An-Nas · Makki · ayah 1 of 6

An-Nas 114:1

قُلْ أَعُوذُ بِرَبِّ ٱلنَّاسِ

“Say, "I seek refuge in the Lord of mankind,”

Saheeh International

Essence

The last surah gives you three names to run to, and the first is the Lord who was raising you long before you knew Him.

A reflection

Raised, every one of us

A grey-haired man in a sharp suit walks into the village post office. The postmistress remembers him in a pushchair. Recite this ayah and every pose of needing no one quietly falls apart. Rabb al-nās, Lord of people: every person who ever lived was raised. Fed before they could ask. Carried before they could walk.

Rabb is a word the classical lexicons explain with one voice. They give it as owner and master, manager and caretaker, the one who raises and the one who gives. One traces it to raising a thing stage by stage until it is complete. Another says Allah is al-Rabb because He sets right the states of His creation. They also agree on a boundary. Said alone, with no word after it, al-Rabb is Allah, outside a rare line of old poetry; a human is the rabb of something. The Arabs heard the setting-right sense in daily work. A man rabba his estate when he tended it until it was in good order. A water-skin was marbūb when treated with rubb, a thick fruit syrup, so that it kept what was poured in.

Why name Him Lord of people, when He is Lord of everything? One answer in the sources is pointed. People are the ones who get revered. Their portraits hang in lobbies and their names go on buildings. So the ayah names them, and tells you that the most admired of them is still raised, owned and looked after. Every judge, every president, every celebrity once could not lift their own head. The ego wants to forget this, and the ayah will not let it. There are no unraised people, only raised ones who have forgotten who raised them. Every self-made story quietly skips its first two years.

Some find the language of 'Lord' and 'servant' demeaning, a leftover from old hierarchies. The objection deserves a fair hearing, because human masters have used such words to crush people. But a human master uses his servants for his own gain; this Lord raises you for yours. In a hadith qudsi in Sahih Muslim, He says: 'O My servants, all of you are hungry except whom I feed'. The same hadith says you can never harm Him or benefit Him. He gains nothing from your service, which is exactly why His lordship cannot exploit you. Pride is a lie in a creature and simply the truth in Him. Saying Rabb does not shrink you. It stops you pretending you made yourself.

The full entry has 6 more reflections, questions to sit with, and "Live it today" - with the words, the roots and the tafsir alongside. Free, no account, works offline.