Ayat al-Kursi: Allah, the Ever-Living, the Self-Sustaining

Occasion: Transcription of a Fajr khatira delivered on 29 September 2026 Source: A transcription of a video khatira by Dr. Ahmed Abouseif — Watch the original video on YouTube

O Allah, by Your knowledge of the unseen and Your power over creation, keep us alive so long as You know life to be better for us, and take us in death when You know death to be better for us. Grant us the good of this world and the Hereafter, do not hold us to account for our sins, and leave no way for Satan into our hearts. Preserve for us the soundness of our eyesight and our inner insight. O Allah, we seek refuge in You from trials, those of them that are apparent and those that are hidden. O Allah, You are Allah, there is no god but You alone, with no partner; preserve for us the faith You have placed in our hearts, keep us firm upon the truth until we meet You, guide us, make us content, and grant us all good, in this world and the next. O Allah, we ask You by Your most beautiful names and Your most exalted attributes, and by what You have described Your Self with, and what You know better than anyone of Yourself, glory be to You, that You bestow upon us certainty in You and in what You have promised, and that You make us among the people of Paradise, those who work in this world, who are honored in this world and the Hereafter. O Allah, amen, O Lord of the worlds.

Allah, the Ever-Living: A Life That Time Does Not Turn Upon

Now, Ayat al-Kursi: what the Lord of the worlds says about Himself is enough. It is enough, as you speak about this verse, to remember that our Lord is speaking in it about His own Self, so what could be greater than that? And at the beginning of the verse it stands out for us that He is Allah, there is no god but He.^[1]

﴿اللَّهُ لَا إِلَٰهَ إِلَّا هُوَ الْحَيُّ الْقَيُّومُ﴾ (Allah — there is no god but He, the Ever-Living, the Self-Sustaining). Among the elements of understanding here is that you see One who is alive and does not die, whom time does not turn upon, whom the days do not overtake, whom the age does not outstrip. Consider those who came before and those who come after: have you seen anyone in the universe whom time has not overcome and whom the days have not outpaced? Whoever dies at twenty has been overtaken by death, and whoever lingers beyond two hundred, the world has only worn him down, and he has become unable to move and relies on those around him. So He is the Ever-Living, while the living one perceives what is around him and strives to possess, yet he does not stand over all things.

The Sustainer: The One Who Stands Over Every Affair

Whoever has dependents knows that if he attends to the affair of one of them, the other slips from his mind, if only for a moment, and managing all their affairs at the same time may be in the general sense and not in the details. The one who attends to the dependents materially may neglect their emotional need, and the one who talks with them to pat their shoulders and soothe their souls may perhaps be materially unable. So Allah says: ﴿الْقَيُّومُ﴾ (the Self-Sustaining), the Sustainer who knows where each one of us has come from this morning. You are not sure where I have come from; perhaps I have come from a journey, and perhaps the gathering kept us with some people through a long night as we dealt with one of their affairs. And whoever has come from his home, how many people did he leave behind him? How many are there in the house with you? Did you leave a wife? A mother? Do you have children, are they male or female? How old are they? When do they study? Where do they go? How much do they spend? What kinds of food do they have? My Lord is Sustainer over all of this while you are on your way to the mosque this morning. And how many cars passed you, and how many cars did you pass? Who is in them? Where are they heading? What kinds of work do they do? With what will they return at the end of the day? A Sustainer, standing over His dominion in all its affairs, its first and its last, its outward and its inward, its present and its future.

And since this description requires that the King never be absent from the kingdom, He, glory be to Him, said: ﴿لَا تَأْخُذُهُ سِنَةٌ وَلَا نَوْمٌ﴾ (Neither drowsiness nor sleep overtakes Him). Drowsiness is a dozing that does not take up time and does not bring complete rest, but it is not of His affair, mighty and majestic is He, and He has no need of such drowsiness nor of sleep. And sleep means one of two things: the King's absence from His kingdom, or His delegating someone else to manage its affairs until He wakes; and that is not of the affair of the Lord of Might, glory be to Him, exalted is He.

To Him Belongs All That Is in the Heavens and the Earth

And if we say that kingship requires a person to be an owner or a ruler, then he is either a king by ownership or a king by rule and disposal; so which of Allah's creation has combined the two together? No one. Either he owns something but does not know what happens in it, or he has the authority to dispose of things though he does not truly own them; they are not his. Our Lord says: ﴿اللَّهُ لَا إِلَٰهَ إِلَّا هُوَ الْحَيُّ الْقَيُّومُ لَا تَأْخُذُهُ سِنَةٌ وَلَا نَوْمٌ لَّهُ مَا فِي السَّمَاوَاتِ وَمَا فِي الْأَرْضِ﴾ (Allah — there is no god but He, the Ever-Living, the Self-Sustaining. Neither drowsiness nor sleep overtakes Him. To Him belongs all that is in the heavens and all that is in the earth).

We have seen kings in their station, their grandeur and their authority, and even their standing over what is in their hands at times, yet they own a portion of the world. And you deal with the wealthy, so which of them owns? Drive on any highway and look at the number of buildings following one after another: what is each building worth? This one is worth so much and that one so much; so who owns all of this? ﴿لَّهُ مَا فِي السَّمَاوَاتِ وَمَا فِي الْأَرْضِ﴾ (To Him belongs all that is in the heavens and all that is in the earth) is a sentence that sums up for you the dominion over the mountains and what they contain, the earth and what it covers, and the heaven and what it sends down; a sentence that sums up for you the dominion of Allah, blessed and exalted, over the air that people breathe, and the water that they trade in and sell to the creation, and over what is hidden and what is apparent. And He to whom belongs all that is in the heavens and all that is in the earth, would it be hard for Him to give you what you wish at the end of the month? His treasuries are full, not diminished by spending, glory be to Him, exalted is He.^[2]

Intercession by His Leave, Knowledge by His Will, and Preservation Without Fatigue

﴿مَن ذَا الَّذِي يَشْفَعُ عِندَهُ إِلَّا بِإِذْنِهِ﴾ (Who is there that can intercede with Him except by His leave?): who is it that can approach the Great Station unless permission is given him? This is only by His leave, glory be to Him. And you know the way of rulers and the soldiers they are surrounded with, who is given permission to enter upon them and who is not, even if he has standing and rank in society; and if this is the way with a servant, what of the way of his Creator, glory be to Him, exalted is He?

﴿يَعْلَمُ مَا بَيْنَ أَيْدِيهِمْ وَمَا خَلْفَهُمْ وَلَا يُحِيطُونَ بِشَيْءٍ مِّنْ عِلْمِهِ إِلَّا بِمَا شَاءَ وَسِعَ كُرْسِيُّهُ السَّمَاوَاتِ وَالْأَرْضَ﴾ (He knows what is before them and what is behind them, and they encompass nothing of His knowledge except what He wills. His Kursi extends over the heavens and the earth). And if this is the way of the Kursi, what of the One who created, ordained and fashioned? What of the One who left the creation unable to describe His creating? Glory be to the Sustainer! ﴿وَلَا يَئُودُهُ حِفْظُهُمَا﴾ (and preserving them does not weary Him): it is not hard for Him to preserve the blessing that is in your hands. So why your regret or your fear if you were called to spend and held back?^[3] The One who is not unable to preserve the heavens and the earth is not unable to preserve what you have.

And there is the Most High, above every need, the Most Great, above every request, who gives what He wills when He wills, glory be to Him, majestic is He in His height. The Messenger of Allah ﷺ described it as the greatest verse in the Book of Allah, blessed and exalted,^[4] and that is its station for whoever contemplates it, knows what is in it, and has its hidden meanings seep into his soul; that is its station for whoever's mind has grasped the measure of the Lord of Might, glory be to Him, exalted is He, and for whoever has devoted himself to the service of his religion. O Allah, we ask You for understanding.

--- ^[1]: Editor's documentation: In the transcription, after "that He is Allah," there is a cut-off, misleading phrase ("whoever is unable to comprehend Allah, let him seek out the likeness of Allah," and "for the one who is like Allah") that does not fit with His saying, exalted is He, ﴿لَيْسَ كَمِثْلِهِ شَيْءٌ﴾, so it was removed from the body text; to be checked against the recording. ^[2]: Editor's documentation: The speaker conveyed the meaning of the ḥadīth "يَدُ اللَّهِ مَلْأَى لَا يَغِيضُهَا نَفَقَةٌ" (agreed upon, from the ḥadīth of Abū Hurayra, may Allah be pleased with him) without its wording or attribution. ^[3]: Editor's documentation: In the transcription, after this sentence there is a garbled phrase ("وإن سالت الدنيا ظننت بها…") whose meaning was not clear, so it was omitted. ^[4]: Editor's documentation: The ḥadīth of Ubayy ibn Kaʿb, may Allah be pleased with him, in which the Prophet ﷺ asked him about the greatest verse in the Book of Allah; it is in Ṣaḥīḥ Muslim. The speaker did not mention the narrator in this khatira.