In 1816 a huge granite head of the pharaoh Ramesses II was hauled from the ruins at Thebes and shipped to London, where it is still in the British Museum. As news of it spread, the poet Percy Bysshe Shelley wrote 'Ozymandias', about a broken statue in the desert whose inscription boasts: 'Look on my works, ye Mighty, and despair.'
Around it, Shelley wrote, nothing else remains. Mālik al-Mulk, the Owner of all Sovereignty, names the One whose kingdom is not lent.
Start with what we know
Then take away everything it needs. What is left is not a bigger version of us. It is the Name.
Episode 1
In us
Human power is always lent. By 1920 the British Empire covered roughly a quarter of the world's land and ruled about a fifth of its people; within fifty years almost all of it had gone. The Roman, Mughal and Ottoman empires each seemed permanent in their day. Leaders are elected and then voted out, kings crowned and then buried, companies rise and fall. Power is real, and it can do great good or harm. But it is always borrowed: from voters, armies, money or time. Every human kingdom ends.
Episode 2
In nature
Even the ground beneath kingdoms moves. The British Geological Survey explains that the Atlantic Ocean is widening by a few centimetres a year, about as fast as your fingernails grow, as the plates on either side of the Mid-Atlantic Ridge pull apart. Iceland is being slowly split in two. Mountains rise and wear away; coastlines shift; ice ages come and go. Over millions of years no landscape keeps its shape. Nature itself has no permanent borders.
Episode 3
At our best
Shelley's sonnet 'Ozymandias', published in 1818, is one of the most famous poems in English. A traveller describes two vast legs of stone in the desert and a shattered face with a 'sneer of cold command'. On the pedestal are the words: 'My name is Ozymandias, King of Kings; Look on my works, ye Mighty, and despair.' Then the punchline: 'Nothing beside remains.' The poem is a human masterpiece about the limits of human power. Even it is a warning, not a cure.
Episode 4
The Break
Take away succession, conquest, borders, elections and time. Every human kingdom is held for a while and handed on, or taken away. Mālik al-Mulk is not the greatest king on a list; He owns kingship itself, and lends it. The Qur'an gives the believer a prayer for it: “Say: O God, Owner of all sovereignty, You give sovereignty to whom You will and take it from whom You will; You honour whom You will and humble whom You will. In Your hand is all good” (Qur'an 3:26, our rendering).
From the tradition: Bukhari 4812: 'I am the King; where are the kings of the earth?'. Daniel 4:14 'the Most High is sovereign over human dominion, and gives it out at will'. Luke 1:52.
On screen
The statue said 'king of kings'. The sand answered.
When Solomon (peace be upon him) became king of Israel, he was young. The Hebrew Bible tells how God appeared to him in a dream and said: ask what I shall give you.
Solomon (peace be upon him) did not ask for wealth, a long life or victory over his enemies. He asked for “an understanding heart to judge Thy people, that I may discern between good and evil” (1 Kings 3:9). God was pleased, and gave him wisdom, and riches and honour as well.
The Qur'an remembers Solomon (peace be upon him) as a king of extraordinary power, with authority over winds and jinn, who could understand the speech of birds and ants. And it shows him at the moment of his greatest wonder, when the throne of the Queen of Sheba was brought before him in the blink of an eye. His first words were not a boast. He said: “This is from the bounty of my Lord, to test me whether I will be grateful or ungrateful” (Qur'an 27:40).
The Ozymandias of Shelley's poem said: look on my works and despair. Solomon (peace be upon him), in both scriptures, said in effect: look on God's gift, and be grateful. One king thought his kingdom was his own. The other knew it was lent.
What each faith says
Judaism
“That the Most High ruleth in the kingdom of men, And giveth it to whomsoever He will”
The Book of Daniel tells of King Nebuchadnezzar, who boasted of the Babylon he had built and was humbled until he learned “that the Most High ruleth in the kingdom of men, and giveth it to whomsoever He will” (Daniel 4:14 in Hebrew numbering; 4:17 in most English Bibles).
Psalm 24 begins: “The earth is the LORD'S, and the fulness thereof.” Jewish prayers address God as Melekh ha-olam, King of the universe, at the start of every blessing.
Christianity
“He has put down princes from their thrones. And has exalted the lowly.”
Mary (peace be upon her), in her song of praise in Luke's Gospel, sings that God “has put down princes from their thrones, and has exalted the lowly”.
Christians pray “Your kingdom come” in the Lord's Prayer and speak of God as “King of kings and Lord of lords” (1 Timothy 6:15). They also call Christ king, which is distinctive to their faith.
Islam
“To whom does the kingdom belong this Day? To God, the One, the All-Prevailing.”
Mālik al-Mulk appears in 3:26, a verse many Muslims recite in hard times. The Qur'an asks on the Day of Judgement: “To whom does the kingdom belong today? To God, the One, the All-Prevailing” (40:16).
The Prophet described that Day: God will roll up the heavens and hold the earth, and say, I am the King; where are the kings of the earth? (Bukhari 4812).
Same and different
Daniel, Mary (peace be upon her)'s song and Qur'an 3:26 say almost the same thing: God gives kingdoms and takes them away, raises the lowly and humbles the proud. All three remember Solomon (peace be upon him) as a wise king who knew his power was a gift. Christians also speak of Christ as king, which is distinctive to them.
A moment to reflect
What kind of power do you have, at home, at school or at work?
What would change if you treated it as lent rather than owned?
Why do you think Solomon (peace be upon him) asked for wisdom rather than wealth?
Watch
Watch on YouTube ↗ · plays here on the live site; YouTube without tracking until you press play
John Gielgud reads Shelley's 'Ozymandias'.
Watch on YouTube ↗ · plays here on the live site; YouTube without tracking until you press play
MinuteEarth explains plate tectonics: why no landscape keeps its shape.
Do it together
familiesSandcastle and tide
Build the grandest sandcastle you can, with a name carved on it, below the high-tide line. Come back after the tide and see what remains. Read 'Ozymandias' and Qur'an 3:26 on the beach.
schools / faith groupsVisit the Younger Memnon
Visit the colossal bust of Ramesses II in the British Museum's Egyptian sculpture gallery. Read Shelley's poem in front of it, then Daniel 4:14 and Luke 1:52.
Episode 1
