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Allah, Master or Slave?

  • philhoraia
  • Aug 25, 2022
  • 2 min read

Updated: Dec 13, 2024

In the Quran Allah is called a mawla; but what does this word mean? Let's look at some passages.


S 6:62 Then they have been sent back to Allah their true mawla. Indeed, his is the judgment? And he is the quickest of the accountants.


S 8:40 And if they turn away, know that Allah is your mawla. Excellent was the mawla and excellent the helper.


S 10:30  There was tried every soul for what it had bestowed and they were returned to Allah their true mawla and stray from them did what they used to fabricate.


S 16:76  And Allah has coined a similitude of two men. One of them dumb who has no power over anything and he is a fatigue on his mawla. Wherever he sends him he does not bring good. Are equal he and and he who commands with justice and he is on a straight path?


S 22:13 He calls to one--his harm is closer than his benefit. Miserable was the mawla and miserable the intimate.


S 22:78 And wage jihad for Allah with his due jihad. He has selected you and has not put upon you in the religion any difficulty. The cult of your father Ibrahim. He named you Muslims before and in this, that the messenger may be a witness over you and you may be witnesses over people. So establish salat and give zakat and hang on to Allah. He is your mawla. So excellent was the mawla and excellent the helper.


S 44:41 A day mawla does not avail mawla at all and they are not helped.


S 47:11 That is because Allah is a mawla of those who have believed and that the kafirun have no mawla.


S 66:2 Allah has made for you the absolution of your oaths obligatory. And Allah is your mawla and he is the learned, the wise.


S 66:5 If you repent to Allah--your hearts have deviated. And if you back one another up against him then Allah, he is his mawla and Jibril and the righteous of the believers, and the angels after that are an assistant.


The word has a number of meanings.


Noun

مَوْلًى (mawlan) m (dual مَوْلَيَانِ‎ (mawlayāni), plural مَوَالٍ‎ (mawālin), feminine مَوْلَاة‎ (mawlāh))

  1. chief; lord; master

  2. patron; client

  3. slave

  4. ally; friend; follower مولى - Wiktionary



Anas reported the Prophet as saying, “The freedman* of a people is one of them.” * Maula. This word may mean either the one who emancipates or the one who has been emancipated, and therefore the tradition has received two different interpretations according to the meaning of maula. Bukhari transmitted it.


This hadith has been narrated by Abu Nadr on the authority of Umair, the freed slave {mawla} of Umm al-Fadl, through the same chain of transmitters.


How could God use such a word of himself?


There is a chance that Arab Christians used this word. Human beings might use this word but how can we expect God to use this of himself?


 
 
 

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