Principle Thirty-One: Allah’s Lordship (rubūbiyyah) in the Qur’an appears in two forms—universal and special.

The Qur’an repeatedly speaks of the Lord’s nurture of His servants, together with all that this nurture entails and requires. It is of two kinds:

1. Universal Lordship: This embraces every created thing—the righteous and the wicked alike, those who are morally responsible and those who are not, even lifeless matter. In this sense He alone creates them, provides for them, manages their affairs, and grants them whatever they need or must have to survive and to obtain their benefits and aims. No one falls outside this all-encompassing care.

2. Special Lordship: This is His nurture of His elect and devoted allies. He cultivates them with perfect faith, grants them success to complete it, adorns them with noble character, shields them from base traits, steers them toward what is easy, and keeps them from what is difficult. In essence it is: enabling every good, guarding against every evil, granting what is loved both now and later, and averting what is disliked both now and later.

Whenever His Lordship is mentioned without qualification, the first meaning is intended, as in: “Lord of all the worlds” [al-Fātiḥah: 2] and “He is the Lord of everything” [al-Anʿām: 164], and similar verses.

When it is tied to what He loves and approves, or when the prophets and their followers invoke it in supplication, the second meaning is intended. This special sense includes the universal sense and adds to it. For that reason, the requests of the prophets and their followers in the Qur’an are most often couched in terms of His Lordship, for everything they seek falls under His special nurture. Bearing this distinction in mind is of the greatest benefit to the servant.