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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
Playing
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
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
Who Owns Your Heart? | Allah's Names: The Name I Need - Ep. 2
How many things are competing for your heart right now, and which one truly owns it?
You were not created to bow in a thousand directions. Your soul was designed for one Master, one purpose, one source of peace. From ancient idols to modern obsessions, false gods never disappeared—they just changed their names. Careers, money, status, desires, and validation demand what only Allah deserves. Allah is One, and Islam is a monotheistic religion built on this tawheed.
In this episode, Dr. Omar Suleiman reflects on the Names Al-Ilaah, Al-Waahid, Al-Ahad, and Al-Witr, and how true freedom comes from living for the One who has no equal, no partner, and no comparison.
As we enter this blessed month of Ramadan, support the work of Yaqeen by setting up your automated donation today!
This transcript was auto-generated using AI and may contain misspellings.
I'm out.
Do you even know how to solve this thing?
Looks like a piece of trash to me anyway. Why are you telling him that we're from Jerusalem? Someone like him knows the difference between Gaza and Jerusalem.
What's the point? So now he thinks we're from Israel?
Doesn't matter, he'll think what he wants.
I'm fully aware of how important this deal is to you and the board, and I will close. But I expected you today in the briefing meeting. Yes, I'm sorry.
Something came up. I don't care, Joe. Someone in your position knows very well that excuses don't fly. I'm sorry. I'm sorry. I'm sorry. I'm sorry. I'm sorry.
I'm sorry. I'm sorry. I'm sorry. I'm sorry. I'm sorry. I'm sorry. I'm sorry. I'm sorry. I'm sorry. I'm sorry. I'm sorry. I'm sorry. I'm sorry. I'm sorry.
I'm sorry. I'm sorry. I'm sorry. I'm sorry. I'm sorry. I'm sorry. I'm sorry. I'm sorry. I'm sorry. I'm sorry. I'm sorry. I'm sorry. I'm sorry. I'm sorry.
I'm sorry. I'm sorry. I'm sorry. I'm sorry. I'm sorry. I'm sorry. I'm sorry. I'm sorry. I'm sorry. I'm sorry. I'm sorry. I'm sorry. I'm sorry. I'm sorry. I'm sorry.
I'm sorry. I'm sorry. I'm sorry. I'm sorry. I'm sorry. I'm sorry. I'm sorry. I'm sorry. I'm sorry. I'm sorry. مَا جَعَلَ اللَّهُ لِرَجُلٍ مِنْ قَلْبَيْنِ فِي جَوْفِهِ
Allah has not placed two hearts in a single man's chest. Notice how precise the wording is by the way. Allah didn't say insaan, a human being, but rajul, a man, because a woman physically carries two hearts within her when she's pregnant.
But the spiritual meaning holds for both men and women. No human being can carry two gods in one heart. And whoever owns your heart, owns you.
And the one who made your heart refuses that you share it with anyone else. In a hadith Qudsi, Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala says, I am the least in need of any partner.
So whoever does a deed seeking me and someone else, I leave him to that someone else. And what a punishment to be left to creation after being offered the Creator. Because Allah is too great to be shared in your pursuits,
too perfect to be compared, and too necessary to be replaced. Your soul was wired to seek Him. And in your heart there is this void that can only be filled by Him.
And anything else that takes that place is just a poster for Shaytan. As Imam Ibn Taymiyyah (rahimahullah) said, If the soul doesn't worship Ar-Rahman, it certainly worships Shaytan.
What that means is it doesn't matter if the god that you associate with Allah is a good man or represents a noble concept. Because to worship anything alongside your Creator is to deviate from the divine. The Quran even says,
قُلْ إِن كَانَ لِلرَّحْمَٰنِ وَلَدْ فَأَنَا أَوَّلُ الْعَابِدِينَ Say, if the Most Merciful had a son, then you would find me to be the first worshiper. And as As-Suddi (rahimahullah) said, I would be the first to worship. But, لا ولد له. He has no son.
So I love Jesus, peace be upon him, but I worship the God of Jesus, not Jesus himself. But beyond worship, one of the root meanings of the word ilah is that which is sought. And Imam Ibn al-Qayyim (rahimahullah) said,
The root of ilah is, الَّذِي تَأَلَّهُ الْقُلُوبِ كَمَالِ الْمَحَبَّةِ وَالتَّعْظِيمِ وَالْإِجْلَالِ وَالرَّجَاءِ وَالْخَوْفِ The one whom hearts adore. That's the meaning of ilah.
With complete love and reverence and awe and hope and fear. And that's why when the Prophet (ﷺ) met the father of 'Imran ibn Hussain (رضي الله عنه), he asked him, he said, how many ilahs, how many gods do you worship today?
He said, I worship seven. Six of them are on earth and one of them is in the heavens. Prophet (ﷺ) said, Okay, but which of them do you really turn to in hope and fear? When everything falls apart, like who are you really looking to?
He said, the one in the heavens. So the Prophet (ﷺ) said, Then leave the other six and just worship Him. You'll notice that the Prophet (ﷺ) didn't get into a theological debate with him.
He spoke directly to the unsatisfying experience of shirk, which tries to divide an undividable God. Because shirk is never rational. It's born out of some sort of insecurity or desire or imitation.
Because if the soul doesn't find its one God, it just keeps inventing new ones. And by the way, that's historically how God became gods. When people lost their connection to revelation, they replaced it with superstition.
So you had those that started to worship these amazing natural wonders like the sun and the moon and the stars. Because they couldn't imagine one single power sustaining it all.
Because how could a single God sustain all this awesomeness alone? When as human beings, we can barely multitask with the simplest of things. Then there were those who worshipped good and evil as two separate forces.
Because they couldn't comprehend one God whose wisdom governs both. And the Prophet (ﷺ) said that those who deny qadr are like those people
because they deny Allah's divine decree due to their own inability to understand the question of evil. And then you had those who shaped God into their own image. Because they couldn't relate to a God that they couldn't see.
So we need saints and statues in between that we can touch and feel. And then of course you had those that shaped God into their own image conveniently
to fit their empire so that they could control others with a God fashioned in themselves. So every false god is just human insecurity, desire or corruption dressed in divinity. And that's why Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala says,
That these are but empty names that you and your ancestors invented. Allah gave them no authority. And what you're really following is doubt and what the lower soul desires. Spiritual diseases get sculpted into deities.
And when Quraysh made gods for power and profit, Allah shattered them all with a single phrase. There is no god but Allah.
The oneness of Allah was never meant to just be a theological claim. It's a revolution. And your Lord is One. Quraysh objected and said,
Did He turn all these gods into one God? See Abu Lahab didn't reject Al-Wahid because it was illogical. He rejected it because it was bad for business. More gods means more money. Okay, but that's Abu Lahab and those are the disbelievers.
What does this matter to the believer? Well remember that the word ilah means that which is sought. And you have to ask yourself if you're seeking Him, Al-Wahid, alone above all else.
Now that doesn't mean that you're a disbeliever or you're committing actual shirk when you have a spiritual imbalance. Or you're prioritizing others over Allah. But it does resemble the slope that led people to shirk.
Because before you taste the true sweetness of one God, you have to negate all other things that have God-like control over you. And that's why the Prophet (ﷺ) said,
Miserable is the slave of the dirham, or the dinar, or the dollar, or the pound. And think about the term career worship. How many people have made their career their god?
Where they're willing to sacrifice their salah, their family, and yes, even their principles for that career. He also (ﷺ) said,
Now you replace wine with any other major sin and ask yourself, Are you a slave to your passion? Because Allah says in the Quran,
Have you seen the one who takes his desire as his god? Or think about where you derive your sense of self-worth and validation from. Because worship doesn't end when physical idols are broken. It just takes on new forms.
Today, idols wear designer brands and blue check marks. And they live on stages and screens instead of shrines. But they all demand the same thing. Your undivided love and loyalty and attention.
And you have to unify your worship for Al-Wahid and your sense of purpose. As Ibn al-Qayyim says,
For one, be one upon one, being the single path of truth and faith. He says,
What's the difference between Al-Wahid and Al-Ahad? The scholars say that, Al-Wahid is singular in his being.
Al-Ahad is singular in his attributes. Al-Wahid negates numbers. And Al-Ahad negates likeness. Al-Wahid means there is no god but Him. Al-Ahad means there is no god like Him. In Arabic, you can say,
But you can't say, Because Al-Ahad means no comparison. And that's why Surah Al-Ikhlas does not say, It says, It's not just God is one. It's God is uniquely one.
And when the Prophet (ﷺ) was told of a man who recites, In every raka'ah of prayer, along with another surah. He asked him why, and the man said, I love it because it has the attributes of the Most Merciful. It's so comprehensive.
And when Bilal was chained and dragged and tortured, He kept saying, One, one. And when he was asked later, why he only said Ahad?
Like why not Ar-Rahman, Al-Aziz, Al-Jabbar? He replied, SubhanAllah, knowing Al-Ahad alone for him, Was enough to find strength in Allah,
And be willing to die for Him, And enough for them to want to kill him. Whereas we know all these names of Allah, And we're barely willing to live for Him. Question is why? Bilal (رضي الله عنه) knew what fake gods look like,
Whether it was idols or men. And he knew there is no one but Allah, And no one like Allah. And just like that, The slave in chains became freer than the master with the whip. See with Al-Wahid, you negate all others.
With Al-Ahad, you affirm His transcendence. La ilaha, there is no god, Illa Allah, but Allah. Alone in number, alone in likeness. And then finally you have this name,
That seems odd, Al-Witr. Which means alone without pair. Al-Witr means the single, Because everything else in creation is made in pairs. You have night and day, land and sea, Male and female.
But Allah, He is Al-Witr. Truly one of a kind. Even if you're unique in some ways, You're still going to be like other humans. And no human being was more distinguished Than the Prophet (ﷺ). But at the end of the day,
He was human like all of us in his basic nature. He experienced hunger, he ate food, And he used the bathroom. So you can distinguish yourself as a human With some elements of character. But you're still composed of the same things as everyone else.
Now think of something When it's the only one of its kind in this world. Billionaires will pursue that one painting That exists nowhere else in the world except here. And they want that one gem That can never be replicated.
Why? Because exclusivity creates value. Allah is Al-Witr, The only one of His kind. And He is available to the poorest person in the world Who seeks the richness of knowing Him.
You don't need wealth or status to access Him. You just need a heart that turns to Him alone. And notice His uniqueness Doesn't make Him inaccessible to His creation. It makes Him unlike His creation. And that's actually a good thing.
Allah doesn't suffer the shortcomings of human beings. And sometimes we assume That we need someone like us To feel us and to comfort us. But similarity sometimes only makes our problems worse. If you have a friend Who's going through the same crisis you're going through,
They can only help you so much Because they're drowning in their own problems. Allah is unique, But his uniqueness isn't distance. It's actually nearness. Because only the one unlike creation
Can be close to every creature at once. That's al-witr. Unlimited uniqueness With unlimited accessibility. Prophet Muhammad (ﷺ) said, إِنَّ اللَّهَ وِتْرُ يُحِبُّ الْوِتْرُ Allah is witr,
And he loves the witr. He loves that your night prayer ends with this odd number, one rak'ah of witr. That you break your fast on an odd number of dates, And that you sip water in three sips,
And that you do tawaf with an odd number of seven. Every act becomes a reminder that he alone stands unmatched without pair. And this is how tawhid stops being theory, And it becomes beautifully embedded in your everyday life.
And in the deeper sense, Living with al-witr means mirroring divine distinction. You can't be outstanding if you don't stand out. You were not made to blend into a world of imitation like everybody else.
Because the world doesn't need more empty bodies. It needs more uniquely devoted souls. And when others scatter their devotion, You direct yours only to him. And when others chase wealth,
You say, My sustenance is from one. And when others chase approval, You say, My worth is from one. And when they scatter their hearts, You say, My heart belongs to one.
And that is how you become one for one. Because to live for one is to finally be free from all. Ya Ilahi,
The one my heart was created to seek, Pull me away from every false worship, From anything that divides my devotion, Until nothing fills my longing but you. Ya Wahid,
Unify my pursuits into a single direction, And when the world pulls me apart, Center me in your oneness. Ya Ahad, Open my heart to see that nothing compares,
So that I'm never overly impressed by anyone but you, And I come to love your names and attributes In a way that frees me from all others but you. Ya Witr,
When I stand alone at the close of the night, Let my solitude remind me of your singular majesty. Make my heart distinct by its devotion, And make me one of your rarest servants.
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