Explanation of the author's statement: "...And his saying after finishing: 'O Allah, Lord of this perfect call and the established prayer, grant Muhammad the intercession and the excellence, and raise him to the honored position which You promised him...'"

The Shaykh : He says, "And his saying after finishing: 'O Allah, Lord of this call'. The truth is that the author limited himself to the supplication after the adhan. What is prescribed after the adhan is to send blessings upon the Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him) after the adhan ends, and then to say, 'O Allah, Lord of this call,' and so on. During the adhan, when the mu'adhdhin says, 'I bear witness that there is no god but Allah, I bear witness that Muhammad is the Messenger of Allah,' you respond by saying, 'I am pleased with Allah as my Lord, with Muhammad as my Messenger, and with Islam as my religion.' This is clear from the narration of Muslim, where he said, 'Whoever says when he hears the call: 'I bear witness that there is no god but Allah, and I bear witness that Muhammad is the Messenger of Allah, I am pleased with Allah as my Lord, with Islam as my religion, and with Muhammad as my Messenger'.' In the narration of Ibn Rumh, one of the men in the chain of narration, it says, 'I say, and I bear witness.' The phrase 'and I bear witness' indicates that he says it immediately after the mu'adhdhin says, 'I bear witness that there is no god but Allah,' because the 'waw' is a conjunction, so his statement is conjoined to the mu'adhdhin's statement. So, there is a conditional dhikr during the adhan. What is it?

The questioner : Sending blessings upon the Messenger

The Shaykh : No, not during the adhan. 'I am pleased with Allah as my Lord, and with Islam as my religion' is after the two testimonies, after the adhan. Sending blessings upon the Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him), and his saying, 'O Allah, Lord of this perfect call and the established prayer.' 'O Allah, Lord of this perfect call'—what is the perfect call? The adhan. The adhan, because it is a call to prayer and a call to success. It is described as 'perfect' because it includes the glorification of Allah, His oneness, the testimony of the message, and the call to good. So it combines glorification, oneness, and the call to good. For this reason, it is described as perfect. And his saying, 'O Allah, Lord'—I think we have discussed the grammatical analysis of 'Allah' several times. We said that it is a vocative, from which the 'ya' of the vocative is omitted and replaced by a 'mim'. The 'mim' is placed after the Name of the Almighty as a form of seeking blessing and beginning with the Majesty. The letter 'mim' was chosen over other letters here to indicate gathering, as if the supplicant gathers his heart upon his Lord (Mighty and Majestic) and upon what he wants to supplicate Him with. So, his saying, 'Lord of this perfect call'—someone might ask, why is 'Allah' with a dammah and 'Rabb' with a fathah? We say that 'Allah' is a proper noun used as a vocative, so it is built on the dammah. 'Rabb' is a dependent noun, so it is in the accusative case, because the vocative, or what stands in its place, if it is a dependent noun, is in the accusative case. And his saying, 'Lord of this perfect call'—what does 'Rabb' mean here? Does it mean Creator, or does it mean Owner, or what?

The questioner : ... .

The Shaykh : The owner of the call. The problem is that the supplicant is the mu'adhdhin.

The questioner : The one who legislated the call.

The Shaykh : The Legislator?

The questioner : The one responsible for the call.

The Shaykh : The one responsible. Who asks Allah? The question about the call does not hold up. So, we have 'Rabb' meaning 'Owner' secondly, 'Rabb' meaning 'Creator' yes, 'Rabb' meaning 'Legislator' who legislated this call. So it means 'Owner,' meaning the owner of this, the one who legislated it. Now, if we look at it, if 'Rabb' means 'Creator,' this presents a difficulty for us, because this call contains the Names of Allah (Mighty and Majestic) and words that are not among the Names of Allah. The Names of Allah (the Exalted) are not created. The Names of Allah are not created because they are part of the speech by which He (Mighty and Majestic) informed us of Himself, and His speech is not created. But if He is said to be the Creator of the call in terms of the mu'adhdhin's utterance of it, then the utterance of a human is created, even if he utters something that is not created. His utterance is created, and what is uttered, if the thing uttered is not created, is not created. That is to say, if a human speaks the Qur'an, we say his utterance, the movements of his tongue, lips, and larynx, these are created, but what is uttered is not created. So, if we interpret 'Rabb' as 'Creator' based on the assumption of the utterance, which is the action of the mu'adhdhin, then there is no problem. So, if we say that 'Rabb' is only attributed to a created thing, it is objected to us with and 'al-`Izzah' (Majesty) is among the attributes of Allah (Mighty and Majestic). So here, 'Rabb al-`Izzah' must mean 'Owner of Majesty,' Owner of Majesty, and it is not permissible for 'Rabb' to mean 'Creator.' So, 'Rabb of this perfect call and the established prayer,' and 'Rabb of this established prayer.' So, this established prayer, the thing referred to must be tangible and capable of being pointed to. Also, 'al-Qa'imah' (the established) is not yet established, so it is said that the pointing is to what the person imagines in his mind, because when you hear the adhan, you imagine that there is what? A prayer. And 'al-Qa'imah'—the scholars said it is the one that will be established, so it is 'established' in terms of what is to be. Yes, he said, 'Grant Muhammad the intercession and the excellence'. 'Ati' means 'give,' and it takes two objects, the original of which is not the subject and predicate. The first object here is 'Muhammad,' and 'al-Wasilah' is the second object. What is the difference between 'Ati' and 'I'ti'? 'I'ti' means

The questioner : Come

The Shaykh : No, it means 'come,' meaning 'come.' means 'come to them.' And as for 'Ati,' it means 'give.' And 'Ata' means 'gave,' and 'Ata' means 'came.' So, he said, 'Grant Muhammad the intercession'. So he (peace and blessings be upon him) is the Seal of the Prophets. So, he says, 'Grant Muhammad the intercession and the excellence'. The Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him) explained that 'al-Wasilah' is a rank in Paradise that should not be for anyone but a servant of Allah. He said, For this reason, we supplicate to Allah for him so that what he hoped for (peace and blessings be upon him) is realized. Yes. And as for 'al-Fadilah' (the excellence), 'al-Fadilah' is the high virtue in which no one shares with him. Yes.

The questioner : What is 'al-Fadilah' and what is its grammatical analysis?

The Shaykh : It is linked to the wasilah. Well, he says: “Grant Muhammad the wasilah and the excellence, and raise him to the honored station that You have promised him”. “Raise him” — when? On the Day of Resurrection. “To a station” means to the honored station that He promised him. This honored station encompasses all the stations of the Day of Resurrection, and the most specific of these is the great intercession, when people are afflicted with distress and sorrow on that great day, which is equivalent to fifty thousand years, along with the terrors, hardships, and distress that befall them. They are faced with a matter they cannot bear, so the people proceed and ask, “Who will intercede for us with Allah the Mighty and Majestic to relieve us from this station?” They come to Adam, and he excuses himself; they come to Noah, and he excuses himself; they come to Abraham, and he excuses himself; they come to Moses, and he excuses himself. Each of them mentions what he sees as an excuse for not interceding. Then they come to Jesus, and he does not mention anything, but he says, “Go to Muhammad, the servant of Allah, whom Allah has forgiven what came before of his sin and what came after.” Then they come to the Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him) and ask him to intercede with Allah, and he intercedes. This is the honored station, where all these messengers and prophets excuse themselves from intercession, either by what they see as an excuse, like Adam, Noah, Abraham, and Moses, or because they see that there is someone in that station who is more deserving than them, such as Jesus. And look how Allah inspired the people to go to these, for the four messengers are the ones of determined resolve, and Adam is the father of mankind. Allah created the father of mankind with His hand and made His angels prostrate to him. Then look how Allah inspires these that each of them excuses himself with what he sees as an obstacle between him and intercession, for the intercessor has no face with which to intercede and advance the intercession for it, unless there is nothing between him and the one for whom he intercedes that tarnishes the station. And these four all mentioned what tarnishes their station according to what they see, due to their perfect humility. And even though some of them repented, all of them repented from that; all of them repented from the sins, if they were sins, as for Abraham (peace be upon him). Well, the fifth did not mention anything that tarnishes the station of intercession in his view, but he mentioned who is more deserving of it than him, and that is Muhammad (peace and blessings be upon him), so that the perfections may be completed for the Messenger of Allah (peace and blessings be upon him). So he intercedes with Allah the Exalted and Sublime. Then Allah the Exalted comes to judge between His servants, and this is from the honored station about which Allah the Exalted said: These supplications: The Messenger (peace and blessings be upon him) said that whoever prays upon him and then asks Allah for him the wasilah, then it becomes permissible for him the intercession on the Day of Resurrection. The intercession of the Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him) becomes permissible for him, and he becomes deserving of it. And this is undoubtedly a blessing from Allah the Exalted and Sublime upon us and upon the Messenger (peace and blessings be upon him). As for us, it is for the reward we receive in this supplication. And as for the Messenger (peace and blessings be upon him), it is because this is what raises his mention, that his Ummah, until the Day of Resurrection, calls upon Allah for him, calls upon Allah for him. But if someone were to say, “If the wasilah is already obtained for the Messenger of Allah (peace and blessings be upon him), what is the benefit of our calling upon Allah for him with it?” We say: Perhaps one of the causes of it being for him is the people’s supplication for him with it, even though he (peace and blessings be upon him) is the most deserving of people of it.