Allah, Muhammad, the Messenger of Allah, the Messenger of Allah, the Messenger of Allah, the Messenger of Allah, the Messenger of Allah, the Messenger of Allah, the Messenger of Allah, the Messenger of Allah, the Messenger of Allah, the Messenger of Allah, the Messenger of Allah, the Messenger of Allah, the Messenger of Allah, the Messenger of Allah, the Messenger of Allah, the Messenger of Allah, the Messenger of Allah, the Messenger of Allah, the Messenger of Allah, the Messenger of Allah, the Messenger of Allah, the Messenger of Allah, the Messenger of Allah, the Messenger of Allah, the Messenger of Allah, the Messenger of Allah, the Messenger of Allah, the Messenger of Allah, the Messenger of Allah, the Messenger of Allah, the Messenger of Allah, the Messenger of Allah, the Messenger of Allah, the Messenger of Allah, the Messenger of Allah, the Messenger of Allah, the Messenger of Allah, the Messenger of Allah, the Messenger of Allah, the Messenger of Allah, the Messenger of Allah, the Messenger of Allah, the Messenger of Allah, the Messenger of Allah
just as Allah knows your pain he knows your oppressor who causes you pain and
he will hold them to account too even when they feel least accountable sometimes it isn't your own sin that breaks you it's someone else's perceived power a boss who humiliates
you or a family member or close friend who manipulates you or a tyrant who crushes you and somewhere in that exhaustion Shaytan may whisper why does Allah let them keep doing
this to you but before we talk about that tyrant let's establish something unique about the categories of Allah's names not every name of Allah is meant to be mirrored by us some
of his names do call us to act to be merciful because he is Ar-Rahman or to be grateful because he is Ash-Shakur and then there are other names that call us to be in awe like Al-Khaliq the
creator or Al-Malik the king who executes at will or Al-Jaleel his majesty and then there are other names that are beautiful only for Allah and can actually be harmful when
human beings try to claim them these are the names you don't imitate or embody but instead you seek refuge in or from Al-Qahhar, Al-Jabbar, Al-Mutakabbir. Allah is Al-Qahhar the subduer
the overpowering you know people sometimes think that power means being the loudest in the room or buying influence with money or commanding armies but all of them have cracks
that Allah will expose it's only he who never sleeps and never slips and never miscalculates and when you ask why does he let this oppressor exist like this remember that his delay is not neglect
وَلَا تَحْسَبَنَّ اللَّهَ غَافِلًا عَمَّا يَعْمَلُ الظَّالِمُونَ إِنَّمَا يُؤَخِّرُهُمْ لِيَوْمٍ تَشْخَصُ فِيهِ الْأَبْصَارُ
do not think that Allah is unaware of what the oppressors do he only delays them to a day when their eyes will stare in horror notice that Allah speaks directly to the victim here
comforting the victim letting you know that he only delays the oppressor to that day where he will fully punish them but Allah mocks them while they plan against you and Allah
reminds you that he has not forgotten you and Allah also promises you that he will not fail to avenge you اللَّهُ يَسْتَهْزِئُ بِهِمْ it is he who mocks the schemers who think that they're clever
وَيَمْكُرُونَ وَيَمْكُرُ اللَّهُ they plot and Allah plots and his plot always prevails and when Allah delays for them he's
merely preparing a painful punishment their story ends with people despising them here and Allah crushing them after death before ultimate accountability on the day of judgment
and all along he's still subduing them in ways that we perhaps can't perceive remember Yusuf (عليه السلام) when he glorified the name Al-Latif who was always there for him
that was the gentle side but when the same Yusuf spoke to his two fellow prisoners his tone changes entirely and he uses another name altogether
يَا صَاحِبَيِ السِّجْنِ أَأَرْبَابٌ مُتَفَرِّقُونَ خَيْرٌ أَمِ اللَّهُ الْوَاحِدُ الْقَهَّارُ
oh my fellow prisoners are many lords better or is Allah the one Al-Qahhar the overpowering because when you stand face to face with injustice you don't need gentle names you need the names
that shake thrones and when you're imprisoned either by body or by mind you can start to falsely attribute power to your captor so Yusuf (عليه السلام) is reminding them of Al-Qahhar
who overpowers every supposed power on earth now SubhanAllah one of those two men was executed by that king yet only Allah knows best what their true fate will be on that final day
so who is Al-Qahir, Al-Qahhar? Al-Qahir is the one who has the upper hand over all creation he governs your heartbeat without permission and he controls the tyrant's next
breath without asking it refers to Allah's general power over the believer and the disbeliever alike وَهُوَ الْقَاهِرُ فَوْقَ عِبَادِهِ he is the subduer above all of his servants Al-Qahhar
refers to that same upper hand when it presses down and crushes and humiliates those who deserve humiliation and Ibn Al-Qayyim said لَا يَكُونُ الْقَهَّارُ إِلَّا وَاحِدًا
that one Qahhar can only exist at a time because if there were two equal powers then neither would prevail over the other and notice how Yusuf (عليه السلام) taught tawheed and
the destruction of tyranny in a single sentence Al-Wahid Al-Qahhar the only one who also is the only overpowering God and look at how Al-Qahhar subdues every single name on earth
that once thought that it would never fall Fir'awn drowned in the same water that he claimed to control the mother of Musa had to put her son in a river to escape that tyrant
but then Allah drowned Fir'awn by the staff of that very same Musa (عليه السلام) Namrud who claimed to control life and death was taken by a mosquito you see every
tyrant is toppled by something smaller than himself so he can see how small he always was and even if it appeared to be a peaceful death for the tyrant has any one of them ever
escaped being subdued by death itself and the angels tearing out their rotten souls even though we couldn't see it but even before death Al-Qahhar destroys them from within
you see a tyrant has no peace of mind because he never really feels secure in his power he can't even trust his most loyal subjects and he doesn't even know if his family really
loves him or is just afraid of him that's a miserable existence all for what so don't be fooled by the gloating and apparent invincibility of the tyrant Allah's already teaching them
through the emptiness that all power is mine and all peace is mine and when the day finally comes and illusions burn off يَوْمَ تُبَدَّلُ الْأَرْضُ غَيْرَ الْأَرْضِ وَالسَّمَاوَاتُ
وَبَرَزُوا لِلَّهِ الْوَاحِدِ الْقَهَّارِ the heavens roll up the earth is changed and they stand before Allah the one the overpowering the same names that Yusuf (عليه السلام) used
to remove fear from worldly prisoners are the names that Allah will use to instill fear in worldly tyrants then you have the name Al-Jabbar which means the compeller and
the healer for the tyrant Al-Jabbar means something entirely different than for the victim he subjugates the oppressor but he mends the oppressed the word jabr means
to set a broken bone back into place which is painful but healing it's a name of hope to the one who is hurt but Al-Jabbar warns the one who unjustly broke that bone Al-Qahhar
breaks Al-Jabbar repairs Al-Qahhar presses the arrogant down Al-Jabbar lifts the broken up but sometimes we wrong others other times we wrong ourselves and even then we need Al-Jabbar
the Prophet (ﷺ) used to say this precious du'a between the two sajdas in prayer he would say اللَّهُمَّ اغْفِرْ لِي وَارْحَمْنِي وَاهْدِنِي وَاجْبُرْنِي وَعَافِنِي وَارْزُقْنِي
وَارْفَعْنِي seven things, oh Allah forgive me, have mercy on me, guide me, وَاجْبُرْنِي,
fix me, protect me, provide for me, and elevate me. See only Al-Jabbar can fix everything about you including your broken heart and by the way the word al-jabr comes from
jabr as well which is to fix broken equations and only Allah has the equation to your soul and the one who tried to break you. Now Al-Jabbar also has the implication of restoring the
crime scene on the day of judgment to hold accountable the one who thought he could get away with it or maybe hide the evidence he is the compeller and the healer at the same
time Al-Jabbar then you have Al-Mutakabbir the supremely proud but for him this name isn't arrogance it's purity. His kibr is not like ours. Our pride hides insecurity
and makes other people feel unsafe. His pride offers safety but to the right people. You know that scene when the mythical powerful human hero shows up? The oppressed cheer and
take shade in him but Allah is the only one in reality who always shows up and has the right to that claim as the savior of the oppressed. Allah says,
الْعِزُّ إِزَارِي وَالْكِبْرِيَاءُ رِدَائِي فَمَن نَازَعَنِي وَاحِدًا مِنْهُمَا عَذَّبْتُهُ Glory is my lower garment and pride is my cloak. Whoever competes with me in either
of those two things then I will certainly punish him. And he (ﷺ) also said, إِلَّا رَفَعَهُ اللَّهُ وَمَن تَكَبَّرَ وَضَعَهُ اللَّهُ
Whoever humbles himself for Allah, Allah will exalt him. But whoever exalts himself, Allah lowers him. How beautiful is it when Allah puts the oppressed on thrones and then lets
them step on their tyrants like ants. So his pride isn't a mirror of ours. He's too great to wrong anyone, too majestic to be petty, too powerful to feel threatened.
And when he humiliates the arrogant, it isn't out of insecurity, it's out of justice. And when he delays a tyrant's fall, it isn't out of weakness, it's out of precision.
And when Musa (عليه السلام) stood before the most mutakabbir human being alive, he said, إِنِّي عُذْتُ بِرَبِّي وَرَبِّكُم مِّن كُلِّ مُتَكَبِّرٍ لَّا يُؤْمِنُ بِيَوْمِ الْحِسَابِ
I seek refuge in my Lord and your Lord from every arrogant man who denies the day of reckoning. You see, when humans try to steal divine traits, Allah will humiliate them on the day
of judgment. The names you've just heard, Al-Qahhar, Al-Jabbar, Al-Mutakabbir, are majestic for him, but they're disastrous for us. For him, they are perfection. For us,
they're always corruption. When humans play Qahhar, they become manipulators. When they play Jabbar, they become tyrants. And when they act mutakabbir, they shrink in every
single way. But before you rage against the Fir'awn out there, make sure you don't have a little pharaoh in yourself. The one that's cruel and arrogant and needs others to feel small so that you can feel big. Ibn Taymiyyah said,
كُلُّ مَن اسْتَعْمَلَ سُلْطَانَهُ فِي غَيْرِ طَاعَةِ اللَّهِ فَهُوَ مِنَ الظَّالِمِينَ Whoever uses his authority outside of Allah's obedience is certainly amongst the oppressors.
And he said, and a man may be amongst the greatest oppressors in his dealings with his family even if he rules no one else. And Imam Ibn Al-Qayyim, rahimahullah, elaborates on
this and he says, oppression is of three types. There's the shirk which he does not forgive. Then there's the injustice between people which he does not overlook. And then there's
the injustice that a servant does to himself which he may forgive. And Imam Hasan Al-Basri, rahimahullah, says, يَا ابْنَ آدَمَ إِنَّكَ لَا تَزَالُ بِخَيْرٍ مَا لَمْ تَظْلِمْ مَن دُونَكَ
O son of Adam, you remain in a good state so long as you don't oppress those beneath you. So check for the micro tyrannies inside of you because every pharaoh started small.
But if on this earth you find yourself as the victim of a tyrant, then who better than Allah to avenge you? When your oppressor mocks you, call upon Al-Qahhar. And when you're
broken, call upon Al-Jabbar. And when egos destroy and corrupt, seek refuge in Al-Mutakabbir.
يَا قَهَّار The One Who Subdues All False Powers Subdue every tyrant who raises a hand against the innocent. Break the arrogance of those
who spill the blood of your beloved servants. Let their cruelty be crushed by your justice. Subdue also the arrogance within me, so that I never resemble the oppressor in any form.
يَا جَبَّار Mend what their hands have broken. Rebuild the lands they've shattered, and heal the hearts that tremble for you under their bombs
and their boots. Set right the fractures in our ummah, and make every wound a doorway back to you. When you allow us to break, let it only be to rebuild us stronger. And when
you heal us, let the healing only bring us nearer. يَا مُتَكَبِّر Ya Mutakabbir, you are too glorious for injustice to prevail, too mighty for oppression to last before you. Show the tyrants that no throne
stands forever, and honor the humble who still call your name, even beneath the rubble. Clothe our people in dignity when the world strips them bare, and raise them in rank, and protect them from despair.
وَلِلَّهِ الْأَسْمَاءُ الْحُسْنَى فَادْعُوهُ بِهَا And to Allah belong the most beautiful names, so invoke Him with them.
