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The Name I Need with Dr. Omar Suleiman | Ramadan Series 2026 | Official Trailer
Why a Ramadan Series on Allah’s Names? | Ramadan Series 2026
How Merciful is the Most Merciful? | Allah's Names: The Name I Need - Ep. 1
Who Owns Your Heart? | Allah's Names: The Name I Need - Ep. 2
When You're Searching For Meaning | Allah's Names: The Name I Need - Ep. 3
Playing
The Friend Who Never Leaves | Allah's Names: The Name I Need - Ep. 4
The Master Who Frees You | Allah's Names: The Name I Need - Ep. 5
When You Feel Overwhelmed | Allah's Names: The Name I Need - Ep. 6
Allah Perfected Everything About You | Allah's Names: The Name I Need - Ep. 7
Why Nothing Ever Feels Like Enough | Allah's Names: The Name I Need - Ep. 8
Will Allah Forgive Me? | Allah's Names: The Name I Need - Ep. 9
Does Allah Love Me? | Allah's Names: The Name I Need - Ep. 10
Why Do My Prayers Feel Unheard? | Allah's Names: The Name I Need - Ep. 11
The Fear Beneath Your Anxiety | Allah's Names: The Name I Need - Ep. 12
When You Need to Be Seen | Allah's Names: The Name I Need - Ep. 13
Finding Stillness in a Loud World | Allah's Names: The Name I Need - Ep. 14
The Way Out When Life Feels Stuck | Allah's Names: The Name I Need - Ep. 15
The Beauty of Allah's Timing | Allah's Names: The Name I Need - Ep. 16
The Wisdom Behind Your Pain | Allah's Names: The Name I Need - Ep. 17
Why Allah Lets Tyrants Rise | Allah's Names: The Name I Need - Ep. 18
How Allah Changes the Impossible | Allah's Names: The Name I Need - Ep. 19
Why Doesn’t Allah Stop Injustice Immediately? | Allah's Names: The Name I Need - Ep. 20
Why Does Allah Give Some People More Than Others? | Allah's Names: The Name I Need - Ep. 21
The Strength That Comes From Allah | Allah's Names: The Name I Need - Ep. 22
Why Won't Allah Heal What's Hurting Me? | Allah's Names: The Name I Need - Ep. 23
Why Does Allah Ask Us to Be Patient? | Allah's Names: The Name I Need - Ep. 24
What Happens Between You and Allah in Prayer | Allah's Names: The Name I Need - Ep. 25
Did Allah Forget About Me? | Allah's Names: The Name I Need - Ep. 26
The Name You Call Upon on Laylatul Qadr | Allah's Names: The Name I Need - Ep. 27
What If Your Worst Years Were a Setup? | Allah's Names: The Name I Need - Ep. 28
Where Did The Time Go? | Allah's Names: The Name I Need - Ep. 29
For Every Need And Everything Beyond | Allah's Names: The Name I Need - Ep. 30
The Name I Need | Ramadan 2026
The Friend Who Never Leaves | Allah's Names: The Name I Need - Ep. 4
Why do even the closest people in your life eventually leave while one Companion never does?
Friends change. Circumstances end. Relationships fade. Even the most loving bonds in this world are temporary. Your heart was created to seek a presence that never disappears, a support that never weakens, and a friendship that never betrays.
In this episode, Dr. Omar Suleiman reflects on the names Al-Waliyy, Al-Barr, Ar-Rafeeq, and how Allah is the Protective Friend who guards you, the Stable Source of all good, and the Gentle Companion who walks with you through every stage of life—and beyond so you are never alone.
As we enter this blessed month of Ramadan, support the work of Yaqeen by setting up your automated donation today here.
This transcript was auto-generated using AI and may contain misspellings.
It's a good thing I'm not a doctor. I'm a doctor. I'm a doctor. I'm a doctor. I'm a doctor. I'm a doctor. I'm a doctor.
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I'm a doctor. I'm a doctor. I'm a doctor. I'm a doctor. I'm a doctor. I'm a doctor. I'm a doctor.
Mom! Mom! What happened, Mom? The network. The network is broken. Mom! Mom! Mom, please wake up! You're the reason! You're the reason! You're the reason! Calm down!
Life gives us temporary companions that are tied to temporary circumstances. Classmates, as long as you're in that school. Colleagues, as long as you're in that job. Or even when you're passing through, the fellow passenger on a plane until you arrive at your destination.
Every companion we lean on is as temporary as the circumstance that introduced us. People come and go, while all along we seek reliable company. Even Adam, peace be upon him, in general,
even Adam, peace be upon him, in Jannah, wanted a companion. And Jannah is full of them if we get there. But in this world, as Jibreel, peace be upon him, once told the Prophet (ﷺ), وَاحْبِبْ مَا شِئْتَ فَإِنَّكَ مُفَارِقُ وَاحْبِبْ مَا شِئْتَ فَإِنَّكَ مُفَارِقُ
Love whom you will, for you will be separated. As Ibn Taymiyyah, may Allah have mercy on him, said, even your shadow leaves you in the dark. But the one who created that shadow remains. And in Du'a As-Safar, we say as we start our journey, اللَّهُمَّ أَنتَ الصَّاحِبُ فِي السَّفَرِ
وَالخَلِيفَةُ فِي الْأَهْلِ Oh Allah, you are my companion in travel and the guardian over my family. Some of the scholars extended that du'a to life itself. اللَّهُمَّ أَنتَ الصَّاحِبُ فِي سَّفَرِ الحَيَاةِ Oh Allah, you are my
companion on this journey of life as a whole. And the Prophet (ﷺ) said كُنْ فِي الدُّنْيَا كَأَنَّكَ غَرِيبُ أَوْ عَابِرُ سَبِيلٍ, be in this world as if you're a stranger or a wayfarer. Don't get too comfortable here, and don't depend too much on anyone else's companionship.
Your only consistent companion is the one who created every single step of your journey. And you can instantly summon him at any moment by just thinking of him and remembering him. In a hadith Qudsi, he says
أَنَا جَلِيسُ مَن ذَكَرَنِي I sit with the one who remembers me. If you remember him casually, he's there. If you remember him constantly, he's there without interruption. So you can remember him like a friend every once in a while,
or constantly like a best friend. But what do we even mean when we refer to people as our best friends? That depends on us as individuals, what we seek from people based upon our own needs and vulnerabilities. So some people
value companionship more because they hate loneliness. Others value protection or loyalty because they fear betrayal most. And for some, it's who you can immediately turn to for help in need because the thought
of no one by your side when you fight your hardest battles is terrifying. And as Imam al-Ghazali said, only Allah combines all of these elements of friendship in one. And for most people, the first thing they seek in a best friend
is stability, meaning they're always there and they're always themselves. So I can count on you to be reliably kind or reliably helpful because what good is your good quality if it's inconsistent? And so one of the names of Allah is
al-Barr, the constant source of all good. Innahu huwa al-Barru al-Raheem. Al-Birr, from the same root word, refers to the widest array of good deeds in Islam. So like when Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala says,
walakinna al-birr man amana billahi wal-yawm al-akhir wal-mala'ikati wal-kitabi wal-nabiyyin wa ata al-mala ala hubbihi dhawil-qurba wal-yatama wal-masakin wa ibna al-sabeel. Al-Birr is that you believe in Allah, the last day, the angels, the book and the prophets
and that you give your wealth in spite of love for it to relatives and orphans and the needy and the travelers and those who ask and you free slaves until the end of this incredible ayah. But the point is, birr includes every single
good deed from the smallest kindness to the biggest favors. And that's why you're supposed to show birr to your parents, birr al-walidayn and not even say "uff" to them. So Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala He shows you the
full array of kindness as al-Birr. And another root of the name Birr is land which is the opposite of bahr, the sea. Think of the imagery of the stable land versus the tossing sea.
You drown if you depend on others but you only find firmness in al-Birr. So when someone says that so and so is like my rock, that means they're your safest and most loyal companion. Al-Birr is the most
stable friend that you will ever have. And then beyond that, you don't just have his constancy, you have his protection. So you have al-Wali, the protective friend. Now Allah in the general sense is the Wali of all of
the believers. Allah wali alladhina amanu. But pay attention to the sequence in the Qur'an. The ayah before this Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala says faman yakfur bi taghut wa ya'min billah faqad istamsaka bil 'urwatil wuthqa
la infisama laha. Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala says whoever rejects false gods and believes in Allah has grasped the most trustworthy hand hold, the one that never snaps. So as if Allah is saying that just like you have to shut all the doors of the devil
and focus on walking towards his door, you have to loosen your grip on what and who cannot hold you. The only one who can hold you is the one who has sent you that trustworthy hand hold from the heavens, al-'urwatil wuthqa
and it never snaps. See people will always disappoint you, sometimes even those closest to you. And this can make you bitter and distrustful and cynical. So this helps you to stop being clingy to others or hurt by rejection
because while the creation can get annoyed by your attachment, he loves when you cling to him. And then how does he honor that? Man a'ada li waliyy faqad a'dantuhu bil-harb. Whoever takes that friend of mine as an enemy, I have
declared war on him. The protective friend will fight for you. But this type of Wali is different. This is the special Wali about whom Allah says, I become the hearing with which he hears, the sight by which he sees, the hand with which he grasps,
the foot by which he walks. See that closeness? The root of the word Wali is al-waliyah and it refers to the saddle on the horse's back because it's attached. Meaning there's no distance between it and the
horse and the one on top of it is meant to guide the horse aright. Al-Wali means he guides you and he guards you at the same time. And he looks out for your needs even when they conflict with your wants.
Which is what a responsible Wali is supposed to do. And when you earn and embrace that, your affairs are made easy. And that's why when Yusuf (عليه السلام) was dying, he said to Allah أَنتَ وَلِيِّي فِي الدُّنْيَا وَالآخِرَةِ You are my Wali in this life
and the next. As much as Ya'qub (عليه السلام), his human Wali loved him, he was taken from him. And we all separate at least temporarily at death. Think about how the faces were always changing around Yusuf (عليه السلام). You have a loving
father, then you have jealous brothers, then you have curious travelers that take him out from the well and sell him into slavery. Then you have the house of a master with a lustful wife. And then you have all of her friends. And then you're in a prison cell and you have all these other prisoners.
And then you're on the throne and you have all these subjects. The only companion who was consistent with Yusuf (عليه السلام) throughout his entire journey was al-Wali. And he was guiding and protecting him all along. But that type of relationship
doesn't come through public posturing. It comes through deep private devotion. And that's why Imam al-Hasan al-Basri (رحمه الله) says, don't be a Wali of Allah in public and then be his enemy, be his enemy in secret. Spend time with him in the middle of the night
when no one else is there to witness it. And in your witr prayer, you call out to al-Wali and you say, وَتَوَلَّنِي فِي مَنْ تَوَلَيْتَ Take me into your loving care amongst those who you have done so with.
But how can I be his close friend when there are so many more fitting people out there? Wali status is special, but it's not exclusive. It's an individual friendship that works with millions of people at a time. And only Allah, subhanahu wa ta'ala,
can do that. Now there is one higher layer that only two human beings are known to have ever been granted. And it's called khullah. The rank of the khalil. And this is a rank reserved for prophets. وَاتَّخَذَ اللَّهُ إِبْرَاهِيمَ
خَلِيلًا Allah, subhanahu wa ta'ala, took Ibrahim as a khalil. The Prophet Muhammad (ﷺ) also was taken as a khalil by Allah. And because of that, the Prophet Muhammad (ﷺ) said, I can't take Abu Bakr as a khalil.
So while the Prophet Muhammad (ﷺ) could only have one khalil, Allah can have more than one khalil. And even in that is a lesson. That Allah's friendship capacity isn't like anybody else. And Allah's closeness to them
doesn't crowd out his closeness to us. And while we can't be khalils of Allah in that prophetic sense, we can walk in the footsteps of their friendship. And as the ulama say, the door of wilayah is the nearest to the threshold
of khullah. So Allah is your sahib, your companion, not just for the journey, but always. He is al-Barr, your stable friend. He is al-Wali, your protective friend. And then finally, he is al-Rafiq, the gentle
friend. Al-Wali is about letting Allah take hold of all of your affairs. Al-Rafiq is primarily how he takes care of them. Similar to al-Ra'uf, with a tenderness that matches his perfection.
The name al-Rafiq shows up in the seerah with two incidents that both involve our mother Aisha (رضي الله عنها). One day the Prophet Muhammad (ﷺ) is walking and a group from the people of the book say to the Prophet Muhammad (ﷺ), As-salamu alaykum.
Sometimes we sound like that when we say salam. But as-salamu alaykum means may death be upon you. And they were trying to be cute, right? They'd fit in that meaning. And the Prophet Muhammad (ﷺ) would simply say wa alaykum and upon you. So if they meant salam, and upon you.
And if they meant death, and upon you. But Aisha (رضي الله عنها), she was there and she said bal alaykum assam wa la'nah. Rather may death and the curse of Allah be upon you instead. And the Prophet Muhammad (ﷺ) said to Aisha (رضي الله عنها),
take it easy ya Aisha. Inna Allaha rafiqun yuhibbu al-rifq. Allah is gentle and he loves gentleness. Remember, it's about the how here. And one connection between al-Rafiq and rifq
is how you want your companion to treat you. Rifq doesn't mean a lack of firmness. It means mercy in how firmness lands. So al-Rafiq is the companion whose gentleness gets you through hard times. Even if with hard advice
that you need. He doesn't always remove the mountain, but he always softens the path for you by your righteousness. And al-Rafiq, because of who they are, is someone you always want to be around. And that's why Rabi'a ibn Ka'b al-Aslami (رضي الله عنه)
asked for his one du'a to be the companion of the Prophet Muhammad (ﷺ) in Jannah. And just as the last words of Yusuf (عليه السلام) included, anta waliyyi fid dunya wal akhirah, the last words of the Prophet Muhammad (ﷺ)
on this earth, as he was in the lap of Aisha, were Allahumma al-Rafiq al-A'la. Oh Allah, the highest companion. He says this from the beautiful, loving embrace of Aisha (رضي الله عنها), from her
lap, sharing a siwak with her. But al-Rafiq al-A'la is the highest companion. The greatest companion. I'd still rather be with him. Take my soul with gentleness and
bring it into your glorious presence. Your embrace, that even the loving embrace of a spouse or parent cannot compare to. Allahumma al-Rafiq al-A'la. Oh Allah, the highest companion.
And this friendship continues past the funeral. When everyone else's shadow departs again, we ask Allah, Allahumma anis wahshatana fil-qubur. Oh Allah, ease our loneliness in the grave.
So Allah sends deeds to keep you company, and angels to reassure you, and even relatives to reunite with at some point. But your ultimate hope is to be escorted by all of them to your meeting once again with your loving best friend.
Ala inna awliya Allahi la khawfun alayhim wa la hum yahzanun. Truly, the friends of Allah, there is no fear upon them, nor will they grieve on the Day
of Judgment when friends are nowhere to be found, when crowds are scattering and mothers are fleeing from their children. Imagine being escorted into the shade of the throne of Allah while everyone is just trying to catch their breath. And all of the categories the Prophet
Muhammad (ﷺ) mentioned that are shaded by the throne of Allah are considered categories of wilayah. But until then, and especially then, direct your eyes and heart above and say Allahumma al-Rafiq al-A'la. Oh Allah, the highest companion. Oh Allah, the highest companion.
Ya Wali, be my closest friend when the world drifts away. Guard me with the grip that never slips. Guide me gently through what I don't understand. And let every loss lead me back
to you. Ya Barr, keep me firm on the ground of your goodness. Make my faith steady when my heart trembles. Let me love what brings me to your
stability. And make me patient with what keeps me on its shore. Ya Rafiq, be tender with my soul as you unfold your plan. Soften the path without removing
its purpose. Make me gentle with others as you've been gentle with me. And when I am lonely, fill that space with your company.
