Lord of the heavens and the earth and what is between them
رَبُّ ٱلسَّمَٰوَٰتِ وَٱلْأَرْضِ وَمَا بَيْنَهُمَآ إِن كُنتُم مُّوقِنِينَ
rabbu l-samāwāti wa-l-arḍi wa-mā baynahumā in kuntum mūqinīn — Lord of the heavens and the earth and whatever is between them, if you are ones of certainty.
The same clause, naming God as Lord of the heavens, the earth and what is between them, conditioned on the hearers' certainty, appears once as a spoken answer in a dialogue (26:24) and once as part of a declarative statement (44:7).
The two passages share the clause naming the Lord of the heavens, the earth and what is between them, followed by the conditional "if you are ones of certainty" (26:24, 44:7). In (26:24) the clause is introduced by قَالَ, a perfect verb, third person masculine singular: it is an answer spoken in a dialogue. The preceding question is "And what is the Lord of the worlds?" (26:23), and the dialogue continues: "He said to those around him, 'Will you not listen?'" (26:25). The clause thus functions as a direct reply identifying the Lord who has just been questioned, and the conditional "if you are ones of certainty" is addressed to listeners within the dialogue. In (44:7) the same words stand without قَالَ: the clause is not framed as speech but continues a statement. Its context is "As a mercy from your Lord. Indeed, He is the All-Hearing, the All-Knowing" (44:6), and it is followed by "There is no god except Him; He gives life and causes death — your Lord and the Lord of your earliest forefathers" (44:8). Here the naming of the Lord of the heavens and the earth stands in a sequence of declarations about God, and the conditional addresses the hearers of the statement itself. The wording also differs in case: (26:24) has the nominative رَبُّ, while (44:7) has the genitive رَبِّ, fitting its grammatical attachment to the surrounding statement rather than standing as the predicate of a spoken answer.
Where it occurs
- 26:24 A spoken answer, introduced by قَالَ, identifying the Lord whose identity was just questioned in (26:23).
- 44:7 A declarative naming of the Lord within a sequence of statements about God, without any speech frame.
All Qur'anic expressions