A Note on the Ruling on the Word "Al-Sayyid" (My Lord)?

Abu Layla : ... Please, my Shaykh, go ahead.

The Shaykh : Thank you. A questioner asked earlier when he heard his companion addressingThe Shaykh : the so-called [person] by saying "My Lord." Is it permissible to say this? Is it permissible? I am not saying it is permissible or not permissible, but I will tell you what is permissible and what is not. You know the authentic hadith that a man came to the Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him) and said, "You are our master (sayyid)," and he said . And you know the other hadith when Sa'd ibn Mu'adh came wounded in the Battle of Banu Qurayzah, and he (peace be upon him) said to his companions, "Sa'd ibn Mu'adh, Here, it may appear to some that there is a contradiction between the Messenger's refusal to be called "You are our master" and the Messenger's saying to the Ansar, "Rise to your master." And his lordship, whatever it is, is less than the lordship of the Messenger over his Ummah, or rather over all of humanity. He is the one who said, . It may appear to some that there is a contradiction between the two hadiths. The answer is that each of the two hadiths has a context that must be placed in its appropriate place.
As for his (peace be upon him) saying to the one who said to him, "You are our master," , he said that for two reasons. The first reason was to draw the attention of the one praising him (peace be upon him) to the fact that the true Master is Allah (Blessed and Exalted is He). The second reason is that he said that to block the means by which he or others might, over time, exaggerate in praising the Messenger, and Satan might lead them to what is not permissible in the Shari'ah. And the Messenger (peace and blessings be upon him) pointed to this meaning in another hadith when one of them said, "You are our master and the son of our master, and the best of us and the son of the best of us," and he said, . Here is the point: , meaning, do not let such a premise in your praise of me, describing me as "master," lead you on, for I am truly a master, because he said, , as mentioned earlier in the hadith just now. And in the other hadith, which is more authentic than the first, . Then he (peace and blessings be upon him) mentioned the long hadith of intercession and said to them, , to the end of it, , meaning, do not let [Satan] lead you on, or sneakily suggest to you, that the Messenger is truly a master, so that we might say "Our Master." Do not let [Satan] lead you on. That is the first hadith. The other hadith is his (peace be upon him) saying, . We must pause at the word "tatturuuni" (you exaggerate in praising me) and clarify what is meant by it. Linguistically, "itira'" (exaggerated praise) is used to mean praise in general, and it is used to mean exaggeration in praise. Determining which of the two meanings is intended depends on the context in which this term appears. It may mean exaggeration in praise and flattery, or it may mean praise in general, depending on the context in which this term appears. Here, the hadith says, . Here, we must pause for a moment to recall the Sunnah of Allah (Mighty and Majestic) in His creation and the scheme of the accursed Iblis against his enemy, man. Does he lead him directly to major misguidance, or, to put it another way, does he set him up? He takes hidden means that his enemy, man, does not notice, so that this man does not realize he has fallen on his head until the end.
What do you know about Satan? That is, he is cunning and good at scheming against the sons of Adam. Does he directly say to him, "Disbelieve"? No, he paves the way, step by step. The steps of Satan—may Allah reward you with good— . So, from Satan's scheme against the sons of Adam, he does not lead them to disbelief in one step, but rather, in the American way, step by step, step by step. So, when the Messenger (peace and blessings be upon him) said, , it is possible that he intended, "Do not exaggerate," and it is possible that he intended, "Do not praise at all." This second possibility is what is intended in the hadith. The evidence is, first, from the hadith itself, which is, . Then he said, . It is as if the Messenger is answering a question assumed in the mind of every person who hears the saying of the Messenger (peace be upon him), . So they ask, "What should we say?" The answer comes beforehand: . So, here, , meaning, do not praise me. I am His servant and His Messenger. I am the servant of Allah and His Messenger. This is from the perspective of considering the wording. But if we look closely at his (peace be upon him) saying, which I referred to first, then I was distracted and referred to it again, then I returned to it, I said, the Sunnah of Allah in His creation is that small evil leads to great evil, as we gave you an example with the steps of Satan. As the Christians did with 'Isa ibn Maryam. Do you think the Christians said directly of 'Isa, "He is the Son of God"? Or did Satan lead them and take them step by step until he prepared them to say of their Prophet, sent by their Lord, that he is the Son of God? So, even in this observation, in this analogy, we can take a very strong indication that what is intended by the prohibition here is "itira'" (exaggerated praise) or praise in general. That is because exaggeration in praise leads the praiser and the one who flatters to say what should not be said. And this has happened, despite his (peace be upon him) saying this hadith, what was feared from exaggeration in praise has occurred. Take as evidence for this the Sufi poet al-Busiri, who says in praising the Messenger (peace and blessings be upon him): "Leave what the Christians said about their Prophet, *** And judge as you wish in praise of him and appeal to him."
But do not say that he is the Son of God! And say whatever you wish of praise. This is the exaggeration that opening the door of praise leads to. And so, his (peace be upon him) saying, , he said that for two reasons. First, to draw attention to the fact that Allah is the true Master. And second, to block the door of praising the Messenger (peace and blessings be upon him) which might lead them to say of him an exaggeration that is not befitting Islamically. This is what I mentioned.