The King Above Every Throne | Allah's Names Ep. 6 | Dr. Omar Suleiman | Ramadan Series 2026

Does it look any hopeful now, Nour?

Any signal?

Yeah, I don't think so either.

Yeah, I give up.

This thing is not going anywhere.

Adam, I think we— Adam!

Where does the kid keep going? Adam!

I'm going to kill this kid. Adam!

آه. لقط؟ شكلي لقط. أه،

أه! لقط، لقط!

Adam! Adam! Oh, look at that.

Seems like we got some trouble here.

Think about human kings. The more power a human being

has, the more corrupt he tends to become. إِنَّ الْمُلُوكَ إِذَا

دَخَلُوا قَرْيَةً أَفْسَدُوهَا. When kings enter a city, they

corrupt it. Because power almost always comes with

arrogance. And that's not just true for kings on

thrones. But any authority that feels unchecked and

forgets who put them in that position in the first

place is prone to corruption. And that's why Umar ibn

al-Khattab رضي الله تعالى عنه, who was humbled by his

position, once asked Salman رضي الله عنه, "Ya Salman, am

I a king or a khalifa?" He said, "If you take

even a single dirham from the people's wealth and

misplace it, then you're a king, not a khalifa." And

Umar, رضي الله عنه, wept out of fear of Allah.

And even the Prophet, صلى الله عليه وسلم on the day

of the conquest of Mecca, a man comes to him

trembling as he approaches him. So the Prophet,

صلى الله عليه وسلم says to him, "Relax, هوّن عليك. For"

فإني لست بملك. I'm not a king. I'm just the son of a woman

from Mecca who used to eat dry meat." So who

is الملك؟ المالك، المليك. And what's the

difference between these three names? It all starts with

الملك, from which the other names unfold. And the

Quran envelopes your life with the parallel of Rabb and

Malik. So you open with رب العالمين، مالك يوم الدين

and you close with رب الناس، ملك الناس. So the scholars

point out that Rabb usually addresses the personal

aspects of lordship. And Malik addresses the public

aspects of authority. The merciful master commands

for the interests of the individual, while the mighty

king legislates for the welfare of the many. And

the king of the world still has time to be

your loving master in the most personal sense. So both

praise and protection meet under the same throne of

ar-Rahman. Allah says, "ذلكم الله ربكم له الملك"

"That is your Lord. To Him belongs the ownership of

all." Imagine if you were to walk into the palace

grounds of a king. How would you behave? You would

be grateful to be there, careful to follow the rules,

respectful of what the king wants. Here you pledge

allegiance to that king every morning, every

night."أصبحنا وأصبح الملك لله" "We have entered

the morning and the entire kingdom belongs to Allah."

Then in the evening,"أمسينا وأمسى الملك لله" "We

have entered the night and the entire kingdom belongs to

Allah.""والحمد لله" "And all praise belongs to Him." You

glorify His power and His praise. So who is this king?

Firstly, he's a king who didn't need you to recognize

him. Al-Malik means the king who needs no validation.

He already declared himself the king."هو

الله الذي لا إله إلا هو" al-Malik. No one placed

a crown on him. No one voted him in. No one

can vote him out. His kingship is not acquired

nor inherited. It simply is and always will be. Every

other throne in history was only borrowed for a time.

And think about Fir'awn standing proudly before his

people, even carving himself into pyramids, only for

Allah to drown him and preserve his rotten corpse as

a warning to every Fir'awn wannabe after him. And look

at all the arrogant emperors and empires now returned to

dirt, only to be artifacts of evil."أفلم يسيروا في الأرض

فينظروا كيف كان عاقبة الذين من قبلهم" "Have they not

traveled through the earth and seen what became of those

before them?" The lesson remains, but the kings are

gone. And on the Day of Judgment, He will declare, "أنا

الملك." "I am the King." Where are the kings of

the world? Now note that He's always the King. But on

the Day of Judgment, it's particularly significant.

Which brings us to the next name, "مَالِكِ يَوْمِ الدِّينِ." "Owner

of the Day of Judgment." Yawm ad-Din is Yawm ad-Dain,

the day of debt. When debts are paid, when titles

expire, when heads bow and hearts sink, and all private

claims are put on display in this one big public

tribunal, the kings who once ruled nations will stand as

servants. The billionaires who thought they owned the

world will realize they actually own nothing at all. And

some recitations are مَلِكِ يَوْمِ الدِّينِ, King of the Day

of Judgment. Others are مَالِكِ يَوْمِ الدِّينِ, owner of the

Day of Judgment. Because He owns that day and He

is the king over its proceedings and people. And notice

how Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala says right before

that, "الرَّحْمَٰنِ الرَّحِيمِ." So that you don't mistake Him for

a harsh king. And the Day of Judgment is the day

when you want Him to be most merciful. But of course,

He's not just مَالِكِ يَوْمِ الدِّينِ. One of His

names is also مَالِكُ الْمُلْكِ, the owner of all

things owned. He just specified the Day of Judgment

first to make that your focus when you read every

other verse of the Quran. Because just like His mercy

frames every other name of His, the day of judgment

should frame every other station of your

existence."تبارك الذي بيده الملك""وهو على كل شيء قدير"

الذي خلق الموت والحياة He created

and He owns everything that exists, including

death and life. And He starts with death to remind

you that you didn't even own your existence. And so when

He reclaims what was always His, even our precious

loved ones. The Prophet, صلى الله عليه وسلم taught us

to say,"لله ما أخذ وله ما أعطى" "To Him

belongs what He took and what He gave." Even your

loved ones are just borrowed gifts from Allah. And He

reminds us to say at all times,"لله ملك السماوات والأرض"

"To Allah belongs the kingdom of the heavens and the

earth." If you don't truly own yourself, then you

certainly don't own anything else. You're renting even

what you think you're owning. And one day the owner

will call back what was always His."قل اللهم مالك الملك

تؤتي الملك من تشاء وتنزع الملك ممن تشاء" Say, "O

Allah, owner of all dominion, You give kingdom to whom

You will and You take it away from whom You

will." So al-Malik tells you who He is. al-Malik

tells you what He owns, which is everything.

And when you trust His ownership, He takes you to

another level to trust His execution as well. Which

brings us to the rarest name, al-Malik, which means the

inevitable King, whose decree no one escapes. al-Malik

adds to the notion of power, the power of execution."إن

المتقين في جنات ونهر في مقعد صدق عند مليك مقتدر"

"The righteous will be in gardens and rivers,

seated in a position of honor with a king who

has absolute power." Pay attention. al-Malik is the King

who needs no validation. al-Malik is the King who

owns all possessions. al-Malik is the King who then

executes His decree with no fear of ever losing power.

Because no coup or rebellion is ever possible with Him.

So when you realize Allah is al-Malik, you stop

measuring your safety by proximity to people and start

measuring it solely by proximity to Him. But that's when

you witness His power. How about when you feel His

majesty? Which brings us to the last name, al-Jalil, His

majesty. You see, you can recognize the power of a

king in front of you, but feel no real reverence

in your heart. But if they possess this quality of

al-Jalal as well, then you're overwhelmed by their

presence. So Jalal, as the scholars explain, speaks to

the internal condition caused by the King in His

subjects. And when do you most feel that majesty of

Allah? It's after Salah, where you've stood in awe of Him.

And then you say,"تباركت يا ذا الجلال والإكرام" But you

know the Prophet ﷺ, he said, "ألظوا

بيا ذا الجلال والإكرام." Frequently say, يا ذا الجلال

والإكرام, "O possessor of majesty and honor." But His

Jalal is a majesty that humbles, not humiliates. And it

brings you closer. It doesn't push you away. It's a

magnetic form of majesty. Now in the human sense, the

Prophet ﷺ had more Jalal than any

other human being, which is why Urwah ibn Mas'ud met

him in Hudaybiyyah as a negotiator. And he saw the

reverence of the companions towards him. So he goes back

to Quraysh and he says, "Listen, I've met the Caesar

of Rome and the Kisra of Persia, and I've never

seen a man more revered by his subjects than this man."

It wasn't that the Prophet ﷺ,

was sitting on a throne or that he was pompous.

He was sitting on the floor and dressed like his

companions. But it's like Amr ibn al-Aas, رضي الله تعالى

عنه, said that if you ask me to describe the Prophet,

صلى الله عليه وسلم, I couldn't. Because as

beautiful as he was, he was so awe-inspiring that he

would look down in his presence. So I could never

look him in the eye. That was the best of men.

But what about the creator of that man? al-Jalil,

the royalty of all royalty, the majesty of all majesty.

And to feel what al-Jalil does to an aware human

heart, there's this beautiful narration from an Imam

al-Asma'i, rahimahullah, where he says that I met this

Bedouin one time in Hajj. And he said to me,

"Can you read me some Quran?" So I read Surah

Adh-Dhariyat until I came to this ayah. "وَفِي السَّمَاءِ رِزْقُكُمْ

وَمَا تُوعَدُونَ" "In the heaven is your sustenance and what

you've been promised." So the man said, "Hasbuk, that's

all I need." And he goes and he slaughters his

camel and he gives everything away in charity, trusting

that his rizq is going to come from his Lord.

Then later at Hajj, an Imam al-Asma'i says, he came

back to me and he said, "Can you read where

you left off?" So I read the next verse. "فَوَرَبِّ

السَّمَاءِ وَالْأَرْضِ إِنَّهُ لَحَقٌّ" "By the Lord of the heavens and

the earth, indeed this is surely the truth." And the

Bedouin cried out and he said, "Ya SubhanAllah! مَنْ ذَا الَّذِي

أَغْضَبَ الْجَلِيلَ حَتَّى حَلَفَ؟" "Who angered His majesty until He

swore an oath? Did they not believe His word the first

time? Did He really have to swear?" And he

cried out saying the same thing three times until he

was so overwhelmed by Allah's majesty that Allah brought

back his reverent soul. That's al-Jalil, who invokes in

us a reverence that no earthly throne can evoke. So how

does He summon you now? How do you feel when

you stand before Him now? I want you to pay

very close attention to this. Every single day as

the world goes to sleep, in a way that befits

His majesty, He descends to the lowest heaven and He

says, "أنا الملك، أنا الملك، من ذا الذي يدعوني

فأستجيب له؟ من ذا الذي يسألني فأعطيه؟"

"I am the King. I am the King. Who is asking

Me so I may respond to him? Who wants something

from Me so I can give it to him?

Who's seeking forgiveness from Me so that I can

forgive them?" The King opens His door and invites His

subjects in. No guards, no red carpet, no bureaucracy,

no fear. That's every single night an offer to the world

from the King of the heavens and the earth.

Then on that single fateful day when the world ends,

that same King rolls up the heavens and the earth

in His right hand. And He calls out again, "أنا

الملك، أنا الملك، أين الجبارون والمتكبرون؟" "I am the

King. I am the King. Where are the arrogant tyrants

now?" But it's a completely different tone. Contrast the

two proclamations of the King. There's the nightly mercy

call and then there's the Qiyamah majesty call. And if

you answer His nightly call with humility and

repentance, then that day's call will be mercy for you.

But if you ignore Him now, then that day's call

will be judgment. But whether you hear Him or not,

you still belong to Him just like every other one

of His creatures. So why do you think He

created you in

the first place?

Yah Malik, you are the king of everything I know and hold.

Remind me that nothing I hold is truly mine and

that every rise and fall belongs to Your decree.

Let my gratitude expand with every breath You lend to

me. Yah Maalik, the owner of the day when debts are

paid. Teach me to settle my dues before I meet

You. Keep me honest with what I owe and hopeful

in what You forgive. Yah Maleek, the king whose

command no one can escape. Let Your sovereignty humble

my pride. Make me content under Your rule and protect

me from a rebellious heart that would cause me to fall

out of Your favor. Yah Jaleel, fill my heart with

reverence that draws me near, not fear that drives me

away. Let my awe of You refine me until I

stand before You small, but never

disgraced.

وَلِلَّهِ الْأَسْمَاءُ الْحُسْنَىٰ فَادْعُوهُ

بِهَا