THE MEANING OF ‘AL-RAB’

Source: Al-Mizan, An Exegesis of the Quran, by al-Allamah as-Sayyid Muhammad Husayn at-Tabata`i, vol. 1, p.29.

QUR'AN: the Lord of the worlds, the Beneficent, the Merciful, the Master of the Day of Judgement:"ar-Rabb"(( الرب is the Master Who manages the affairs of His servant. The word, thus connotes the idea of ownership. Ownership (in our social structure) is a special relationship of one thing with another - a relationship that allows the owner to do with the owned thing as he wishes. When we say, "This thing belongs to us", it shows that it has a special relationship with us that allow s us to do with it as we wish; had it not been for this relationship, we would not have had this authority over it. In this social context, it is an idea which the society has laid down but which has no existence outside imagination. This idea is derived from another real and positive concept, which too is called "ownership": Our limbs and faculties, like the sight, the hearing, the hands and the feet, belong to us - they exist because of our own existence, they have no independent existence, they depend on us for their existence and continuity, and we use them as we like. This is the real ownership. The ownership that may be attributed to Allah is the real one, and not that which is based on subjective outlook. Obviously the real ownership cannot be disjoined from management of the affairs of the owned thing. The owned thing depends on the owner in its existence, as well as in all affairs related to its existence. Allah is "ar-Rabb " the Lord of everything because the Lord is the owner who manages the affairs of, and looks after, the owned thing - and only Allah has this attribute.