Names of Allah: Ar Raqeeb

Names of Allah: Ar Raqeeb is an Islamic video for children aged 4 to 9 in which Sheikh Azhari and his children learn about Ar-Raqeeb, the Watchful, one of the beautiful names of Allah.

In class, the teacher walks round, looking over everyone's work. That is what Ar-Raqeeb means: Allah watches over everything, and He knows everything we do.

In story time, the Sheikh tells a well-known story told about Umar ibn al-Khattab, who heard a mother tell her daughter to mix water into the milk they sold. "Umar cannot see us," said the mother. "Umar may not see us," said the daughter, "but Allah can." Then comes a story told about a young shepherd who was asked to sell one of his master's sheep and say it had run away. He refused: even if the farmer did not know, Allah would know.

A shop has a CCTV camera to watch what people do. Allah sees everything we do, and hears everything we say too, so if we have nothing good to say, we say nothing.

Then the Sheikh tells a hadith of the Prophet ﷺ about three men: one with a skin disease, one with no hair, and one who was blind. An angel came to each of them, healed them, and gave them camels, cows and sheep. Years later, the angel came back as a poor traveller and asked each one for help. The first two refused and said their wealth had always been in their family. The third told the truth, that Allah had given him everything, and told the traveller to take whatever he wanted. Allah was pleased with him.

So we always tell the truth, and we share.

• Surah An-Nisa 4:1: Indeed, Allah is ever watchful (Raqeeb) over you.
• Surah Qaf 50:18: Not a word does a person say but there is a watcher (raqeeb) with him, ready to record it.
• Sahih al-Bukhari 3464: An angel tested a man with a skin disease, a bald man and a blind man; the first two denied Allah's blessings, and the blind man was truthful and generous, and Allah was pleased with him.