Al-Malik
Al-Malik is the King who owns what He rules — sovereignty with nothing borrowed, nothing inherited, and no one above it.
Name 3 of 99
الْمَلِكُ
Al-Malik
The King
- In Arabic
- الْمَلِكُ
- Transliteration
- Al-Malik
- Position in the list
- Name 3 of 99
Al-Malik — The King
What the name means
Malik in Arabic is a king; malik with a long vowel, malik, is an owner. Allah is both at once, and that is what makes His kingship unlike any other. Every earthly king rules what he does not own and owns what he did not make; Allah owns the substance of what He commands, down to the breath of those who obey or refuse.
The Quran states the consequence directly: on the Day of Judgement the question is asked, whose is the dominion today? And the answer comes back with no one left to claim it — Allah's, the One, the Prevailing.
Living by this name
Knowing Allah as Al-Malik reorders who a person is afraid of. Authority on earth is real but delegated and temporary, and treating it as final is the mistake the name corrects.
It also reframes ownership. What is in your hands is on loan from the One who owns it, which is the argument the Quran makes for spending it rather than hoarding it.
Al-Malik in the Quran
The 4 verses below contain this name. Every reference is checked against the Arabic text of the Quran before it is published, so Al-Malik really is in each verse it is cited from.
هُوَ ٱللَّهُ ٱلَّذِى لَآ إِلَٰهَ إِلَّا هُوَ ٱلْمَلِكُ ٱلْقُدُّوسُ ٱلسَّلَٰمُ ٱلْمُؤْمِنُ ٱلْمُهَيْمِنُ ٱلْعَزِيزُ ٱلْجَبَّارُ ٱلْمُتَكَبِّرُ ۚ سُبْحَٰنَ ٱللَّهِ عَمَّا يُشْرِكُونَ
He is Allah, other than whom there is no deity, the Sovereign, the Pure, the Perfection, the Bestower of Faith, the Overseer, the Exalted in Might, the Compeller, the Superior. Exalted is Allah above whatever they associate with Him.
Surah Al-Hashr 59:23Read the full surah →فَتَعَٰلَى ٱللَّهُ ٱلْمَلِكُ ٱلْحَقُّ ۗ وَلَا تَعْجَلْ بِٱلْقُرْءَانِ مِن قَبْلِ أَن يُقْضَىٰٓ إِلَيْكَ وَحْيُهُۥ ۖ وَقُل رَّبِّ زِدْنِى عِلْمًۭا
So high [above all] is Allah, the Sovereign, the Truth. And, [O Muhammad], do not hasten with [recitation of] the Qur'an before its revelation is completed to you, and say, "My Lord, increase me in knowledge."
Surah Ta-Ha 20:114Read the full surah →فَتَعَٰلَى ٱللَّهُ ٱلْمَلِكُ ٱلْحَقُّ ۖ لَآ إِلَٰهَ إِلَّا هُوَ رَبُّ ٱلْعَرْشِ ٱلْكَرِيمِ
So exalted is Allah, the Sovereign, the Truth; there is no deity except Him, Lord of the Noble Throne.
Surah Al-Muminun 23:116Read the full surah →مَلِكِ ٱلنَّاسِ
The Sovereign of mankind.
Surah An-Nas 114:2Read the full surah →
How reliable is the list of ninety-nine?
That Allah has ninety-nine names is established in Sahih al-Bukhari and Sahih Muslim, and both are agreed upon. The specific enumeration — this list of ninety-nine — comes from a narration in Jami' at-Tirmidhi that at-Tirmidhi himself called gharib, and which many hadith scholars grade weak; several held that a narrator compiled the names by searching the Quran and Sunnah. Classical scholars including al-Khattabi, Ibn Hazm, al-Qurtubi and al-Ghazali compiled lists of their own that differ from it. None of this touches the names themselves, every one of which is established elsewhere; it means the count of exactly these ninety-nine is a scholarly arrangement rather than a revealed roster, and Allah's names are not limited to them.
Questions about Al-Malik
Al-Malik (الْمَلِكُ) means "The King". Like every one of the ninety-nine names, it describes an attribute of Allah rather than serving as a label — the names are how the Quran teaches who Allah is.
Yes. This page cites 4 verses containing Al-Malik, each checked against the Arabic text before publishing.
Address Allah with "Ya" before the name — "Ya Malik" — and ask for what that attribute gives. The Quran instructs it directly: "To Allah belong the most beautiful names, so call upon Him by them" (7:180).
It is number 3 in the well-known list. The order comes from the narration of at-Tirmidhi and is a scholarly arrangement, so numbering can differ slightly between printed lists — the names themselves do not.