Since He is their Lord, their King, and their God, they ought to seek refuge in none but Him, seek help from none besides Him, and seek no shelter other than His protection. He suffices them, grants them victory, and is their Protector, overseeing all their affairs by virtue of His lordship, sovereignty, and divinity over them. How, then, could a servant fail to turn to his Lord, his Master, and his God when calamities strike and his enemy descends upon him?

Thus the relevance of these three relationships to seeking refuge becomes clear: refuge from the most hostile of enemies, the fiercest in enmity, the most harmful, and the most cunning in his schemes.

Moreover, He, glorified be He, repeats the explicit noun rather than replacing it with a pronoun and saying, “Lord of mankind, their King, and their God.” This establishes and reinforces the meaning. He therefore mentions mankind again with each of His names, without joining the names with “and,” since that would suggest separateness. The intention is to seek refuge in Him through all these attributes together, as though they were a single attribute.

He places lordship first because it is universal, encompassing everything under His care.

He places divinity last because its relationship is more specific: He, glorified be He, is the God of those who worship Him, affirm His oneness, and take Him alone as their God. Whoever does not worship Him and affirm His oneness does not have Him as his God—even though, in reality, he has no god besides Him. Rather, the polytheist has abandoned his true God and falsely taken another as his god.

He places sovereignty between lordship and divinity because the King governs through His word and command: He is obeyed when He commands. His sovereignty over them follows from His creation of them. His sovereignty thus belongs to the perfection of His lordship, and His being their true God belongs to the perfection of His sovereignty. His lordship necessarily entails and requires His sovereignty, and His sovereignty necessarily entails and requires His divinity. He is therefore the true Lord, the true King, and the true God. He created them through His lordship, subjected them through His sovereignty, and bound them to His worship through His divinity.

Reflect, then, on the majesty and grandeur contained in these three expressions, arranged in the most exquisite order and the finest sequence:

“Lord of mankind, King of mankind, God of mankind.”

These three relationships encompass all the foundations of faith,