—being in the heavens and on earth will come to the Most Merciful as a servant” (Maryam 93).
At other times the word designates one who worships, so it applies only to a select group; yet even among that group there are degrees. The more a person excels in knowledge and spiritual state, the more perfect his servitude becomes, and the more complete the attribution of servitude is to him—while the term retains its literal force in every context.
[Is the expression maʿiyyah a univocal term or a mere homonym?]
Words of this nature are labeled by some as “mushakkikah,” because they leave the listener wondering whether they belong to the class of mutawātiʾah (univocal terms) or are simply mushtarak (homonymous words) that share nothing but sound and spelling. Researchers, however, recognize that such words still fall under the genus of mutawātiʾah: the original coiners of the language minted the term to match a common core of meaning. It is, to be sure, a particular variety within that genus, and there is no harm in assigning it a special label.