Mawla has several meanings in dictionary such as Rabb, master, fellow, friend, helper, lord, owner, slave liberator, liberated slave, a person who does or manages a job. When it is attributed to Allah, the meanings such as “to love, to protect, to help, to have at one’s discretion and under one’s guardianship” stand out. The gist of the word mawla is love and spiritual closeness (Ibn al-Athir, al-Nihayah, see the Arabic root “wly”; Ibn Manzur, Lisan al-Arab, see the Arabic root “wly”).

In the Holy Qur’an, the word mawla is used to refer both to Allah and humans. It is used to refer to Allah in the verses “Know that Allah is your mawla (protector). Excellent is the mawla (protector), and Excellent is the helper.” (Anfal, 8/40), “You are our mawla (protector).” (Baqarah, 2/286); and to human in the verse “The Day when no mawla (relation) will avail a mawla (relation) at all.” (Dukhan, 44/41). In many hadiths, the word mawla is used as one of the names of Allah: “Allah is our Mawla.” (Bukhari, Jihad, 14, Maghazi, 17)

Therefore, the word mawlana, formed by adding the suffix (pronoun) “-na”, meaning “our”, at the end of the world “mawla”, can be used to refer to Allah, prophets, and humans.

When it is used to refer to Allah, it means “Our Rabb, our Lord”; when it is used for prophets or humans it means “our fellow” or “our master”.

Source: Presidency Of Religious Affairs The Turkey, High Board of Religious Affairs FATWAS

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