[Sūrah viii. 41]: “Know ye that God is your protector.”
[Sūrah ii. 386]: “Thou (God) art our protector.”
[Sūrah xlvii. 12]: “God is the protector of those who believe.”
The plural form occurs in the Qurʾān, [Sūrah iv. 37], where it is translated by Palmer thus: “To everyone have we appointed kinsfolk” (mawālī).
MAULAWĪ (مولوى). From maulā, “a lord or master.” A term generally used for a learned man.
MAULID (مولد). The birthday, especially of a prophet or saint. The birthday of Muḥammad, which is known as Maulidu ʾn-Nabī, is celebrated on the 12th of Rabīʿu ʾl-Awwal. It is a day observed in Turkey and Egypt and in some parts of Hindustān, but not in Central Asia, by the recital of numerous ẕikrs, and by distribution of alms.
Mr. Lane, in his Modern Egyptians, vol. ii. p. 171, gives the following specimen of a ẕikr recited in the Maulidu ʾn-Nabī: “O God bless our lord Muḥammad among the latter generations; and bless our lord Muḥammad in every time and period, and bless our lord Muḥammad among the most exalted princes, unto the Day of Judgment; and bless all the prophets and apostles among the inhabitants of the heavens, and of the earth, and may God (whose name be blessed and exalted) be well pleased with our lords and our masters, those persons of illustrious estimation, Abū Bakr, and ʿUmar, and ʿUs̤mān, and ʿAlī, and with all the other favourites of God. God is our sufficiency, excellent is the Guardian. And there is no strength nor power but in God, the High, the Great. O God, O our Lord, O Thou liberal of pardon, O Thou most bountiful of the most bountiful, O God. Amīn.”
MĀʾU ʾL-QUDS (ماء القدس). Lit. “Water of Holiness.” A term used by the Ṣūfīs for such holy influences on the soul of man as enable him to overcome the lusts of the flesh, and to become holy. (See ʿAbdu ʾr-Razzāq’s Dict. of Ṣūfī Terms.)
AL-MĀʿŪN (الماعون). Lit. “Necessaries.” The title of the CVIIth Sūrah of the Qurʾān, in the last verse of which the word occurs.
MAUT (موت). “Death.” Heb. מָוֶת. The word is always used in the Qurʾān in its literal sense, meaning the departure of the spirit from the body, e.g. [Sūrah ii. 182]: “Every soul must taste of death.” But amongst the Ṣūfīs it is employed in a figurative sense, e.g. al-mautu ʾl-abyaẓ, or “the white death,” is held to mean abstinence from food, or that feeling of hunger which purifies the soul. A person who frequently abstains from food is said to have entered this state of death. Al-mautu ʾl-ak͟hẓar, “the green death,” the wearing of old clothes in a state of voluntary poverty. When a person has given up wearing purple and fine linen, and has chosen the garments of poverty, he is said to have entered this state of death. Al-mautu ʾl-aswad, “the black death,” the voluntary taking up of trouble, and submitting to be evil spoken of for the truth’s sake. When a Muslim has learnt to submit to such troubles and persecutions, he is said to have entered into this state of death. (See ʿAbdu ʾr-Razzāq’s Dict. of Ṣūfī Terms.) [[MAMAT].]