Discover the meaning of the term Rb (رب) in Islamic vocabulary.
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Updated on 11 April 2026 at 1:05 AM
📖 3 min readThe child: 'rabba': to take charge of him, caring for him by feeding him, making him grow, and disciplining him; the agent is rab, the object marbub, and rabib, feminine rabiba. A people: to head and lead them. A thing: to own it. Ar-rabb (with fatha on the ba'): the mother's husband; ar-rabba: the father's wife. The nursing mother. Ar-rabab: white clouds; its singular rabbaba. A cloud seen as though below the clouds, whether white or black. Ar-ribab: the covenant and pledge. Ar-rabb: God Most High's name; 'the rabb' is not said of other than God except in construction. The owner. The master. The one who brings up. The one who reforms. The guardian. The one who manages (plural arbab, rubb). Ar-rubba: the ewe that recently gave birth. Abu Zayd said ar-ruba is of the goats; another said of sheep and goats together; sometimes of camels (plural rubab). The one rearing her child: said Muhammad b. al-Hasan. Ar-rabbani: he who worships the Lord. The one complete in knowledge and deed; in the Qur'an: 'it is not for any human to whom God has given the Scripture, judgment, and prophethood to say to people: be my servants rather than God's; but be rabbaniyun (lords of devotion), for you taught the Scripture and studied it' (Al 'Imran, 79). Ibn 'Abbas said the rabbaniyun are the wise, the learned, the forbearing; from Ibn 'Abbas, al-Hasan, and Sa'id b. Jubayr: the jurists; from al-Hasan: people of worship and piety. Ibn al-A'rabi said: a scholar is not called rabbani until he is a scholar who teaches and acts.
It is the owner; its root is tarbiya (bringing up), which is establishing a thing state after state until completion. Ar-rabb, used absolutely, applies only to God, and to other than Him in construction, as 'rabb of the house.'