Episode 2 | Knowing Allah | Ar-Rabb

Knowing Allah — الرَّبُّ (Ar-Rabb)

Because he is your Lord, he is your caretaker, he is your nurturer, he looks after you when others have abandoned you. He's the one who provides for you when there's no one to provide for you. He is yours.

Assalamu alaykum warahmatullahi wabarakatuh.

Today I wanted to focus on one name of Allah — one name and attribute of Allah — that is perhaps the most repeating name and attribute of Allah in the Quran after his name Allah.

Ar-Rabb. From the first page of the Quran to the last page of the Quran, you will be hard pressed to find a page that does not mention the name Ar-Rabb. Many people don't associate it as a name of Allah. We are used to thinking Ar-Rahim, Ar-Rahman, etc. But Ar-Rabb comes in the very first surah of the Quran:

Straight after Allah's name.

What is Ar-Rabb?

Ar-Rabb is usually translated in English as "Lord" or "Master." These are the two translations given to the word Rabb. And we always start with the translation because the translation is always a very sorry attempt — a very sad attempt — at understanding the true meaning of this word.

Let us dig deep into this name, Ar-Rabb.

The First Meaning: The Nurturer

The word Rabb comes from the root in the Arabic language and it means Tarbiya. You might have heard this word Tarbiya before — to look after something, to grow it until it reaches full maturity. To plant a seed and to keep watering it and giving it everything it needs until it's a full plant, it's a tree. To give birth to a child and to look after all of its needs until it's an adult and then to let it go. This is Rabbaha — to look after the needs, to cultivate, to nurture, to take care of something until it reaches complete independence. It reaches maturity, adulthood, completeness.

This is the first meaning of the word Rabb — the one who looks after every need and every aspect of our life until we reach maturity. Well, until we return to him, because he's always looking after us.

Who is a Murabbi?

Now who is usually given the term Murabbi? A teacher. Parents. Now why is a teacher and a parent given this word Murabbi — someone who gives Tarbiya?

Because a parent — they have a child when the child is zero, nothing. Allah says in the Quran:

Allah removed you from the wombs of your mothers and you knew nothing. You were fully dependent. Babies don't even have neck muscles — they have to be propped up. They are dependent upon their Murabbi, their parent, for everything. When a child is in their mother's womb they are even dependent on their mother for blood circulation — they are connected to their mother via the umbilical cord. They are fully dependent.

That is why the parent is a Murabbi. And the parent takes this useless, spineless, boneless, muscleless child — this baby — and they nurture and look after their every need until they are an adult. This is so selfless. It's so tough. It's so difficult. It requires so much hard work and so much energy. So you get the honour of the term Murabbi — you looked after this child's every need until they were ready to look after themselves.

A teacher gets a child — now this child, they are not looking after the child physically, but this child knows zero, sirf, nada, zilch, nothing — and they take this child and they teach it, morsel by morsel, letter by letter, alif, ba, ya, until, very patiently, this child knows something and they can go and use that knowledge.

This journey is tough. Teachers in this country are the most overworked and the most underpaid. Parents — we expect our pay to come from Allah. But we do work hard as parents. It's a tough job to be a Murabbi because there is no pay. The one you are giving Tarbiya to — the one you are looking after — their every need and their every angle shows no gratitude most of the time. They don't know how much hard work you are doing. How often it is that we only appreciate our parents when we become parents ourselves.

I still remember the day I became a father — this was the day I realised the gravity of what my parents did for me more than any other day in my life. Because Tarbiya requires being extremely selfless, and usually you get nothing in return. It's a hard job.

And this is the first meaning of Rabb — the one who looks after, the one who nurtures, the one who takes something from zero to 100% and goes through all the pain and the patience of that journey.

The Second Meaning: The Lord and Master

The second meaning of the word Rabb is the Lord, the Master, the King. In the Arabic language, the Arabs used to call the Master a Rabb. Now if I say Master, that implies something. If I tell you Teacher — who is on the other side of the table? Student. If I tell you Chef — who is on the other side of the table? Customer. If I tell you Master — who is on the other side of the table? The slave.

And in the Quran, the word Rabb is very often paired with the word Abd. The first commandment in the Quran — the first time Allah tells us to do something — is in Surah Al-Baqarah:

O people, make yourselves in service to your Master who created you and those before you, so that you may become God-fearing. Allah, very frequently in the Quran, combines his name, Ar-Rabb, with your name, Al-Abd.

Your Rabb Never Abandons You

The Prophet ﷺ didn't receive Quran for months and he became extremely upset. He felt lost — because without the Quran in your life, you will feel lost too. And as he felt lost, and as he felt upset, and as he felt those feelings of despair, Allah said to him:

Your Rabb has not forgotten you, nor has he left you.

In every moment in our lives there are moments in which we feel very alone — as Yusuf ﷺ felt in the darkness of the well, as Yunus ﷺ felt in the belly of the whale in the depth and darkness of the sea, as Musa ﷺ felt as he exited Egypt and walked towards Madyan. He felt alone. No one was with Musa. No one was with Yunus. No one was with Ayyub.

And as Muhammad ﷺ stood in Ta'if — bleeding to his slippers, his blood dripping as he walked — his uncle and his wife had died. There is no man sadder than this man. He felt alone.

And it is in these moments of loneliness that the word Rabb reminds you that you are never really alone. Which is why when Musa ﷺ made that lonely walk out of Egypt — to nowhere, not knowing his destination — what does he say?

My Rabb, I am in need of whatever you give me now.

In the moments of loneliness in the Quran, in the moments of despair, in the moments of difficulty, the Prophets remember their Rabb. Your Rabb is the companion for you in your times of solitude — the one who is with you in your times of despair, the one who is called upon when you are standing in front of the ocean and called upon when you are in the depths of the whale.

The Most Used Word in Du'a

In the Quran, the word used to make du'a to Allah the most is the word Rabb. How many times have we heard the word Rabbana?

And when Adam ﷺ came to this earth — is there any other human on this earth? He is alone. At this moment, the only human being on the entire earth — how does he call Allah?

"My master, the one who looks after me, the one who looks after my every need, the one who knows my hidden and my apparent — I have wronged myself."

Allahumma in the Quran is used very rarely — five times in the Quran. You search the word Rabbana, Rabbi — hundreds of times in the Quran, over a hundred times. And this is the name of Allah — the only name of Allah you can attribute to yourself. This is the name of Allah that is most close to you, and you can say: it's mine.

Because he is your Lord. He is your caretaker. He is your nurturer. He looks after you when others have abandoned you. He is the one who provides for you when there is no one to provide for you. He is yours.

And there is something beautiful in that. It's very different if I talk about "a team" — two teams are playing football today. But it's very different when I say "my team." Those are my boys. In my jersey. There is an attachment, there is a belonging, there is an intimacy, there is a closeness. And the only name of Allah that the prophets would call out to and attribute to themselves is his name Rabb.

As Ibrahim ﷺ stands in the middle of an empty desert and builds block by block this Ka'bah — not knowing what is going to be the future of this land, what is going to happen to his wife and children, so alone — it is at this moment he asks Allah by his name, Rabb.

The Meaning of 'Abd — Servitude out of Love

There is something important here. People don't like the word "slave." This is because of the history of the last 300–400 years and the transatlantic slave trade. Slavery of the last thousands of years was an ugly mark in the history of humanity. People don't like to think of themselves as a slave — because a slave is one who is beaten by their master, tied by their master, forced to do things for their master. Their master is beating them, screaming at them, owning them as property. So when we think of ourselves as slaves, that's not a nice thought for many people.

But what does it mean to be a slave? In Islam we don't have this negative idea. Abd — عَبْد — is to serve someone out of love for them. That's very different.

My parents — they don't have handcuffs to tie me to the house. Why do I do things for them? Why do I feel like massaging my mother's feet? Why do I feel like giving my father some money? Why do I feel like getting them gifts? Why do I feel like doing things for them? They haven't obliged me, they haven't forced me, they haven't tortured me. Why do we feel this way to our parents? Out of love. Out of gratitude.

This is the meaning — this is the secret — of the word Abd. Because when the Prophet ﷺ stood for the night prayer and prayed all night until his feet became swollen, they bulged out of pain, and Aisha asked him:

"O Prophet of Allah, why do you stand? Your previous sins and your future sins are forgiven — you don't have to be here." What does he say?

(Sahih al-Bukhari, Hadith 4837; Sahih Muslim, Hadith 2819)

"Shall I not then be a grateful servant?"

This ubudiyyah — this desire to place our heads on the floor, this desire to be at the service of Allah, this desire to please him — comes from our gratitude and our love of him. Not because he's torturing us. Not because he's got a whip in his hand. Because when people think "master," this is the image that comes to them. But we have a loving master. We have a caring master. We have a master that gives us the oxygen that comes out of our lips and the heart that beats the blood through our system. We have a master who never left us alone for a moment in our lives. This is our Rabb.

We feel obliged to worship him and to please him because we can't help ourselves. There is a poet who said a line in Arabic:

Show people kindness and you will find them wanting to serve you — because the best way for people to serve you is for you to be kind to them. It is the kindness of Allah that brings into our hearts the meaning of ibadah — the desire to be in service of him, the desire to do as he says, the desire to please him, the desire to be loved by him. Not because he's torturing us, not because he's a master who's going to punish us. No — out of a sense of gratitude.

And this is why the Prophet ﷺ says: أَفَلَا أَكُونُ عَبْدًا شَكُورًا. And this is why the greatest honour Allah gave the Prophet ﷺ in the Quran is the moment Allah revealed:

Glory be to the one who took his Abd — his servant, his slave — from Masjid al-Haram in Mecca to Masjid al-Aqsa.

And the Prophet ﷺ would say proudly:

"I am just Allah's Abd and his Messenger."

Abd is someone who makes themselves in someone else's service because they cannot bear to be otherwise — اخْتِيَارًا لَا إِكْرَاهًا — out of choice, not out of force. Doesn't Allah say in the Quran:

There is no force or compulsion in religion.

So when we say "slave and master," people have a very different — very negative — image in their mind. But we are not talking slave and master. We are talking about one who cannot help but love and feel so grateful and so indebted to this creator that they want to do everything possible for this creator. This is Abd. This is you and this is me.

True 'Ubudiyyah — Seeing Reality as It Is

We are so invested in this idea that people are the ones managing our affairs, that people are the ones serving us. We get pulled into this imaginary world where human beings are all powerful — such that when one of them falls, one of them disappoints us, one of them breaks away, we feel broken-hearted. My teacher let me down. My driving instructor didn't show up. Just when you trust them the most, they didn't come through. That chef gave me food poisoning.

When in reality — really and truly — you should see all of these people as middlemen. The ultimate one who gives and takes and tests and harms and benefits is the Rabb. He is the true ultimate manager — the ultimate one looking after our affairs, testing us, challenging us, giving us, taking from us.

When someone comes to you, your car breaks down in the middle of the motorway — you don't see this as a mistake of your mechanic. You see this as your Rabb has given you this situation. This is what ubudiyyah is about. True ubudiyyah is to see things as they truly are — to not see the illusion, to not see the false image that people are the ones managing the world around us, but to see the true reality, which is that Allah manages everything: the good, the bad, and everything in between.

Rabbii — A Subtle Beauty of the Quran

If you want to say "my Rabb," how would you say it in Arabic? رَبِّي — Rabbii — with a ya at the end. But sometimes in the Quran you find the Prophets saying رَبِّ — without the ya. What's the difference? The ya is gone. This is one of the beautiful subtle things in the Quran. Sometimes you'll find the Prophet saying رَبِّي and sometimes you'll find them saying رَبِّ. Why? There's a pattern. There's a reason. Allah doesn't remove a letter or add a letter except he has a reason.

Next time you read the Quran, look — every time you see Rabb, is it رَبِّي or رَبِّ? In moments of desperation, the Prophets say رَبِّ — they are so desperate to call upon Allah they don't have the time to add the ya at the end and stretch it for two harakas.

Take Zakariyya ﷺ — this is not a man who didn't have a child for six months and then tried IVF. This man waited nearly a century. He reached a level of desperation and he said رَبِّ — and he removed the ya.

Allah mentions in Surah Al-Anbiya that these Prophets were competing in doing good, and they called upon us in fear and in hope, and they were humble in front of him.

Allah Never Closes the Door

And in fact, it is at that moment when one really thinks that Allah would abandon them — he says عَبْدِي: "My slave." Imagine.

When does a parent say to their child, "I don't want to ever see your face again. Get out of my house"? It takes a lot for a parent to kick their child out of the house. The child has to do something really wrong. When this happens — when the major crimes happen — the parent doesn't even want to look at you, doesn't want to know you.

However, when the Abd — the one so indebted to Allah that he needs him and feels obliged to please him in every moment, you and me — when we commit the major crimes, how does Allah address us in the Quran?

"My slaves — my slaves who committed crimes against themselves — never despair of the mercy of Allah." No matter what major sin we committed, what crime we committed, what wrong we did — Allah says: you're mine. You're not out of the house. Come back.

This is the lutf — the mercy, the gentleness, the appreciativeness — of our Rabb.

Conclusion — Let Rabbana Be on Your Lips

And so the action to take away from today is this: if you knew the meanings of Rabb — the master, the nurturer, the one who looks after your every affair, the one who keeps the door open when you leave, the one who tells you to come back when you've wronged, the one who — when you're not even aware — has planned everything for you — if you knew that Rabb, then the word Rabbana would be on your lips as often as possible. You would be in constant conversation with your Rabb.

And our last supplication is to praise Allah, the Lord of the worlds, and peace and blessings be upon the Prophet Muhammad ﷺ and upon his family and companions.