When the Christians of Najrān claimed that Jesus had commanded them to take him as a Divinity and some Muslims asked that they should be permitted to prostrate themselves before him the Prophet s the following was revealed It belongs not to any mortal that God should give him the Book the Judgement the understanding of the Divine Law prophethood then that he should say to men ‘Be servants to me instead of God.’ Rather he should say ‘Be masters scholars labouring rabbāniyyūn ‘those of the Lord’ is derived from rabb ‘lord’ with the extra alif and nūn as a superlative of rabbiyyūn by virtue of what you know ta‘lamūn also read as tu‘allimūn ‘you teach’ of the Book and in what you study’ that is on account of the fact that you used to do this for its benefit is that you engage in action.
