Rabb

Rabb

---Literally, rabb means ‘nourisher’ or ‘sustainer’.

---By implication it also means ‘master’, and ‘owner’.

---This follows logically from the primary sense of ‘nourisher’ because one who nourishes must also have the right to own and to command.

---This secondary sense of command, mastery and ownership has been stressed so much that the use of the word rabb in the sense of ‘nourisher’ and ‘sustainer’ is now almost obsolete.

---The earliest audience of the Qur’an, the Quraysh, did believe in Allah as the sole Creator of the universe, but they also believed in various other arbab (lords; singular: rabb) whom they regarded as partners with Allah in the management of the affairs of the universe.

---That is why, they argued, these other ‘lords’ must also be worshipped and served.

--- In this surah the very first attribute of Allah as described in the words Rabb al-‘alamin (the Owner and Sustainer of all creation), implies that Allah, the sole Creator of the universe, is also its only Rabb, its unchallenged Owner and Controller, for it is He alone Who nourishes and sustains it.