...of them as such through His statement: {Lord of the worlds}, then the most fitting of His attributes, May His Remembrance be Exalted, to follow that is what His statement {Lord of the worlds, the Most Compassionate, the Most Merciful} did not encompass, given the closeness of connection and proximity between the two verses, since His wisdom is the wisdom unlike any other wisdom, and in repeating His description, May His Remembrance be Exalted, as {Master of the Day of Judgment}, there would be a repetition of what had already passed of His description in His statement {Lord of the worlds}, along with the proximity of the two verses and the overlap of the two attributes. In repeating that, there would be a repetition of different words with identical meanings, offering the listener no needed benefit from what was repeated. That which His attributes, May His Remembrance be Exalted, before His statement: {Master of the Day of Judgment} did not encompass is the meaning contained in His statement: {King of the Day of Judgment}, which is His description as the King.

It is clear then that the most correct of the two recitations, and the interpretation most deserving of the Book, is the recitation of the one who recites it: {King of the Day of Judgment}, in the sense of devoting sovereignty exclusively to Him on the Day of Judgment, rather than the recitation of the one who recites {Master of the Day of Judgment} in the sense that He owns judgment among them and the decisive decree, being unique in it to the exclusion of all His creation.

If someone supposes that His statement {Lord of the worlds} is a report of His ownership of them in this world to the exclusion of the Hereafter, necessitating joining that to the report about Himself that He is the One who owns them in the Hereafter in the same manner as His ownership of them in this world through His statement {Master of the Day of Judgment}—he has been heedless and has supposed wrongly (1).

That is because if it were permissible for a supposer to suppose that the meaning of His statement {Lord of the worlds} is restricted to informing about the Lordship over the world of this life to the exclusion of the world of the Hereafter—despite the absence of evidence that such is its meaning in the apparent text of the Revelation, or in a transmitted report from the Messenger, peace and blessings of God be upon him, or in a proof found in intellect—it would be permissible for another to suppose that it is restricted to the world of the time in which His statement {Lord of the worlds} was revealed, to the exclusion of all that occurs after it in subsequent times among the worlds. For it is correct, based on the explanation we have previously presented, that the world of every time is distinct from the world of the time that follows it.

If a foolish person is ignorant of the truth of that based on what we have previously presented, then in the statement of God, May His Praise be Exalted: {And We certainly gave the Children of Israel the Book, wisdom, and prophethood, and provided them with good things, and favored them over the worlds} [Surah al-Jāthiyah: 16], there is clear indication that the world of every time is distinct from the world of the time before it and the world of the time after it. This is because God, May His Praise be Exalted, favored the nation of our Prophet Muḥammad, peace and blessings of God be upon him, over all previous nations and informed them of that in His statement: {You were the best nation brought forth for mankind...} the verse [Surah Āl ʿImrān: 110]. Thus it is known thereby that the Children of Israel in the era of our Prophet were not—despite their denial of him, peace and blessings of God be upon him—the best of the worlds; rather, the best of the worlds in that era and after it until the establishment of the Hour are the believers in him who follow his methodology, to the exclusion of all other nations that disbelieve and stray from his methodology.