What Freedom Actually Means

So the wife of ʿImrān was devoting her child to the serving of Allah (swt) in al-Masjid al-Aqṣā. And then she said: muḥarraran — I have vowed to You what is in my womb, muḥarraran: free from all worldly work.

If we just take the word muḥarrar, it means free — freedom. This word, freedom, has been used by every revolutionary group in the world; everyone is seeking freedom; every movement of revolution comes under the banner of freedom. Freedom is a quality that every human being is striving to get. And over here Allah (swt) is giving us the definition of this term. What is freedom? Because we all want freedom — so what is the meaning of this word? What is the definition of freedom?

And we get the definition from the mouth of the wife of ʿImrān: when she said that her child is going to be the servant of Allah in the masjid of Allah — when her child is going into ʿubūdiyyah, servitude, to serve Allah (swt) — she said that is taḥrīr; that is the freedom for my child.

Because if you are not a slave of Allah, you are going to be a slave of something else. If you are not a servant of Allah, you are going to serve something else. If you do not serve Allah, you are going to serve money; you are going to serve your desires; you might serve a king, or a human being. The only way that you could be free — the only way that you could be free — is when you devote yourself in sincerity and you serve Allah (swt). That is the only way you could be free.

And that is why Rabʿī ibn ʿĀmir, when he went to meet with the Persian commander — and the Persian commander knew the Arab people before Islam; the Arab people before Islam were disunited tribes, hungry, poor; and they were so poor they would eat the skin of dead animals. They would eat dead animals, but they would also sometimes eat the skin. And that was the stereotype that the Persian Empire had about the Arabs of Arabia: taʾkulūna julūda al-maytah — you are so poor that you eat the skin of dead animals. What are you doing here in the Persian Empire? This is too advanced for you to come in; what are you doing here?

And then he told them: if you came here because you need money, I will give every one of you a certain amount of money, and then I will give your amīr double — go back to your land. Rabʿī ibn ʿĀmir said: Allāhu ibtaʿathanā li-nukhrija al-ʿibāda min ʿibādati al-ʿibādi ilā ʿibādati rabbi al-ʿibād, wa min ḍīqi al-dunyā ilā saʿati al-dunyā wa al-ākhirah, wa min jawri al-adyāni ilā ʿadli al-Islām.

He said: Allah (swt) has sent us so that we can deliver the creation of Allah from being slaves of each other to being the slaves of Allah; and from the narrowness of this world to the vastness of this world and the hereafter; and from the oppression of other religions to the justice of Islam. So Allah (swt) has sent us to free you — from serving each other to serving Allah. Because you are not serving Allah, therefore you are serving each other. Allah (swt) sent us to free you from this, so that you could serve Allah (swt) and stop serving one another. And this is the message of Islam: to free the human being, so that the human being can be mukhlaṣan lillāhi ʿazza wa jall, pure for Allah (swt).

And she said: fa-taqabbal minnī innaka anta al-samīʿu al-ʿalīm — so accept it from me; O Allah, You are verily the All-Hearer and the All-Knower.