the basic rule is that no extra letters are added when forming an adjective of affiliation. Their designation relates to nurturing, which is particular to them. As for their affiliation with the Lord, that is not exclusive to them: every servant of His is affiliated with Him, either generally or specifically. Allah has not called His God-fearing friends religious teachers, nor has He given this designation to His messengers and prophets. A rabbānī (religious teacher) guides and nurtures people just as a shipmaster directs a ship. Hence, religious teachers are sometimes censured and sometimes praised. Had their designation signified affiliation with the Lord, they would never have been censured.

This is the eighth reason: if the designation is taken as praise, they have nevertheless been censured in various passages; if it is not praise, then they have no distinguishing quality that sets them apart in this respect. If the designation derives from that of a shipmaster, the claim that rabbānī derives from al-Rabb (the Lord) is invalid. Deriving ribbiyyūn from al-Rabb is therefore even less tenable.

Ninth: Even supposing that their designation signifies affiliation with the Lord, this does not imply that they are scholars. It does, admittedly, imply faith, worship, and devotion to Allah, but these encompass all believers. Everyone who worships Allah alone, associating nothing with Him, is devoted to Allah and has knowledge of Him. All the Companions were such, yet they were not called rabbāniyyūn or ribbiyyūn. What has been reported is that, when Ibn al-Hanafiyya heard of Ibn 'Abbās’s death, he said: “Today the religious teacher of this community has died.” This was because he educated them through the knowledge Allah had granted him. The caliphs were superior to them, yet they were not called religious teachers, even if they themselves were religious teachers.

Ibrāhīm said: “'Alqama was one of the religious teachers.” Hence Mujāhid said: “They are those who nurture people by teaching them the elementary aspects of knowledge before its advanced aspects.” They are thus those who enjoin and forbid. Conveying information, however, includes anyone who imparts knowledge, transmits it from others, and relates it, even if he neither enjoins nor forbids. This is the meaning transmitted from the early generations concerning the religious teacher. It is reported that 'Alī said: “They are those who nourish people with wisdom