بِسْمِ ٱللَّهِ ٱلرَّحْمَٰنِ ٱلرَّحِيمِ
In the name of Allah, the All-Beneficent, the All-Merciful
قُلْ أَعُوذُ بِرَبِّ ٱلنَّاسِ
Say, ‘I seek the protection of the Lord of humans,
مَلِكِ ٱلنَّاسِ
Sovereign of humans,
إِلَٰهِ ٱلنَّاسِ
God of humans,
English translation: Ali Quli Qarai
The final sura of the Qurʾan opens the seeking of refuge not, as al-Falaq did, by naming an external harm, but by piling up three attributes of the One in whom refuge is taken: rabb al-nās, malik al-nās, ilāh al-nās — "Lord of mankind, King of mankind, God of mankind." The present sources read this triad as deliberate and ascending.
The three attributes as three grounds of protection. Ṭabāṭabāʾī (al-Mīzān) frames the whole psychologically: when a person senses an approaching evil and his own weakness, he shelters with whoever is strong enough to repel it. Three kinds of protector are conceivable — a lord who manages and nurtures one's affairs, a king whose sovereign power can shield a petitioner, and a worshipped God to whom one clings in pure devotion — and God is all three at once, as He combined them in "That is God, your Lord; His is the sovereignty; there is no god but He" (39:6). From this Ṭabāṭabāʾī derives the order: the Lord comes first as nearest and most particular in guardianship, then the King as more remote and general (sought by one with no particular guardian), then the God, sought out of sincerity rather than material need. He further explains the striking absence of the conjunction "and" between the three: each attribute is an independent, self-sufficient cause of protection.
Why "King" and not "Owner." Ṭabarsī (Majmaʿ al-bayān) and Ṭūsī (al-Tibyān) both dwell on the lexical choice. Unlike al-Fātiḥa, where both malik ("King") and mālik ("Owner") are recited, here only malik is admissible, because malik denotes governance over beings aware of being governed: one says "owner of a garment" but not "king of a garment," and "king of the Romans" but not "owner of the Romans." So in this sura the word carries the sense of ruling rational creatures who take recourse to Him in their needs. Both also gloss ilāh al-nās identically: the One whom people are obliged to worship because He alone deserves it.
Why single out "mankind." Ṭabarsī notes that although God is Lord of every creature, He specified mankind because among people there are the mighty (told He is still their Lord), kings (told He is their King), and worshippers of others (told He is their true God). He preserves a striking grammatical reading from Jāmiʿ al-ʿUlūm: the fourfold "mankind" is not repetition but denotes, in turn, fetuses (nurtured — hence "Lord"), children (owned — hence "King"), the accountable adults (who worship — hence "God"), and finally the learned, to whom Satan whispers, since the ignorant already stray by their ignorance.
Occasion and status. Ṭabāṭabāʾī reports that this sura, like al-Falaq before it, is Medinan and that the two were revealed together. Qummī, present here only with a brief note, records the variant reading that the verse is simply "I seek refuge in the Lord of mankind" (a reading flagged for review below). The published Enlightening Commentary rounds out the reading: Lordship, Ownership, and Divinity are "three important lessons" and "three means of rescue," but taking refuge is not a matter of the tongue alone — one must confess God's Lordship by submitting to His guidance, His Kingship by obedient servanthood, and His Divinity by worshipping none but Him. Baḥrānī offers no distinct comment on these three verses; its narrations bear on the whisperer and the sura's virtue, and are gathered under the next passage.