Transcription
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