al-Nabaʾ 78:37

Rabbi'l-samāwāti wa'l-arḍi wa mā baynahuma'l-Raḥmān · Lā yamlikūna minhu khiṭābā "The Lord of the heavens and the earth and what is between them — al-Raḥmān. They have no power to address Him."

رَّبِّ is in the genitive and is an adjective or an appositive of the word رَّبِّكَ in the preceding verse. That is: "from your Lord — from the Lord of the heavens and the earth."

A variant reading is transmitted: when the word is read in the nominative the sentence begins anew ("He is the Lord of the heavens and the earth"). No essential change of sense follows. I give no name of an authority.

In the preceding verse it said "your Lord" — that is, in relation to a single person. This verse takes the same name and opens its scope: the Lord of the heavens, the earth and what is between them.

This is another form of the finding recorded for رَبِّ ٱلْعَٰلَمِين in the section on al-Fātiḥa. It was stated there: the expression "Rabb al-ʿālamīn" is a claim of wholeness against a fragmented picture of lordship; and this claim has a political side — Pharaoh had declared himself "your highest lord" (al-Nāziʿāt 79/24).

In Sūrat al-Nabaʾ the function of this widening is different and depends on the context: everything counted through the sūra (the earth, the mountain, the night, the day, the sky, the sun, the cloud) falls inside this construct. The expression "of the heavens, the earth and what is between them" gathers the whole tableau of verses six to sixteen into a single phrase.

The verse, that is, attaches the sūra's inventory to a single owner.

This name was treated in detail in the section on al-Fātiḥa; the findings there are not repeated.

But there is something that must be recorded here: that this name has been chosen in this sūra.

Sūrat al-Nabaʾ contains one of the harshest scenes of punishment in the Qurʾān: scalding water, pus, remaining for ages, "We shall increase you in nothing but punishment."

And towards the end of the sūra, when the owner of the verdict is named, the name used is al-Raḥmān. And twice over: in the thirty-seventh and thirty-eighth verses.

In the Qurʾān this is a frequent choice and it says something: the authority that gives the verdict is the same authority as the source of mercy. Punishment does not come from an attribute opposed to mercy.

The order recorded in the section on al-Fātiḥa showed this as well: immediately after the names al-Raḥmān, al-Raḥīm came Māliki yawmi'l-dīn (the master of the day of judgement). The same arrangement is repeated here.

An observation: this name occurs in the sūra for the first time in the thirty-seventh verse — that is, after the ends of both groups have been related. In the whole of the sūra God's name does not occur; there is only the pronoun "We" (jaʿalnā, khalaqnā, banaynā, anzalnā, aḥṣaynā) and, in the last section, Rabb and al-Raḥmān.

I record this as an observation.

مِلْك — Root: م-ل-ك. To own, to have power over. لَا يَمْلِكُونَ — "they do not own, they have not the power".

In Arabic this verb conveys having authority over something. It is widespread in the Qurʾān: "They have no power to harm or benefit themselves" (al-Furqān 25/3).

خِطَاب — Root: خ-ط-ب. خَاطَبَ — he addressed, he spoke face to face. خُطْبَة — a sermon. خِطْبَة — the seeking of a marriage.

The idea beneath the root: to speak by turning towards someone. Not ordinary talk; talk that turns to an addressee and calls out to him.

Who cannot address? The exegetes differ:

The third view is the most consistent with the context: the next verse will name the angels and the Spirit and say that they too cannot speak.

On the particle مِنْهُ. There are two readings:

• "[They have no power to obtain] an address from Him" — that is, they cannot make Him speak to them.
• "[They have no power to make] an address to Him" — that is, they cannot speak a word to Him.

Both have been defended. The second reading is the more widespread and is more consistent with the next verse.

Through the sūra a great deal has been said. In the first verse people were asking one another; in the third they were in disagreement; in the thirty-fifth idle speech and lying were spoken of.

And now the right to speak is withdrawn.

I record this as my own reading, but the sūra's weave of speech is in the text:

The sūra opens with a conversation and closes with a conversation. In between, the right to speak narrows steadily.