رَبَّانِىٌّ
Root: رب
Full Definition
رَبَّانِىٌّ
and
رِبِّىٌّ or
رِبِّىٌّ , One who devotes himself to religious services or exercises, or applies himself to acts of devotion; who possesses a knowledge of God: or a learned man: or the first signifies, or signifies also, and so the second, i. q.
حَبْرٌ [i. e. a learned man, or particularly of the Jews, &c.; or a good, or righteous, man]; and a lord, or master, of knowledge or science: or a worshipper of the Lord (الرَّبّ): or a learned man, a teacher of others, who nourishes people with the small matters of knowledge, or science, before the great: or a learned man firmly grounded in knowledge, or science, and religion: or a learned man who practices what he knows and instructs others: or one of high rank in knowledge, or science: or learned with respect to what is lawful and what is unlawful, and what is commanded and what is forbidden: رَبَّانِىٌّ is a rel. n. from رَبَّانٌ; or from الرَّبُّ meaning “ God: ” the ا and ن being added to give intensiveness to the signification; or, as Sb says, to denote a special reference to the knowledge of the Lord, as though the word signified one possessing a knowledge of the Lord exclusively of other branches of knowledge; so that it is like لِحْيَانِىٌّ, meaning “ long-bearded, ” or “ largebearded, ” and رَقَبَانِىٌّ, “ thick-necked, ” and شَعْرَانِىٌّ, “ having much hair: ” or it is a Syriac word; or Hebrew; and was unknown to the [pagan] Arabs, and known only to the men of law and science: the pl. is رَبَّانِيُّونَ, occurring in the Kur iii. 73 [and v. 48 and 68].