violate the sanctity of the Divine names are rebuked,17 and the violation of the sanctity of the Divine names has been clearly explained to mean either ascribing to God attributes which do not befit His high dignity, or ascribing Divine attributes to that which is not Divine. Hence calling on God by His excellent names merely means that only those high attributes should be ascribed to Him which befit His dignity. The particular names of God mentioned in the Holy Qur’ān are:
1. As relating to His person, al-Wāḥid or Aḥad (the One), al-Ḥaqq (the True), al-Quddūs (the Holy), al-Ṣamad (on Whom all depend while He does not depend on any), al-Ghanī (the Self-sufficient), al-Awwal (the First), al-Ākhir (the Last), al-Ḥayy (the Ever-living), al-Qayyūm (the Self-subsisting).
2. As relating to the act of creation, al-Khāliq (the Creator), al-Bāri’ (the Creator of the soul), al-Muṣawwir (the Fashioner of shapes), al-Badī‘ (the Originator).
3. As relating to the attributes of love and mercy, (besides Rabb, al-Raḥmān, and al-Raḥīm), al-Ra’ūf (the Affectionate), al-Wadūd (the Loving), al-Laṭīf (the Benignant), al-Tawwāb (the Oft-returning to mercy), al-Ḥalīm (the Forbearing), al-‘Afuww (the Pardoner), al-Shakūr (the Multiplier of rewards), al-Salām (the Author of peace), al-Mu’min (the Granter of security), al-Barr (the Benign), Rāfi‘ al-dārajāt (the Exalter of ranks), al-Razzāq (the Bestower of sustenance), al-Wahhāb (the Great Giver), al-Wāsi‘ (the Ample-giving).
4. As relating to His greatness and glory, al-‘Azīm (the Grand), al-‘Azīz (the Mighty), al-‘Aliyy or Muta‘āl (the Exalted or the High), al-Qawiyy (the Strong), al-Qahhār (the Supreme), al-Jabbār (one Who sets things aright by supreme power),18al-Mutakabbir (the Possessor of greatness), al-Kabīr (the Great), al-Karīm (the Honoured), al-Ḥamīd (the Praiseworthy), al-Majīd (the Glorious), al-Matīn (the Strong), al-Ẓāhir (Ascendant over all), Dhu-l-jalāli wa-l-ikrām (the Lord of glory and honour).
5. As relating to His knowledge, al-‘Alīm (the Knowing), al-Ḥakīm (the Wise), al-Samī‘ (the Hearing), al-Khabīr (the Aware), al-Baṣīr (the Seeing), al-Shahīd (the Witness), al-Raqīb (the Watcher), al-Bāṭin (the Knower of hidden things), al-Muhaimin (the Guardian over all).
17 Sanctity of the Divine names may be violated in three ways: (1) By giving the holy names of God to other beings; (2) by giving God names which do not befit him; and (3) by calling God by names of which the meaning is unknown (Rz.). According to Rāghib, violation of the sanctity of the Divine names is of two kinds: (1) giving Him an improper or inaccurate attribute, and (2) interpreting His attributes in a manner which does not befit Him (R.).
18 Considerable misconception prevails as to the true significance of the name al-Jabbār, a recent writer in the Encyclopaedia of Islam going so far as to translate it by the word Tyrant, while the next name al-Mutakabbir is rendered, by the same writer, Haughty. This rendering is no doubt due to an obsession on the part of Christian writers that the God of Islām is an embodiment of cruelty, tyranny and frightfulness, and that a Loving and Merciful God is peculiar to the Christian religion. If the writer had consulted even Hughes’ Dictionary of Islām, he would not have made such a blunder. Hughes renders al-Jabbār as meaning Repairer, and al-Mutakabbir as meaning the Great. The rendering in the Encylopaedia is distortion of the worst type. Because, he says, the word Jabbār has been used for men in a bad sense, the same sense is conveyed when it is spoken of God. There are hundreds of words in every language which are used in a good as well as in a bad sense, and no reasonable person would contend that because a word has been used in a bad sense, it cannot be used in a good one. The Holy Qur’ān lays it down plainly that God’s are the most excellent names; would the rendering haughty or tyrant be in consonance with that statement? Again the Holy Qur’ān declares on more occasions than one that God is “not in the least unjust” to men (41:46; 50:29), and that He does not do injustice to the weight of an atom (4:40). Can we in the face of this description of God call Him a tyrant? If we go to Arabic lexicology, we find that the word jabr, from which al-Jabbār is derived, means originally repairing or setting a thing aright by supreme power (islāk al-shai’i bi-dzarb-in min-al-qahri). (R.) The same authority goes on to say that it is used to indicate simply repairing or setting aright, and sometimes simply dominance or supreme power. When man makes a wrong use of dominance, he becomes a jabbār in a bad sense. But in the Holy Qur’ān itself, this word Jabbār is used of men simply in the sense of mighty. When Moses asked his people to enter the Holy Land, they said: “O Moses! There are mighty men (jabbārin) in it, and we will on no account enter it until they go out from it (5:22). All authorities are agreed that al-Jabbār, spoken of God, means either One Who sets aright by supreme power or the Supreme One Who is above His creation.