and strove alongside you,” and the rest of the verse. Being with someone whom one obeys does not require being physically present with him or seeing him.

It has also been said that “ribbiyyūn” (companies) here means scholars. Since these interpreters treated this as equivalent to the term rabbānī (religious teacher)—while Ibn Zayd said that they were followers, as though he regarded them as those being nurtured—the first interpretation is sounder for several reasons:

First: The religious teachers are the learned scholars themselves: those who nurture people and lead them in their religion. Such people can only be few in number.

Second: The command to fight and remain patient is not confined to them. The companions of the prophets were not all religious teachers, even though they had been granted knowledge and possessed fear of Allah, Mighty and Majestic.

Third: Using the word rabbānī in this sense is not established in the language.

Fourth: Nor is using the word ribbī in this sense established in the language. Rather, the established meaning is the first one. Those who proposed this interpretation said that the word denotes an association with al-Rabb (the Lord), without the letter nūn. Yet the well-known reading is (ribbī, with an i-vowel on the rā), whereas their explanation would apply only to the reading rabbī, with an a-vowel on the rā. It has also been read rubbī, with a u-vowel, showing that these are variant linguistic forms.

Fifth: Allah Most High commands everyone whom He commands to fight to remain patient and steadfast, whether or not they are religious teachers.

Sixth: There is no fitting reason to single these people out for mention here. Mentioning them is appropriate in passages such as His words:

“Why do the religious teachers and scholars not forbid them…”

and the rest of the verse; and His words:

“But be religious teachers.”

Mentioning them in those passages is appropriate.

Seventh: It has been said that rabbānī is derived from al-Rabb (the Lord), with the addition of alif and nūn, as in the formation lihyānī. It has also been said that it derives from nurturing people, or from rubbān (a ship’s captain). This last explanation is the soundest, for