Divine Lordship

The Arabic word for lord is rabb. Arabs use rabb to designate one who manages something in such a way that the managed entity progresses in an orderly fashion toward realizing its purpose.

When we say that God is the Lord of all creatures, we mean that He has established among His creatures a series of interdependencies whereby certain beings depend on other beings for their existence. The amazing order pervading the world is the result of these interdependencies initiated by God. It is thus that the entire world moves as a unified whole toward a collective end. As such, when lordship is ascribed to God it indicates that He is the Creator, the Designer and the Manager.

Creatures depend on God not only for their existence but also in every aspect of their existence. They are utterly dependent, lacking any degree of independence from God. God directs and manages His creatures as He wishes. And as He is wise, just, and benevolent, His management and direction are perfect, flawlessly securing the true interests of all creatures and guaranteeing their ultimate perfection.

Now, as God is the supreme and independent manager of the world, all other causes and agents deriving their effectuality from Him, one of the principal tenets of monotheistic faith is Divine Unity in lordship. Divine Unity in lordship is the belief that He is the sole agent who enjoys independence in agency, activity, and causation, everything else depending entirely on Him. As such, attributing any degree of independence in the management of worldly phenomena to other agents constitutes a violation of this doctrine and thus amounts to unfaith. The belief, for instance, that stars exercise independent influence over our fates is a polytheistic belief and similarly the belief that certain saints can determine our fate independently of God. 

But what is the reason, we may ask, for the doctrine of Divine Unity in lordship? Why must we believe that the world has only one supreme lord and king? The reason is that if there were multiple lords, we envisage these lords either as identical or as distinct. If we are envisaging them as one, ultimately what we believe is that there is only one lord, though we may have entangled ourselves in a confusion (like what Christians say concerning Trinity-that it is one and three at the same time). But if we envisage these multiple lords as distinct, they must be distinct in their essence and attributes. That in turn means that their activity and agency must be distinct as well, for distinct agents produce distinct effects. But if that were the case, we would have had a disorderly world made of a number of discordant systems. Yet, as that is not the case, the world we inhabit exhibiting a single orderly and integrated arrangement, we know that there must be only one lord governing it. Hence, the doctrine of Divine Unity in lordship.

Hisham ibn Hakam asked Imam al-Sadiq (as) concerning the proof for God’s oneness. Imam al-Sadiq (as) replied, “[The proof is] the uniformity of order [in the world] and the integrity of creation, and this is as God says, ‘Were there multiple deities in the heavens and the earth, they would have perished’ (Qur'an 21:22).” (Al-Tawhid, Shaykh al-Saduq, p. 250)

Different Types of Lordship

We may distinguish two general types of Divine Lordship in peculiar jurisdiction in relation to which Lordship is perceived. They are as follows:

• Existential Lordship: God’s Existential Lordship is His Management of the world and His Providence in directing and sustaining all creatures.
• Legislative Lordship: This category of Divine Lordship concerns only those creatures possessed of reason and free will. God’s Legislative Lordship consists in appointing prophets for the guidance of humankind and ordaining the necessary instructions and directions that can guarantee human felicity.

Thus, when we describe God as the Lord-in which case existential and legislative Lordship are both intended we mean that He is the Supreme King of the world. Among the creatures, some rely on others, yet the ultimate and absolutely independent cause in the world is God. It is ultimately He who provides for the needs of all creatures, nourishes them, and gives them sustenance. Furthermore, God has an additional grace for rational beings. He has endowed them with the necessary internal means of guidance (the intellect and other cognitive faculties) and has made guidance available to them through external sources as well (revelation and prophets), thereby instructing them as to precisely what they must do to proceed toward perfection.

A careful analysis of the two concepts of Creator and Lord will show that they are correlative. It is impossible that the Lord should be someone other than the Creator. It is only the Creator who knows the intricacies and the subtleties of all creatures and so only He can truly manage and direct them. In fact, reflecting on these two concepts from a metaphysical perspective, we reach the conclusion that Lordship is an extension of Creatorship. Lordship designates the dependence of the creature on the Creator.