'Alhamd' means: complete praise. The 'alif' and 'lam' in it indicate the comprehensiveness of the category of praises. It is more general than 'shukr' (thankfulness), because 'shukr' is only for a good deed done to the one who thanks. Its thankfulness is a type of praise. Pure 'hamd' is praise for the attributes of the praised without any favor being conferred. The praisers among people are of two types: the thankful and the one who praises by attributes. Al-Tabari held that 'shukr' and 'hamd' are one meaning, which is not satisfactory. It was reported from some people that they said: 'Shukr' is praise of Allah for His favors and blessings, while 'hamd' is praise for His attributes. Al-Qadi Abu Muhammad, may Allah have mercy on him, said: This is a more correct meaning than that they are one meaning. Al-Tabari argued that they are one meaning by the correctness of your saying: 'Alhamdulillah shukran,' and this in reality indicates the opposite of what he held, because your saying: 'shukran' specifies the 'hamd' as being for a blessing from the blessings. The seven and the majority of people agreed on raising the 'dal' in 'Alhamdulillah.' It was narrated from Sufyan ibn 'Uyaynah and Ru'bah ibn al-Ajjaj: 'Alhamdallillah' with the 'dal' opened, and this is based on an implied verb. It was narrated from Al-Hasan ibn Abi Al-Hasan and Zayd ibn Ali: 'Alhamdillah' with the 'dal' broken, following the first second. It was narrated from Ibn Abi 'Ablah: 'Alhamdulillah' with the 'dal' and 'lam' closed, following the second and the first. Al-Tabari said: 'Alhamdulillah' is praise by which He praised Himself, and within it, He commanded His servants to praise Him. It is as if He said: 'Say: Alhamdulillah.' And upon this comes the saying: 'Iyaka.' He said: And this is from the omission of the Arabs, which the apparent meaning of the speech indicates, as the poet said: 'And I know that I will be a grave when the sheep do not move.' So the questioners said: 'For whom have you dug?' And the informers said to them: 'For a minister.' The meaning is: 'The one for whom it was dug is a minister.' So he omitted for the indication of the apparent meaning of the speech, and this is frequent. A group read 'Rabb' with the accusative. Some of them said: It is an accusative for praise, and some said: It is for calling. And upon this comes 'Iyaka.' 'Rabb' in language means the one who is worshipped, the lord, the owner, the one who manages affairs, the one who rectifies what is corrupted of them, and the king. The term comes for these meanings. Among what has come with the meaning of 'the one who is worshipped' is the saying of the poet: 'Is there a lord upon whose head the foxes urinate? Indeed, he has become insignificant to whom the foxes have urinated.' And among what has come with the meaning of 'the lord and owner' is their saying: 'The lord of the servants and the owned.' And among what has come with the meaning of 'the one who manages affairs, the chief in them' is the saying of Labid: 'And we destroyed one day the lord of Kinda and his son, and the lord of Mudar between Khibt and 'Ar'ar.' And among what has come with the meaning of 'the king' is the saying of Al-Nabighah: 'You hasten to Al-Nu'man until you reach him, a ransom for you from a lord who is rare and my father.' And from the meaning of 'rectification' is their saying: 'A land that is cultivated.' That is: rectified. The poet said: 'They were like foolish sheep when they were injected, their foolishness in a land that is not cultivated.'

And from the meaning of "the King" is the saying of Safwan ibn Umayyah to his brother on the day of Hunayn: "For a man from Quraysh to raise me is better than for a man from Hawazin to raise me." And from it is the saying of Ibn Abbas regarding Abdullah ibn al-Zubair and Abd al-Malik ibn Marwan: "If it must be, then for a man from my paternal relatives to raise me is more beloved to me than for others to raise me." Al-Bukhari mentioned this in the tafsir of Surah At-Tawbah. And from that is the saying of the poet:

And I was a man whose nurturing was entrusted to you, And before you, I was raised by another.

These usages may overlap. The Lord, in the absolute sense, who is the Lord of lords in every regard, is Allah, the Most High.

And "the worlds" is the plural of world, and it refers to every existing thing besides Allah, the Most High. It is said for its entirety: world, and for its parts, from humans and jinn and others: world. According to this, it is gathered as "the worlds." And since the world of time is variable in another time, its pluralization is appropriate. The term "the world" is a plural that has no singular form of its own, and it is derived from knowledge and sign, as it indicates its creator. Thus said Al-Zajjaj.