There is an interesting phrase that occurs dozens of times in the Qur’an. The phrase, which is used when referring to God, is ‘Lord of the Worlds’.

When I read the Qur’an for the first time, my immediate reaction to this interesting phrase was to wonder whether the phrase referred to God in relation to the bigger picture of the universe — whether it referred to God as Lord of every planet. I felt eager to know whether this was the intended meaning of the phrase, because if it was, it would accord very well with my own philosophical perspective, which is that there is one God who is Lord over the whole universe and the entirety of creation (which I refer to in my books as God’s ‘cosmic playground’).