They were asked and they said: Allah, the Almighty, the All-Knowing.^[1] So they do not merely acknowledge that servitude belongs to Allah alone; they also acknowledge Him by His names and attributes and know all that about Him. Yet theirs is a claimed servitude, empty of substance and effect. For that reason it was not counted as anything in itself, and the one who professes this kind of servitude was regarded as a disbeliever, because he does not realize its substance or establish it in his actual life, and it has no results in his hands.

Servitude Is Islam

What, then, does the term "servitude" signify, if we want to know it? Its meaning, in the briefest terms, is Islam: that you submit to Allah, blessed and exalted. And if we want to verify the meaning of Islam, it means that you surrender yourself to the Lord of the worlds, glory be to Him.

If I want to give evidence for this, we have a ḥadīth of the Prophet ﷺ that every Muslim should in principle know, memorize, act upon and repeat, namely the supplication before sleep: «اللهم إني وجّهتُ وجهي إليك… وألجأتُ ظهري إليك… وأسلمتُ نفسي إليك» (O Allah, I have turned my face to You… and I have entrusted my back to You… and I have surrendered myself to You).^[2] What is the significance of «أسلمتُ نفسي إليك» (I have surrendered myself to You)? When I go to my bed and say to Allah "I have surrendered myself to You," none of us has any mastery over himself or any power to act; it is as though I have handed myself over to Allah, stripped it of every means of independent action, and entrusted all of that to the Lord of the worlds, glory be to Him. So if we apply this to the meaning of the term Islam in life as a whole, then my having submitted to Allah means that I have surrendered myself and all I possess to the Lord of Might, glory be to Him: «I have no share in myself, I have no authority over myself, and I have no choice with myself.»

A Story That Clarifies the Meaning

Among the fine narrations on this, one of the Prophet's ﷺ Companions came to him wishing to marry, and he was not handsome in appearance. It was the custom of people to refuse someone like him: «He looks bad, he won't suit our daughters, they won't like him.» When he came to the Messenger of Allah ﷺ, the Prophet said to him: Go to the house of so-and-so, knock on their door, and say to them: The Messenger of Allah ﷺ proposes to you for your daughter, for me.

The man's name was "Khubayb"… Julaybīb, my apologies. When the man went and knocked on the door and spoke to the head of the household there, saying: Peace be upon you, the Messenger of Allah ﷺ proposes to you for your daughter, and in the narration he conveys the message word for word, the man was overjoyed and cried out: Allahu akbar, thinking that the Prophet ﷺ was proposing for himself. Julaybīb said to him: Wait, the Prophet ﷺ is proposing to you for your daughter, for me. The man's face changed. His wife had heard his cry and cried out at his cry in joy at the good news that the Prophet ﷺ was proposing for their daughter. And the girl was behind the curtain, following the scene.

When Julaybīb told them what he had said about himself, the man looked at his wife and said: What shall we do? We cannot refuse a request from the Messenger of Allah ﷺ, and we cannot bring ourselves to tell our daughter that this is her lot and her fortune. Then the girl, who had been listening to the conversation, called her father and mother and asked them: What do you say about the words of Allah, blessed and exalted: ﴿وَمَا كَانَ لِمُؤْمِنٍ وَلَا مُؤْمِنَةٍ إِذَا قَضَى اللَّهُ وَرَسُولُهُ أَمْرًا أَنْ يَكُونَ لَهُمُ الْخِيَرَةُ مِنْ أَمْرِهِمْ﴾ [الأحزاب: 36] (It is not for a believing man or a believing woman, when Allah and His Messenger have decided a matter, to have any choice in their affair) [al-Aḥzāb: 36]? She settled the matter with a verse from the verses of Allah, blessed and exalted, and the conversation ended at that point, and the marriage contract was concluded, with its consummation suspended.

Why was it suspended? Because our man, in the narration I have told you, was on his way to his bride's house when the call to jihad was sounded. He was on the road, midway, between continuing on to his bride, for whom he had longed greatly, and turning back to the sacred call in the world of the Muslims. So he answered the call of the Prophet ﷺ, «and it was not for him either to choose over Allah's choice, blessed and exalted», and he returned to where the call was and was martyred, and the Prophet ﷺ bore witness for him, as is understood from the transcript, that the maidens of Paradise came to receive him because he died in the cause of Allah.^[3]

My point from this story with which I began is that the meaning of the word servitude in our lives is that we own nothing of our affair: not in our health or our sickness, not in our strength or our weakness, not in our wealth or our poverty, not with our children or without children. We have no part of the matter; the whole matter belongs to Allah. Wherever my Lord commands me, I must realize servitude, wherever He wills, and in whatever ways He has sought for me to be: «I have no choice in my affair» when the Lord of the worlds, glory be to Him, wills something.

The First Command in the Qur'an

You will be amazed when you realize that the first command in the Noble Qur'an is the word of Allah, blessed and exalted: ﴿يَا أَيُّهَا النَّاسُ اعْبُدُوا رَبَّكُمُ الَّذِي خَلَقَكُمْ وَالَّذِينَ مِن قَبْلِكُمْ لَعَلَّكُمْ تَتَّقُونَ﴾ [البقرة: 21] (O people, worship your Lord, who created you and those before you, that you may attain taqwā) [al-Baqarah: 21]. So the command to servitude is the first command to appear in the Noble Qur'an.

But our discussion of this command in Sūrat al-Baqarah requires pausing at some of the words in the text. Is it a call to the people of Islam to worship Allah, or a call to all humanity to worship Allah? «O people.» Look at the Qur'an's address when it calls with "O people," as in the words of Allah, blessed and exalted: ﴿يَا أَيُّهَا النَّاسُ كُلُوا مِمَّا فِي الْأَرْضِ حَلَالًا طَيِّبًا وَلَا تَتَّبِعُوا خُطُوَاتِ الشَّيْطَانِ إِنَّهُ لَكُمْ عَدُوٌّ مُّبِينٌ﴾ [البقرة: 168] (O people, eat of what is on earth, lawful and good, and do not follow the footsteps of Satan; indeed, he is a clear enemy to you) [al-Baqarah: 168]. And he asked those present: This command to eat what is lawful, is it addressed to people in general or to the people of Islam? Then he pointed out that there is an address a few verses later in which Allah, blessed and exalted, says: ﴿يَا أَيُّهَا الَّذِينَ آمَنُوا كُلُوا مِن طَيِّبَاتِ مَا رَزَقْنَاكُمْ وَاشْكُرُوا لِلَّهِ﴾ [البقرة: 172] (O you who believe, eat of the good things We have provided you, and be grateful to Allah) [al-Baqarah: 172], and this is an address to the people of faith. So how are we to understand the first?

Eating what is lawful stands opposite eating what is unlawful, and eating the unlawful means cheating in matters of livelihood, in the sense that the hand of corruption reaches into this trade, whatever it is, so that a person eats and earns by unlawful means. Eating the unlawful runs against the nature of the cosmic creation that the Lord of the worlds intended. Hence the call "O people" is addressed to the righteous and the wicked, the believer and the disbeliever, the hypocrite and the pious, because eating the unlawful corrupts creation. That is why you see that the command to honesty in buying and selling is legislation for humanity as a whole, not an Islamic law alone. And if we want to say "Islamic law," it is a law with which Allah, blessed and exalted, addresses all of humanity. The evidence for this in the Noble Qur'an is abundant: the Lord of the worlds, glory be to Him, commands all people to reform, and He, mighty and majestic, forbids all people from spreading corruption. So understand from this that there are laws in the world of life that the Qur'an issues to legislate for humanity, whatever their faith and degree of religiosity. «That is not my main point»; what I mean is that the Noble Qur'an contains commands for people to walk by, to preserve their humanity, before these become a means of raising their ranks with the Lord of the worlds, glory be to Him. And send blessings upon the Prophet ﷺ.

So we see that the first call in Sūrat al-Baqarah, which is the first call and first command in the Noble Qur'an, comes in the form of a direct command: «O people, worship your Lord.» Hence we did not find the word of divinity; He did not say "worship Allah" as He says in other places in the Noble Qur'an, so it was an address to all creation.

So what is the extent and measure of people's servitude to Allah, blessed and exalted, in following the basic principles of the human ways that people live by? Keeping appointments: is that a matter for the people of faith alone? Honesty in promises: a general matter or a particular one? Respect for time and place: a general matter or a particular one? And so on, through all that can be practiced in the world of everyday conduct that people live. And send blessings upon the Prophet ﷺ. For this is the text in which the Lord of the worlds says: ﴿يَا أَيُّهَا النَّاسُ اعْبُدُوا رَبَّكُمُ الَّذِي خَلَقَكُمْ وَالَّذِينَ مِن قَبْلِكُمْ﴾ (O people, worship your Lord, who created you and those before you), and that is the resulting purpose: ﴿لَعَلَّكُمْ تَتَّقُونَ﴾ (that you may attain taqwā).

al-Fātiḥah: "You Alone We Worship, and You Alone We Ask for Help"

But this does not make us lose sight of the first mention of the term servitude in the Noble Qur'an, which is in Sūrat al-Fātiḥah, when our Lord, glory be to Him, the Exalted, said: ﴿إِيَّاكَ نَعْبُدُ وَإِيَّاكَ نَسْتَعِينُ﴾ [الفاتحة: 5] (You alone we worship, and You alone we ask for help) [al-Fātiḥah: 5]. What does this mean? It means that we worship none but Allah, and we cannot bring ourselves to worship anyone else. And every compliance with the command of anyone other than the Lord of the worlds is not called servitude. Why? Because it is an action that brings a benefit. Those who worship cows, mice, mountains, the sun and the moon, everyone who worships other than the Lord of the worlds, glory be to Him, the Exalted, has behind this claimed servitude some worldly benefit, even if that worldly benefit consists in lightened burdens and the absence of obligations. Those who worship the sun, the moon and the earth: what does the sun command them? What does the moon command them? Nothing, and so they do whatever they please in this worldly life.

And those who worship the Messiah and take him as a god besides Allah have a famous phrase, saying: «Jesus paid the price», meaning that Jesus paid the price and saved us. «By Allah, other than whom there is no god», I sat one day with one of the priests and he kept repeating this phrase, and he said to me: «Jesus Christ.» I said to him: Now I will have to ask your leave to go. He said: Why? We agreed to sit for an hour, and now you are leaving after fifteen minutes; isn't this a breach of the promise? I said to him, overcome by fear and confusion: I cannot continue with you. He said: Why? I said… [the transcript becomes confused here]. And he began to justify himself, but they were justifications empty of substance.^[4]

So even those who claim servitude to the Messiah, as they claim, describe, name and justify, are only seeking for themselves what is called "tranquilizers of conscience": that they have a god whom they worship, but this god does not prevent them from drinking wine, or taking a female companion, or following their desires, or earning by unlawful means, or following the way of usury. Their god, with whom they are content by mere claim, does not stand between them and satisfying, feeding and gratifying the desires of their souls. Every object of worship other than the Lord of Might, glory be to Him, the Exalted, is an object of worship for the sake of desire.

As for us, we have found this expression: «You alone»; You alone, no one is with You, and none precedes You, and we do nothing in our lives before giving regard to Your Self, Your standing and Your existence, glory be to You, mighty is Your station and exalted Your sovereignty. That is Islam: ﴿إِيَّاكَ نَعْبُدُ﴾ (You alone we worship). Indeed, this servitude that we conceded at the outset, we do not reach its reality nor apply its horizons and dimensions except after the help comes from You alone, O Lord of the worlds. Understand the two sentences now together: ﴿إِيَّاكَ نَعْبُدُ﴾ is an independent sentence, and ﴿وَإِيَّاكَ نَسْتَعِينُ﴾ is an independent sentence, and neither is separable from the other nor stands alone without its companion; there is no seeking of help without the One worshipped, and no servitude without help from the One worshipped, glory be to Him, high above all. Hence the verse that follows: ﴿اهْدِنَا الصِّرَاطَ الْمُسْتَقِيمَ﴾ (Guide us to the straight path); for remaining on the sound path of servitude is attained only through the guidance of the Bestower, the All-Knowing, glory be to Him, high above all. And this guidance requires a mind that comprehends the fluctuations of souls and the changing of a person's states. Hence we sought refuge in Allah, blessed and exalted, from being among those who earned wrath or those who are astray, and we agreed that there are those upon whom the Lord of the worlds has bestowed the blessing of worshipping Him, so we said: ﴿صِرَاطَ الَّذِينَ أَنْعَمْتَ عَلَيْهِمْ غَيْرِ الْمَغْضُوبِ عَلَيْهِمْ وَلَا الضَّالِّينَ﴾ [الفاتحة: 7] (the path of those upon whom You have bestowed favor, not of those who have earned wrath nor of those who are astray) [al-Fātiḥah: 7].

And since servitude is realized only through watching for reward and punishment, and reflecting on what lies ahead of life in the Day of Judgment, it was preceded by His words: ﴿مَالِكِ يَوْمِ الدِّينِ﴾ (Master of the Day of Judgment). And since sensing the sovereignty of the Day of Judgment and its Master frightens the soul, terrifies the self and casts into the soul a kind of intense awe, it was preceded by the words of the Lord of the worlds, glory be to Him, the Exalted: ﴿الرَّحْمَٰنِ﴾ (the Most Gracious), «so do not worry», ﴿الرَّحِيمِ﴾ (the Most Merciful), «so be reassured». Then look at the preface to all of that: ﴿الْحَمْدُ لِلَّهِ رَبِّ الْعَالَمِينَ ۝ الرَّحْمَٰنِ الرَّحِيمِ ۝ مَالِكِ يَوْمِ الدِّينِ ۝ إِيَّاكَ نَعْبُدُ وَإِيَّاكَ نَسْتَعِينُ ۝ اهْدِنَا الصِّرَاطَ الْمُسْتَقِيمَ ۝ صِرَاطَ الَّذِينَ أَنْعَمْتَ عَلَيْهِمْ غَيْرِ الْمَغْضُوبِ عَلَيْهِمْ وَلَا الضَّالِّينَ﴾ (All praise is due to Allah, Lord of the worlds; the Most Gracious, the Most Merciful; Master of the Day of Judgment; You alone we worship, and You alone we ask for help; guide us to the straight path; the path of those upon whom You have bestowed favor, not of those who have earned wrath nor of those who are astray).

And this Fātiḥah, how many times is it repeated with us in a day? Seventeen times at the very least; if there are no voluntary prayers in our day, we still repeat «You alone we worship and You alone we ask for help» seventeen times every day. Why? Because the Lord of Might, glory be to Him, the Exalted, made it the emblem of every Muslim. Why? Because He wants to build a mind devoted to worship, not a momentary emotion that surges in the servant's soul for a while and then fades at another time. The matter is one of a way of life.

And he gave an example of this from the professions: I am a doctor, I cannot teach, so my mind thinks only in the fields of medicine and the conditions and consequences that go with it; so when I look into the face of a person I am practicing medicine by contemplating his eyes, and I say to him: How are you today? And I am watching for something that the teacher sitting beside me does not watch for. And I am a professor, I ask the student: What do you want to be in the future? And what are you studying this year? My mind thinks of nothing but this; I do not ask her about her health or her private doctor or the hospital she frequents. And I am a man who works as an imam, so my mind in this matter is: I ask about people's conditions while listening to the answer, and my mind revolves around how to solve the problems they face night and day, because it is my job. If you return the matter to its root, you will see that servitude is the way of life and its course.

Models from the Messengers: Nūḥ and Ibrāhīm

Then he said: In the succession of prophets and messengers, to be brief, God willing, we found no messenger who came to his people except that he was calling them to servitude to Allah, blessed and exalted. But between station and speech you see that Nūḥ (Noah), upon our Prophet and upon him be peace and blessings, changed his entire life for the Lord of the worlds, glory be to Him: ﴿فَلَبِثَ فِيهِمْ أَلْفَ سَنَةٍ إِلَّا خَمْسِينَ عَامًا فَأَخَذَهُمُ الطُّوفَانُ وَهُمْ ظَالِمُونَ﴾ [العنكبوت: 14] (So he remained among them a thousand years less fifty, and the flood seized them while they were wrongdoers) [al-ʿAnkabūt: 14]. How many years? Nine hundred and fifty years Nūḥ gave, upon our Prophet and upon him be peace and blessings, in complete, continuous servitude, not diminished, not lowered, not fragmented. He did not have a prayer that was observed and a prayer that was neglected, a covenant that was fulfilled and a covenant that was betrayed, commitment in one place and negligence in another; he did not have that, but rather he had a way.

Nūḥ continued his call for nine hundred and fifty years without ceasing, even though he found no one who responded; none believed with him except a few, glory be to the Creator, the All-Knowing, and still he continued. So the matter is not that of a girl who begins wearing the hijab one day and takes it off another, nor of a young man who works in what is lawful one day and in what is unlawful another, nor of a person who pleads narrow livelihood and so is driven to distorted dealings or an unlawful trade in the presence of the Lord of the worlds, glory be to Him, the Exalted. The one devoted to Allah has set for himself a course he cannot deviate from and cannot bring himself to cross, with the hereafter at the start of his road and at its end, and he has no psychological room to do anything other than be a worshipper of the Lord of the worlds, glory be to Him, the Exalted.

And in the harsh circumstances that Ibrāhīm (Abraham), peace be upon him, lived through, as he was thrown into the fire, he had no way but to worship Allah, blessed and exalted, even if the situation was harsh and the trial severe; he could do nothing else. ﴿أَلَمْ تَرَ إِلَى الَّذِي حَاجَّ إِبْرَاهِيمَ فِي رَبِّهِ أَنْ آتَاهُ اللَّهُ الْمُلْكَ إِذْ قَالَ إِبْرَاهِيمُ رَبِّيَ الَّذِي يُحْيِي وَيُمِيتُ قَالَ أَنَا أُحْيِي وَأُمِيتُ﴾ [البقرة: 258] (Have you not considered the one who argued with Ibrāhīm about his Lord because Allah had given him kingship? When Ibrāhīm said, "My Lord is the one who gives life and causes death," he said, "I give life and cause death") [al-Baqarah: 258]. A very difficult situation, while he knows that he gives life and causes death, and it was as if he were hinting: If you do not amend your words and return from your way, it is in my hand to finish off your life right now, I can kill him. Perhaps that Nimrod was not expressing one of his constant traits, but only a reaction to the situation before him: Ibrāhīm says "My Lord is the one who gives life and causes death," so he says to him: And I can kill you now unless you go back on what you say. But Ibrāhīm, peace be upon him, in the severe situation, holds fast to his faith, and proves to us that we cannot bring ourselves to change from the root of our way and our call: ﴿قَالَ إِبْرَاهِيمُ فَإِنَّ اللَّهَ يَأْتِي بِالشَّمْسِ مِنَ الْمَشْرِقِ فَأْتِ بِهَا مِنَ الْمَغْرِبِ فَبُهِتَ الَّذِي كَفَرَ﴾ [البقرة: 258] (Ibrāhīm said, "Indeed, Allah brings the sun from the east, so bring it from the west," and the one who disbelieved was dumbfounded) [al-Baqarah: 258], because he could not reply with the like of what Ibrāhīm, peace be upon him, said. The situations grow harsher on him and he is indeed thrown into the fire, and he stays firm in that, and has no one to ask for deliverance but Allah, exalted in His highness, glory be to Him, the Exalted.

The Believing Soul

Now we can understand that there is a believing soul that sees none but Allah, trusts only in what is with the Lord of the worlds, expects only from Allah, fears only Allah, relies only on Allah, and asks only Allah; so every power that behaves arrogantly before its eyes is a weak power created by the Lord of the worlds, and He may remove it after a while, for He is capable, glory be to Him, the Exalted.

Now we can understand what kind of soul was behind the term «zero distance». Did we understand why? What soul stands behind it, carrying that young man, poor fellow, who wears nothing on his feet and owns nothing at all? And what great soul stands behind this soul that defies all this material tyranny, which has not only kept its power but has claimed that it owns power over the whole earth, and can carry out in the lands of the earth whatever it wishes, and claims to own the means of weaponry and its manufacture and its tools and its trade… and all the rest of what they claim? Yet there is the soul of a poor woman who understands nothing of her situation except to say: «O my Lord», and then the Lord of the worlds subjects the means of heaven and earth to protect her life, her honor and her dignity and to safeguard her esteem.^[5]

She believed in the words of Allah, blessed and exalted: ﴿أَحَسِبَ النَّاسُ أَن يُتْرَكُوا أَن يَقُولُوا آمَنَّا وَهُمْ لَا يُفْتَنُونَ﴾ [العنكبوت: 2] (Do the people think that they will be left to say "We believe" and not be tried?) [al-ʿAnkabūt: 2], «Yes, O Lord of the worlds, we believe.» We believed that there are tests being carried out upon Allah's creatures, on Allah's earth, under Allah's sky, and by the authority of the Lord of the worlds, glory be to Him, the Exalted. And the means that operate in the hands of the disbelievers are no more than means behind which stands the One who causes them.

Mūsā, Yūsuf and Muḥammad, Peace and Blessings Be upon Them

Mūsā (Moses), upon our Prophet and upon him be peace and blessings, stood one day on the shore of the sea owning nothing of his situation, with no means in his hand and no one to help him, yet he kept saying: ﴿إِنَّ مَعِيَ رَبِّي سَيَهْدِينِ﴾ [الشعراء: 62] (Indeed, my Lord is with me; He will guide me) [al-Shuʿarāʾ: 62]. What means do you have in your hands? And Pharaoh behind him claims from time to time that he owns the means of heaven and earth, and claims that the rivers of Egypt flow beneath him, and claims: «I am your most exalted lord», and claims: «I knew no god for you other than myself». In his hand were the means spread across the whole universe, and Egypt, and you know what Egypt was at that time, he claims all of that. And Mūsā, upon our Prophet and upon him be peace and blessings, and those with him were saying: Where is our way out? Then the Lord of the worlds, glory be to Him, the Exalted, answers this sentence: ﴿إِنَّ مَعِيَ رَبِّي سَيَهْدِينِ﴾, and commands him to strike the sea with his staff, and the sea splits, ﴿فَكَانَ كُلُّ فِرْقٍ كَالطَّوْدِ الْعَظِيمِ﴾ [الشعراء: 63] (and each part was like a great mountain) [al-Shuʿarāʾ: 63]. Who among people can do this? None can do it but the Lord of the heavens and the earth, none is able to do it but the Creator of the heavens and the earth, none is able to do it but He in whose hand is dominion and who has power over all things, glory be to Him, the Exalted.

And we saw Yūsuf (Joseph), peace be upon him, realize servitude in several situations. He realizes servitude when all desire and all power were laid out before him, if he were to answer the one inviting him to do something wrong, even once, to calm the intense longing of this woman, and then he would win all the bonds of power and be a man of standing, because he would be "the lady's number-one man." Yet he said: ﴿مَعَاذَ اللَّهِ﴾ [يوسف: 23] (Allah forbid) [Yūsuf: 23]. This is servitude manifesting in souls, resounding on tongues, and speaking in minds to express itself: abstaining from disobedience of whatever kind, whatever its justifications, and whatever worldly gains and profits follow from it.

Then he was tried by being a prisoner, and he did not stop realizing servitude to Allah, blessed and exalted, and began in the stage of calling people, addressing young and old, near and far. And he expresses his servitude to Allah, blessed and exalted, in his repeated calls: ﴿يَا صَاحِبَيِ السِّجْنِ أَأَرْبَابٌ مُّتَفَرِّقُونَ خَيْرٌ أَمِ اللَّهُ الْوَاحِدُ الْقَهَّارُ ۝ مَا تَعْبُدُونَ مِن دُونِهِ إِلَّا أَسْمَاءً …﴾ [يوسف: 39-40] (O my two companions of prison, are separate lords better, or Allah, the One, the Prevailing? You worship besides Him nothing but names…) [Yūsuf: 39-40]. And he mentions the grounds for servitude to the Lord of the worlds, glory be to Him, and explains its dimensions and horizons to those around him, until the one addressed by this call responds and the land and its people are submitted into his hands. And he had no way of deliverance, and then the Lord of the worlds, glory be to Him, the Exalted, subjects to him the head of state himself, casting upon him that dream, or this vision, and they find no one to interpret it, and here the caller answers and interprets the vision without being asked or setting a condition, because he is realizing a farther dimension within himself, namely realizing servitude to the Lord of the worlds, glory be to Him, the Exalted, whether or not a reward follows from his good deed. We do not look at the horizontal level; we look to the heavens. We do not ask for hope from creation; we transfer hope to the Lord of Might, glory be to Him, high above all. We do not seek help from human beings, but from the Lord of human beings and their Creator, glory be to Him, the Exalted.

And Muḥammad ﷺ realized servitude to Allah, blessed and exalted, in the darkest and hardest of times, peace and blessings be upon him. And there he is ﷺ, may my father and mother be his ransom, the Messenger of Allah ﷺ, in the Valley of Abū Ṭālib for three years, finding nothing to feed on, nothing to drink, nothing to sell and nothing to buy, finding nothing at all in the siege of the Valley of Abū Ṭālib. But servitude dictates to us patience, so we are patient and seek reward, and we have no hope except in Allah and through Him, mighty and majestic.

Worship Is the Means and Servitude Is the Goal

My brothers and sisters, if we move briefly, in a very big way, to the conditions we live in, the Lord of the worlds, glory be to Him, the Exalted, says: ﴿يَا أَيُّهَا الَّذِينَ آمَنُوا ارْكَعُوا وَاسْجُدُوا وَاعْبُدُوا رَبَّكُمْ وَافْعَلُوا الْخَيْرَ لَعَلَّكُمْ تُفْلِحُونَ﴾ [الحج: 77] (O you who believe, bow and prostrate and worship your Lord and do good, that you may succeed) [al-Ḥajj: 77]. How many requests are in the verse? How many commands? If you permit me, let us go through the words: The call is to the people of faith, who by the requirement of their faith already bow and prostrate. Did that happen or not? So why does the command come again as a direct command to bow and prostrate, unless it is a command not to stop and to complete the journey? And to embody the ritual practices we perform in our lives; most Muslims pray, God willing, but not everyone who prays among the Muslims embodies the remaining dimensions of worship. Otherwise we would ask: Are bowing and prostration not part of worship? So why is the command repeated, ﴿وَاعْبُدُوا رَبَّكُمْ﴾ (and worship your Lord)?

This is the dividing point in the matter: that outward ritual worship does not lead to a result; rather these must be means and instruments for greater ends, namely realizing servitude. So servitude is not confined to prayer, fasting, zakāh and ḥajj; these are tools. Our Lord says: ﴿خُذْ مِنْ أَمْوَالِهِمْ صَدَقَةً تُطَهِّرُهُمْ وَتُزَكِّيهِم بِهَا﴾ [التوبة: 103] (Take from their wealth a charity by which you purify them and cause them to grow) [al-Tawbah: 103]. So why do we give zakāh? In pursuit of purifying the soul. And what is purifying the soul? That there is no hatred between me and anyone, that there is no complete hostility in my soul toward any human being, so that when I meet people I meet them with a cheerful face, a tranquil soul and an open heart, I meet them with the tongue of a strong person, I meet them with great welcome, carrying in my soul no grudge that drives me to aggression, whether in property or conduct or whatever it may be. You can imagine this. And when it is settled with me that zakāh has led to purifying the soul, then the Lord of the worlds, glory be to Him, the Exalted, commands me to establish the prayer that forbids immorality and wrongdoing^[6]; it has kept me from sins and all kinds of indecency in all their patterns and forms, and so I am like a beauty mark among people, a light walking among the people by which the road is lit, and noble character shines out with it.

«O Allah, make our tongues speak what pleases You.»^[7] Then our Lord, glory be to Him, the Exalted, said: ﴿ارْكَعُوا وَاسْجُدُوا وَاعْبُدُوا رَبَّكُمْ﴾ (bow and prostrate and worship your Lord), are we done then, is that enough? Then the Lord of the worlds says: ﴿وَافْعَلُوا الْخَيْرَ﴾ (and do good), which lies outside the frame of servitude. So who is the one who is outside the frame of servitude? The one who cannot understand that worship takes the form of a whole life, as we stated at the beginning; he thinks that there is what is obligatory and what is voluntary.

"And Speak to People Good Words"

So let us start from a very small part: when the Lord of the worlds, glory be to Him, the Exalted, said: ﴿وَقُولُوا لِلنَّاسِ حُسْنًا﴾ [البقرة: 83] (and speak to people good words) [al-Baqarah: 83]. Does anyone remember? Is there one of the memorizers among us who can remind us: What does it say? «Establish the prayer and give zakāh and speak to people good words.»^[8] Allah! Good words to people. If you took this phrase alone from the verse and said: Allah, mighty and majestic, commands good words to creation, your tongue is sweet, my dear, is this an obligation or a voluntary matter? Then you look at the context of the verse and see that good words to creation are paired with establishing the prayer, which is an obligation, and giving zakāh, which is an obligation. So with good words to people, «people, fine», if we are rude, then one of us has fallen short in his servitude to the Lord of the worlds, glory be to Him, the Exalted. Of course we have technical terms among the jurists, and some of it falls outside, but in general, even if the speech is by way of exhortation, the Muslim is required to be good of tongue.

And he said: Come, let us apply it, but very quickly. Good words, the good word that the Messenger of Allah ﷺ spoke of as charity.^[9] I will just speak to our brothers, and let no one tell the sisters what I said, please, keep it between us. Where is it between a man and his wife? Good words. And if we say that there are good words tied to times of contentment and times of anger, we curse, that is, and our manners drop, no? We might curse in Egyptian and curse in Palestinian, and tell it as it came, with the whole household present. Is this part of the reality of worship? No.

And if we move to the other side, and again we will tell some of what he says to them, send blessings upon the Prophet ﷺ: A woman came one day and said: O Messenger of Allah, the men go out to jihad in the cause of Allah and we, well, we are here. Then the Prophet ﷺ summed it up in a sentence that overturns all the laws of human life: «A good wife-keeping by one of you toward her husband equals that.»^[10] Allahu akbar! What is the meaning of the good wife-keeping of one of you toward her husband? That she be for him a place of rest and an absorber of his anger, the cheerful face he loves to come home to see, she unknits the frown…

Then he summed up briefly: I am sorry, forgive me, by Allah, we are dealing with a society that in much of its time cannot make what we say about claiming servitude to Allah match with applying that servitude to the details of life: doing righteous deeds, being good to creation, eating what is lawful, not changing consciences, not altering souls; all of these are examples, and by Allah the Almighty, He is great.

The Traffic Light

And I recall, and I will end with this example: one of my brothers once said to me: Do you know that breaking a traffic light is a breaking of… that it is a religious crime? I said: Brother, don't get involved, take it easy, it's just a line. He said: It is not so, my uncle, there is nothing like that here. Send blessings on our master the Prophet. He said to me: Well, listen now, look, listen for the sake of Allah, just focus on this: The Prophet ﷺ said: «Cursed», listen to this, «cursed is the one who changes the beacons of Allah on the earth.»^[11] If we trace the word of cursing in the Noble Qur'an, we see that it appears only in very grave crimes, and here the Prophet ﷺ uses the very same word to say: cursed is the one who changes the beacons of Allah on the earth. What does this mean? The beacon of Allah says to you: Stop, sir. Send blessings on the Prophet ﷺ.

Imagine that breaking a traffic light is a breaking of the signposts of servitude, so what of embezzlement, or theft, or forgery, or cheating, or dealing in falsehood? What of marital betrayal? What of courts filled with problems between husbands and wives?

And he concluded: I ask Allah, blessed and exalted, to accept from us and from you righteous deeds, and to grant us the art of devoting ourselves to Him, glory be to Him, the Exalted. And I apologize for this length, and I seek Allah's forgiveness for my sin, and I ask Allah, blessed and exalted, to bless us and you. And peace be upon you and the mercy of Allah and His blessings.

--- ^[1]: Editor's documentation: In his speech the lecturer combined phrases that occur in several nearby verses of the Qur'an: «وَلَئِن سَأَلْتَهُم مَّنْ خَلَقَ السَّمَاوَاتِ وَالْأَرْضَ لَيَقُولُنَّ» and «وَلَئِن سَأَلْتَهُم مَّن نَّزَّلَ مِنَ السَّمَاءِ مَاءً» in al-ʿAnkabūt: the first is in verse 61 (with parallels in Luqmān 25, al-Zumar 38 and al-Zukhruf 9), and the second in verse 63; and the wording «الْعَزِيزُ الْعَلِيمُ» is in al-Zukhruf 9 (﴿لَيَقُولُنَّ خَلَقَهُنَّ الْعَزِيزُ الْعَلِيمُ﴾). The phrases are retained as he pronounced them, and the references to their locations are the editor's. ^[2]: Editor's documentation: The bedtime supplication is agreed upon from the ḥadīth of al-Barāʾ ibn ʿĀzib (may Allah be pleased with him). Only the wording that appears in the lecturer's speech is retained here (the transcript is disordered in their sequence). ^[3]: Editor's documentation: The story is that of Julaybīb (may Allah be pleased with him), narrated by Imam Aḥmad; for his martyrdom, see Ṣaḥīḥ Muslim, from the ḥadīth of Abū Barzah al-Aslamī. The lecturer hesitated over the name, saying «خبيب… جليبيب، أسف» ("Khubayb… Julaybīb, sorry"), so we retained what he corrected it to. The girl's recitation of the verse of al-Aḥzāb in this form is from the lecturer's context, whereas the well-known wording in the narrations is her saying, in meaning: «Would you reject the Messenger of Allah's ﷺ command?» In the transcript there is an unclear phrase about the martyr's state upon being received («حري الجنة»), and reading it as «حُور الجنة» (the maidens of Paradise) is the editor's own judgment, so it should be checked against the recording. ^[4]: Editor's documentation: The transcript is disordered in what the lecturer said to the priest after his words «overcome by fear and confusion», and in attributing some phrases to whoever spoke them. The phrase «Jesus Christ», which the transcript attributes to the priest, is unclear in context. What is established is that the priest repeated the phrase «paid the price», that the lecturer mentioned the promise of the duration, and that the priest objected to the breach of it and then justified himself. ^[5]: Editor's documentation: This passage (the term «zero distance», the young man who wears nothing on his feet, the woman who said «O my Lord») is disordered in the transcript; what became clear of it is retained without naming persons or events, and the meaning of an English abbreviation that appeared in the sentence about "the world of wars and electronics" was not clear, so it was omitted. ^[6]: Editor's documentation: The phrase «the prayer that forbids immorality and wrongdoing» refers to the words of Allah, the Exalted, ﴿إِنَّ الصَّلَاةَ تَنْهَىٰ عَنِ الْفَحْشَاءِ وَالْمُنكَرِ﴾ [العنكبوت: 45] (Indeed, prayer forbids immorality and wrongdoing) [al-ʿAnkabūt: 45]; the lecturer did not recite the verse verbatim in the transcript. ^[7]: Editor's documentation: The supplication appears in the transcript as «اللهم انطق حسنتنا بما يرضيك» ("O Allah, make our good deed speak what pleases You"), and «ألسنتنا» ("our tongues") is retained as an inference from the context, and it was recorded among the unconfirmed items. ^[8]: Editor's documentation: The lecturer cited the phrase in this order (prayer, then zakāh, then good words), whereas in the muṣḥaf it is ﴿وَقُولُوا لِلنَّاسِ حُسْنًا وَأَقِيمُوا الصَّلَاةَ وَآتُوا الزَّكَاةَ﴾ [البقرة: 83] with good words placed first. His intended point, the pairing of good words with the two obligations, is not changed by this. ^[9]: Editor's documentation: Agreed upon from the ḥadīth of Abū Hurayrah (may Allah be pleased with him): «والكلمة الطيبة صدقة» (and the good word is charity). ^[10]: Editor's documentation: Narrated by al-Bayhaqī in «Shuʿab al-Īmān» from the ḥadīth of Asmāʾ bint Yazīd (may Allah be pleased with her), and there is discussion about its chain. The lecturer relayed it by meaning, and the phrase «a place of rest and an absorber of his anger» is disordered in the transcript (it appeared as «سربه»), so it should be checked against the recording. ^[11]: Editor's documentation: The ḥadīth is in Muslim from the ḥadīth of ʿAlī ibn Abī Ṭālib (may Allah be pleased with him) with the wording: «لعن الله من غيّر منار الأرض» (Allah has cursed whoever alters the boundary markers of the land). The lecturer's wording is retained here as he pronounced it. Applying the "beacon" to the traffic light is from the lecturer's speech, not from the wording of the ḥadīth. The sentence "the word of cursing appears in the Qur'an only in very grave crimes" is from the lecturer's speech.