This means: there is no Creator and no deity worthy of worship in truth and reality except Allah, Exalted and Glorified. Everything other than Him is fundamentally false. This verse is a foundation of Tawheed (monotheism): He is One, having no partner, no equal, no minister, and no advisor. Its meaning is the prohibition of worshiping anything other than Allah.

He is the True Deity for whom we hope that all types of worship, obedience, and devotion belong to Him alone, due to His perfection, the perfection of His attributes, and His tremendous blessings. The servant deserves to be a servant to his Lord, complying with His commands and avoiding His prohibitions. Everything other than Allah is false, so worshiping anything other than Him is false, because everything besides Allah is created, deficient, managed, and poor in all aspects—therefore deserving no form of worship.

“Allah” – This majestic name indicates that He is worshiped and adored by all creation with love, veneration, submission, and turning to Him in needs and calamities. It is a proper name indicating the essence of Allah, the Lord of the Worlds, the deity truly worthy of worship, possessing all absolute perfections that are countless, unlimited, and undiminished, while being exalted above all defects and flaws. No one besides Him has been named with this name, Glory be to Him.

All worlds are attached to this majestic name in their essence and types. Allah says: يَا أَيُّهَا النَّاسُ أَنتُمُ الْفُقَرَاءُ إِلَى اللَّهِ ۖ وَاللَّهُ هُوَ الْغَنِيُّ الْحَمِيدُ “O mankind, you are those in need of Allah, while Allah is the Free of need, the Praiseworthy” (Fatir: 15). All servants say: “O Allah!” whether in supplication, request, call, remembrance, or intimate conversation.

This name encompasses all the divine names—both apparent and hidden—in a manner that has no end, as befits Him, Glory be to Him. His names are according to His attributes, and as His attributes of perfection have no end, His names have no end. This majestic name has many special characteristics and virtues mentioned in detailed books.

Allah praised Himself with two magnificent and beautiful attributes: Al-Hayy (The Ever-Living) and Al-Qayyum (The Sustainer).

Al-Hayy (The Ever-Living): The One who never dies. The Living in Allah’s attributes means He has always existed and has always been described by life. Life was not created for Him after death, nor will death come to Him after life. All other living beings experience death and non-existence, for everything is perishing except His Face, Glory and Exaltation to Him.

Al-Hayy is the One who has perfect life that necessitates all attributes of His Essence, such as hearing, seeing, knowledge, and power.

The life with which the One God is described is essential life that did not come from another source, unlike the life of creation which is acquired and gifted to them by the Creator. Thus, Allah alone is unique in life in this sense, as it is eternal and everlasting life that does not begin from a beginning and does not end at an end.

Al-Qayyum (The Sustainer): The One who constantly manages all affairs of creation. He is the One who stands over everything. Allah, Exalted and Glorified, manages His creation in their existence, provision, and everything they need.

Al-Qayyum is the One who stands by Himself and sustains others. This necessitates all the actions with which the Lord of the Worlds is described—doing what He wills: ascending, descending, speaking, saying, creating, providing, causing death, giving life, and all other types of management. All of this falls within the Qayyumiyyah (self-sustenance and sustaining others) of the Creator.

The attribute of Life (Al-Hayy) encompasses and necessitates all attributes of perfection, and the attribute of Qayyumiyyah (Al-Qayyum) encompasses all attributes of actions. Therefore, Allah’s greatest name—when called upon, He answers, and when asked by it, He gives—is Al-Hayy Al-Qayyum. This is why when the Prophet ﷺ strove hard in supplication, he would say: “O Ever-Living, O Sustainer!”

This is part of the perfection of His life and Qayyumiyyah. He, Blessed and Exalted, “is not overtaken by drowsiness nor sleep”—meaning He is not affected by sleepiness or sleep, as these are characteristics of human beings, and Allah is different from that.

Sinah (drowsiness): The beginning of sleepiness, which then becomes sleep. Nawm (sleep) is stronger than sinah. Since this is the case, negating the occurrence of drowsiness and sleep for Allah affirms the perfection of His Life, the continuity of His management, and establishes the perfection of His Knowledge.

The intended meaning of this verse is that Allah is not afflicted by any deficiency nor does weariness affect Him in any state whatsoever.

Since Allah, Glory be to Him, constantly manages His kingdom, and no one shares with Him in it, and no one has authority over Him, He establishes this Qayyumiyyah with His statement: “To Him belongs whatever is in the heavens and whatever is on the earth”—meaning all who are in them and what is in them are His property. He alone manages them with His wisdom, power, and care, and all His servants and His kingdom are under His subjugation and authority.

This means: no created being, whoever they may be—whether a close angel or a sent prophet—has the right to intercession or supplication before Allah except with His pleasure and after His permission. All intercession belongs to Allah alone. This is from His greatness, majesty, and magnificence—that no one dares to intercede with Him except by His permission.

Allah does not allow anyone to intercede with Him by right or entitlement, because all creation is His property. However, He allows whomever He wishes to intercede—to demonstrate that person’s honor with Him. He permits them to intercede for whom He wills.

This means: Allah knows everything in the heavens and the earth regarding His creation’s affairs—their past, present, and future, matters of this world and the Hereafter. The purpose of this is to demonstrate the universality of His knowledge encompassing all things on earth and in the heavens.

Allah knows all things that can be known. Nothing is hidden from Him about the conditions of all His creation. He even knows the crawling of the black ant in the darkness of night on the solid rock beneath the dusty earth, the movement of an atom in the atmosphere, the bird in the air, and the fish in the water. Nothing is hidden from Him—whether on earth, in the heaven, or between them. He knows the secrets and mysteries of His kingdom and His creation, Glory and Exaltation to Him.

This means: They do not comprehend anything of knowledge or understanding except to the extent that the Lord of the Worlds has taught them, Who taught mankind what they did not know. Allah gave them from His knowledge what He willed and as He willed. There is no one to reverse His judgment, and He is swift in reckoning.

No one gains knowledge of Allah’s knowledge except by Allah’s will and teaching. Whatever mankind has known of the unseen world and whatever mankind has known of the visible world, the laws of this universe and how to harness it—all of this is only by Allah’s will and teaching. He is the One who taught mankind what they did not know, and He is the One who taught everything what it knows.

The Quran contains many verses indicating the vastness of Allah’s knowledge and that it encompasses everything—whether small or large, minor or great. As specifically stated in Surah Yunus: وَمَا يَعْزُبُ عَن رَّبِّكَ مِن مِّثْقَالِ ذَرَّةٍ فِي الْأَرْضِ وَلَا فِي السَّمَاءِ وَلَا أَصْغَرَ مِن ذَٰلِكَ وَلَا أَكْبَرَ إِلَّا فِي كِتَابٍ مُّبِينٍ “And not absent from your Lord is any [part] of an atom’s weight within the earth or within the heaven or [anything] smaller than that or greater but that it is in a clear register” (Yunus: 61).

Allah’s knowledge encompasses the details of all matters—past and future, apparent and hidden, unseen and witnessed. Servants have nothing of any matter, nor any atom’s weight of knowledge except what Allah has taught them.

The Kursi in this verse is a metaphor for the greatness of His knowledge, its comprehensiveness, and its vastness. Interpreting it as the greatness of authority fits with Allah’s statement afterward: “and their preservation tires Him not.” Interpreting it as encompassing knowledge fits with His statement before it: “and they encompass not a thing of His knowledge.”

Therefore, it is correct to say that Allah’s statement “His Kursi extends over the heavens and the earth” is a metaphor for the greatness of His power, the execution of His will, the vastness of His knowledge, and the perfection of His encompassment. Abdullah ibn Abbas interpreted “His Kursi” as His knowledge—a metaphor for the vastness of His sovereignty and the vastness of His knowledge.

This imagery gives the intended truth powerful, deep, and firm representation in the heart. The Kursi is commonly used in the meaning of kingship. If His Kursi extends over the heavens and the earth, then His authority extends over them. This is the truth from an intellectual perspective, but the tangible image that forms in the senses from the concrete expression is more stable and powerful.

“His Kursi extends over the heavens and the earth” comes to establish what all the statements contain of greatness, magnificence, knowledge, and power regarding Allah, Exalted in His majesty and glory. It demonstrates the greatness of His creation in both large and small creatures, apparent and hidden, on earth and in heaven—necessitating the greatness of His affair and displaying the vastness of His kingdom.

This means: The One who created what is in the heavens and the earth with their numerous creatures—preserving them does not burden Him, nor is He unable to care for what He has brought into existence in them, nor does managing their affairs according to what He has decreed and determined weigh upon Him.

Glory be to Him by whose command the heaven stands and by whose revelation the earth rotates! He raised the mountains, caused rivers to flow, moved the air, split the seed, and brought forth fruits. The entire existence is in His grasp, and everything in it is by His will. No heaven disobeys Him, no earth departs from His obedience, nor does any cloud.

This means: Allah is above His creation—no one ascends to His lofty station. He is also the Great One, possessing awe and majesty, exalted by His greatness over every great thing.

Al-‘Aliyy (The Most High): The One who is exalted above every defect, fault, and deficiency, or the One transcendent above the attributes of created beings.

Al-‘Aliyy is interpreted as being higher than others in rank—He is most deserving of attributes of perfection. It is also interpreted as being High over them through subjugation and dominance, returning to the meaning that He has power over them while they are powerless. The Prophet ﷺ would begin his supplication: “Glory be to my Lord, the Most High, the Bestower.” When the Prophet ﷺ prostrated in prayer, he would say: “Glory be to my Lord, the Most High” (three times).

Al-‘Adheem (The Most Great): The One who has perfected His greatness. He is great in His Essence and attributes. His Supreme Essence is exalted above resemblance. He is the Creator, the Subduer, the All-Powerful. He alone is the deity truly worthy of worship. Everything in existence glorifies Him with His praise. He alone is the Great One, the worshiped One alone, the magnified One alone. If the distractions of life have misled most people so they did not realize His greatness in this fleeting world, His greatness will become manifest to them in the eternal one.

These are the two comprehensive attributes “And He is the Most High, the Most Great” encompassing all the preceding attributes. Allah, Glory and Exaltation to Him, is the Most High, the Most Great.