ربب

Core meaning

To make grow by providing: to nourish, to raise, to bring to maturity. From this care comes the authority of the one who provides: the Guardian when it is God, the master when it is a man.

Uses

1. رَبّ (God) → "Guardian" : the One who provides for every thing and brings it to completion; the word does not change whether one speaks of Him or addresses Him.

   • «رَبُّنَا ٱلَّذِىٓ أَعْطَىٰ كُلَّ شَىْءٍ خَلْقَهُۥ ثُمَّ هَدَىٰ» — "Our Guardian is the One who endowed each thing with its own creation, then guided it" (20:50)
   • «ٱللَّهُ رَبُّنَا وَرَبُّكُمْ» — "God is our Guardian and your Guardian" (42:15)

2. رَبِّ, رَبَّنَا (call) → "My Guardian", "Our Guardian" : the call, where the implied pronoun is rendered.

   • «رَّبِّ ٱرْحَمْهُمَا كَمَا رَبَّيَانِى صَغِيرًۭا» — "My Guardian, have benevolence on them as they brought me up when I was small" (17:24)
   • «رَبَّنَا ٱغْفِرْ لَنَا ذُنُوبَنَا» — "Our Guardian, forgive us our offenses" (3:147)

3. رَبّ, أَرْبَاب (man) → "master", "masters" : the man who provides for another, rightly or by usurpation.

   • «إِنَّهُۥ رَبِّىٓ أَحْسَنَ مَثْوَاىَ» — "He is my master: he has made my sojourn excellent" (12:23)
   • «ٱتَّخَذُوٓا۟ أَحْبَارَهُمْ وَرُهْبَٰنَهُمْ أَرْبَابًۭا مِّن دُونِ ٱللَّهِ» — "They took their rabbis and their monks as masters besides God" (9:31)

4. رَبَٰٓئِب → "the girls brought up in your household" : a wife's daughters, raised under the husband's roof.

   • «وَرَبَٰٓئِبُكُمُ ٱلَّٰتِى فِى حُجُورِكُم» — "the girls brought up in your household" (4:23)

5. رِبِّيُّون → "attached to the Guardian" : those who bind themselves to the Guardian; the word occurs only once.

   • «قَٰتَلَ مَعَهُۥ رِبِّيُّونَ كَثِيرٌۭ» — "has fought, accompanied by many attached to the Guardian" (3:146)

6. رَبَّٰنِيُّون → "spiritual masters" : those who raise others by teaching the Scripture.

   • «وَلَٰكِن كُونُوا۟ رَبَّٰنِيِّـۧنَ بِمَا كُنتُمْ تُعَلِّمُونَ ٱلْكِتَٰبَ» — "Be spiritual masters, by reason of what you teach of the Scripture" (3:79)

Evidence from the text

The first gesture is to provide so as to make grow. The Guardian "endowed each thing with its own creation, then guided it" (20:50): He endows, then He leads. A wife's daughters are named by the same care, those raised in one's household (4:23), and the spiritual masters by the teaching they give (3:79).

The word is also said of man, for good as for ill. For good, where someone depends on him: the one who bought Youssof gives him an honorable sojourn (12:21), and Youssof answers "He is my master: he has made my sojourn excellent" (12:23); the cup-bearer serves his master (12:41). For ill, when he is taken besides God: rabbis and monks taken "as masters" (9:31), and Fir'awn who proclaims "I am your master, the Most High" (79:24). The master provides in part and for a time; the chain goes back to the Guardian.

Distinctions

• ربو — to grow by swelling, beyond the ordinary level, whereas ربب says the growth one guides

See also

رحم (benevolence) · عبد (to obey)