56: The Profound Impact of Names in Islam

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Music.

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As-salamu alaykum wa rahmatullahi wa barakatuhu. May the peace and blessings of Allah be upon you.

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In this episode, we will be discussing the attributes of Allah the Almighty

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and the wisdom behind naming our children using these attributes.

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La ilaha illallah, Muhammadur Rasulullah.

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Music.

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La ilaha illallah.

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A’udhu Billahi Minash Shaitanir Rajeem.

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Bismillahir Rahmanir Raheem.

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Assalamu Alaikum Warahmatullahi Wabarakatuhu. May the peace and the blessings

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of Allah be unto all of us.

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I’ll be reading from the Holy Quran and choosing the verse from chapter number 59 of the Holy Quran.

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He is Allah, there is no God beside Him, the knower of the unseen and the seeing.

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He is the gracious, the merciful.

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He is Allah, there is no God beside Him, the sovereign, the holy one,

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the source of peace, peace, the bestower of security, the protector,

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the mighty, the subduer, the exalted.

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Holy is Allah far above that which they associate with him.

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So as stated earlier, today we are going to discuss the attributes of Allah.

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The Holy Quran lists quite a number of these attributes, and a rough count gives 99 of them.

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But that is not to say that these are only the attributes of Allah.

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These 99 attributes are in line with our faculty, our understanding, our knowledge.

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Now, if we look at them, these attributes,

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each one of them gives a special quality or a special assignment that Allah

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the Almighty undertakes,

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or special duty Allah the Almighty takes with regards to his creation and some

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also basically with regards to the universe.

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According to the Holy Quran,

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chapter number 51 verse 57 the purpose of man here on earth is to worship allah the almighty,

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and in order for us to properly worship him we need to understand and know some of these qualities,

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or the attributes of allah the almighty it is only when we know these attributes

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that we will be able to utilize them to our spiritual benefit.

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Again, the Holy Quran says.

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It translates to say that to Allah alone are the excellent and the most beautiful

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names. to call him by these names.

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In Islam, Allah the Almighty is called Allah and the word Allah only is reserved

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for Allah the Almighty, God Almighty and none other than him.

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But then beside the name Allah, there are several attributes.

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For instance, from the verse I recited or the verses I recited,

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we came across He is Allah the All-Knowing or the Knower of the Unseen.

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So that is an attribute of Allah the Almighty being the Knower of the Unseen.

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We also read about Allah the Almighty being the source of peace.

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That also is an attribute of Allah. So, there are quite a number of them as

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the Holy Quran places or gives us a list of 99.

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In the other Ahadith, that is the holy sayings of the Prophet Muhammad sallallahu

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alayhi wa sallam, there are several other attributes also mentioned.

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But then generally, they are referred to as the 99 attributes of Allah.

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Right from the beginning, in the Holy Quran, some of these attributes are mentioned,

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one of them being Lord of all the worlds.

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That is to mean that Allah the Almighty creates everything and then fosters

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everything that he has created and leads it gradually towards perfection.

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That is Allah being Lord of all the worlds. And usually, whenever we recite

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these verses, it brings to mind the kind of comfort that the verse gives us.

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Unlike some previous scriptures which describe God only as God of Israel,

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the Holy Quran just from the beginning listed and stated that Allah the Almighty

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is Lord of all the worlds.

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Not God for the Arabs, not God for the Jews, not God for the Chinese,

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not God for, you know, So Africans and Asians, God of all the worlds.

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Another attribute that we find, particularly beginning the Holy Quran, is the gracious.

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At the early stage, we find another attribute which is very important, the gracious.

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Which also means that Allah the Almighty provides everything necessary for the

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well-being of his creation without any effort from our side.

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So for instance, when we were brought into this world as babies,

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the air that we would breathe was already provided for us without us having

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to make any preparation towards them.

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The breast milk that as children, babies, we need for the nourishment was already prepared. paid.

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Everything that we needed, Allah the Almighty took care of it without us having to toil for it.

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This is under the attribute of Allah, which is called Ar-Rahman,

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that is translated as the gracious.

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There is another attribute of Allah the Almighty, which is called Ar-Rahim, the merciful,

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which also means that Allah the Almighty is the giver of the best and highest

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reward for those of his servants or his creatures who voluntarily do good deeds.

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So we learn that if you do good deeds, Allah the Almighty rewards you.

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This goes beyond the normal

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things that we need which Allah the Almighty has provided under this attribute

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you earn it so you work for something and then Allah the Almighty gives you

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the reward I mean based on the work that a person might have done.

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Again, in the same chapter, that is the first chapter of the Holy Quran,

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Allah the Almighty describes himself as Malik Yawm-e-Din, Master of the Day of Judgment.

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This also means that the ultimate judgment concerning everything rests with Allah alone.

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Out of these 99 attributes, they can better be categorized into three. way.

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So, part of them are attributes peculiar to Allah alone.

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For instance, the Holy Quran mentions Allah as Al-Hayy, that is,

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the Living and the Source of Life.

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Then again, Al-Qadir, the one who is most powerful and decrees martyrs.

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There are again another attributes which concerns

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sense the creation of the universe and then

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again the attribute concerning the actions

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of his servants i will not go too deep into

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these three categories but then what is important here and why we are talking

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about these attributes is that whenever we as a people who are worshiping allah

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the Almighty would need something from Allah when we are praying.

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Just as I said in the beginning that the purpose of our creation is to worship Allah the Almighty.

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And in order to perfect that worship, we need to make use of these attributes of Allah.

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For instance, if a person is asking for forgiveness or praying for forgiveness,

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the attribute of Allah which takes care of forgiveness is called Al Ghaffar

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so you would you know ask Allah or you would pronounce the Allah’s attribute

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this attribute of Allah which.

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Dedicated to forgiveness so you call Allah by that act or by that title which

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I mean forgives or which shows forgiveness for instance if a person is It’s

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asking Allah for protection.

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The attribute which is Al-Hafiz, that is the protector.

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That is what under that umbrella of attribute, you would have to pray for protection.

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When a person is praying for wealth, then Allah’s attribute of Al-Ghanim,

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that is the wealthier or the rich, that is what we have to make use of.

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So if we make use of these attributes to the best that we know of,

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and also in accordance with what exactly they are dedicated for,

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it makes the acceptance of our prayers very much easy.

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It is almost like, imagine you go to meet a lawyer and presenting your case to the lawyer.

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The lawyer has a name or a title, usually referred to as attorney.

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But then in case you make a mistake and you address him in all your writing

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to him or in all your address to him, you address him as a doctor or a healer.

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The lawyer might be to some degree offended because it’s either you don’t know

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what you are talking about or you are sending the letter to the wrong person.

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Equally if you go before a doctor and you present the doctor who you want to

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heal you as an attorney that you want to speak for you it is also going to create a similar situation,

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so Allah the Almighty has taught us in the Holy Quran that we should use these attributes.

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Pertaining whatever we need to obtain from him as I have said If you need forgiveness,

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you ask Allah under the attribute of Al-Ghaffar.

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That is the one who forgives, the most forgiving.

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If you need protection from Allah, you are praying for protection,

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you ask Allah under the attribute of the protector.

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If you need anything, these attributes are well listed.

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Unfortunately, I will not be able to go through all the 99, but then few of

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them which are peculiar to our day-to-day, you know, worship and our needs.

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Inshallah, we would, you know, go through them.

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One other important, you know, claim the Holy Quran makes is that Allah the

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Almighty has created us on His nature.

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In the Bible, we read something which is somehow closer to this,

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where it says Allah has created man in his own image.

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The Holy Quran talks about the nature and it calls it fitra.

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That is the nature that Allah the Almighty has created man on.

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This also goes to say that we as human beings, as people, also would have to

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emulate, we should try the best we can to emulate these attributes of Allah. Allah.

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The first part being that when we are seeking Allah’s help, each attribute or

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each kind of help that we are asking, there is a particular attribute that is in line with that.

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We should make use of that attribute or those attributes.

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But then the next level is that we should also be embodiment of those attributes.

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Of course, we cannot have them as higher, I mean, as Allah the Almighty because

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we are Allah’s creation.

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So no matter what, we should try as much as possible to also,

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you know, try to be examples of the attributes of Allah the Almighty.

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Because as it’s said in the Holy Quran, chapter number 30 verse 31,

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he says he has created man on his nature. So, if Allah is merciful,

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then it is incumbent on us also to show mercy.

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If Allah is forgiving, then we also should be ready to forgive.

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If Allah is the provider, then we should also provide for people.

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If Allah is the source of peace, we should also be peaceful.

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If Allah is forbearing, then we should also be forbearing.

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Imagine a person who does not show mercy, asking Allah for mercy.

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Imagine a person who does not forgive the faults or the mistakes of his fellow

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human being, asking Allah for forgiveness.

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Imagine a person who is not peaceful towards God’s creation and his fellow human

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beings asking Allah for peace.

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So we as Muslims understand that we have to emulate these attributes of Allah as part of our worship.

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And to remind us of these important attributes of Allah the Almighty.

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Muslims name our children.

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We name our children by some of these attributes of Allah.

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It is a very important topic, and here I will delve a little bit into the importance

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of names, choosing names for our children or even for ourselves.

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It is popular practice for people

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to pick names because they

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find the name to be you know either nice

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to pronounce or they might call it

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beautiful and then they assign this name

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to their children without knowing the

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meaning of these names so as

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Allah the Almighty says to him belongs the

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perfect and the most beautiful attributes we should call him by those attributes

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It is also important that we call each other by the attributes of Allah under

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the period where we would have to identify ourselves as servants of those attributes.

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Of course, Allah the Almighty’s attributes have the definite article, the, T-H-E.

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In Arabic, it is Alif Lam. So, for instance, Allah is Al-Hakim,

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and Al-Hakim is translated as the most wise.

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That is to the superlative, you know, level, without anything being on top.

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But then when we are naming our children, we cannot name our child as al-Hakim.

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That will be giving a less ultimate, you know, power of being wise to a human being.

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So when a Muslim is naming his child after or under the attribute of Allah,

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usually you would find the suffix, which is Abdul. Okay.

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Servant so for instance i believe most of us are aware of a name like abdul hakim abdul majid.

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Abdul raouf these attributes of allah which are given to human beings named after muslim children,

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but then we begin it with servant of allah who is the hakim the wise servant

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of allah who is most forgiving.

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Servant of Allah who is most merciful. And this is for the male.

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For the female side, we have Amatul.

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So for instance, we have names like Amatul Hakim, that is a female servant of Allah who is most wise.

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Amatul Ra’uf, that is a female servant of Allah who is Ra’uf.

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Amatul, you know, Rahman, that is a female servant of Allah who is Rahman.

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So these are what Muslims do when we want to reflect on the attributes of Allah

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and also make use of them in our daily lives.

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Again, the children who are given these names,

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it is expected of them to try as much as possible to copy some of these attributes

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to the best of their abilities.

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So, for instance, a person who is named after Hakim, Allah’s attribute of Hakim being the wise,

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if a person who knows the meaning of Al-Hakim and sees a person who is named

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after this attribute misbehaving, doing something contrary to wisdom,

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their attention might be drawn to it that your name is this,

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so you have to behave as such.

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For instance, we know of a name called Abdullah, that is a servant of Allah.

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Definitely, if a person has that name, then indirectly or directly,

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we are obliged to work towards the name, that is being the servant of Allah in the true sense.

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And it goes the same way for the females also.

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Now, I made mention of the practice where people.

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Names either from the internet or they hear somebody calling a child’s name

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and they find it so fascinating so they also adopt it for their own children

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without knowing the means.

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In fact, names are very important and I believe I don’t need to emphasize this.

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We all know the importance of names, what naming can do in our lives.

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Islam believes that a name as it stands does not have any supernatural powers

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to change a person’s destiny.

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What I mean is that the name as it stands, for instance, if a person is called

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Abdullah or Abdul Hakim,

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that name itself does not give any supernatural powers or spiritual,

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you know, kind of preference to that person.

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But then it is the meaning of the name that has some kind of psychological effect

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and influence on the person who bears it.

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So I believe that is clear. The name on itself or by itself does not have any

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supernatural powers or spiritual, you know, enforcement onto the person who bears the name. name.

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However, the meaning of the name has that kind of psychological effect.

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When the person knows the meaning, they are tempted to work towards that meaning.

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We know in Arabic a name called Assad. Assad simply means a lion.

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And people with this.

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By knowing the meaning of the name, cowardice is not part of their life.

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They try to be as brave as they can. Of course, you might have some instances

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when a person who is named after a particular quality does not exhibit it.

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But then for those who know the meaning and the true Muslims,

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they try as much as possible to act in accordance with the names.

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Muslims, and not only Muslims, But, you know, people who aspire to be righteous,

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who aspire for their children to be righteous, try to name their children after righteous people.

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So, for instance, there are a lot of names that if I ask us to name,

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I believe each one of us can name almost like 20 of them.

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Names that are given, you know, after certain holy personalities like Abraham,

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Isaac, Ishmael, Jacob, Moses.

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These are names that we give to our children with the hope.

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Of course, we are not saying that we are giving them the name for them to become

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prophets of God. But then we give them the name with the hope that they become

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some embodiment of those holy people.

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It is for this reason that it is not wise and it is not, you know,

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useful to just give a name to a child or to a person’s self without knowing the meaning of it.

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As a person who has some level of, you know, understanding about the Arabic language.

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Sometimes I come across some names, even here in Jamaica, I come across some

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names and directly your mind goes to Arabic because the name comes only from Arabic.

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No matter where they found it, the root word is in Arabic.

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But then if you look at the meaning of the name, it is so terrible,

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so bad that if the parents of that child or those children knew the meaning

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of those names, they would never have, you know, attributed those names to them.

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There is a particular name that I have seen or heard about five of them.

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And the names translate to hell.

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H-E-L-L. hell. So imagine a parent named the child after hell.

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I mean, they didn’t know that the meaning was that. Either found somebody calling

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the child by that name, so they also adopted that name. If the child.

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Finds out the meaning, definitely, I mean, something could happen.

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And even if they don’t find out, it has its own, you know, case.

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For a person who understands it, when you meet this name, you go like, I mean, what happened?

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How could the person be named after this?

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And sometimes you might be tempted to even think that the one who gave the name

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knew the meaning and they deliberately gave it because of some situation.

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For instance, like a mother who goes through troubles from the baby father might

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be affected to give the child a name that best describes the troubles that the mother went through.

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So it is important that when we are giving names to children,

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we have to look for names with good meanings.

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In Christianity, I believe we all know that there are quite a lot of righteous

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people, even from the Bible.

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In Islam and in almost all religions, there are quite a number of righteous people.

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But then you don’t find names or you don’t find people being named after certain

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people, even though those names are in the Bible or even in the Holy Quran or

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in the other scriptures. churches. Take a look at the name Pharaoh.

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Just by pronouncing the word Pharaoh, it looks, you know, something like fascinating

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to a person who might not know who Pharaoh was, who might not know,

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I mean, who the Pharaohs were, or who might not even know the meaning of that.

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But I have not come across anybody who has named a child after Pharaoh because,

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of course, Pharaoh was not a good person by all standards.

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Jesus Christ, may peace be upon him, had a lot of, I mean, disciples.

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We call him a Nebuchadnezzar. And as Muslims, we name our children after Jesus.

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But I have not come across a name being given after the disciple who betrayed Jesus, Judas.

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Maybe, I mean, some of you might have heard it, but then I have not come across

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a person whose given name from birth was was called Judas.

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In our own societies as well, there are some names that if you have, you might be tempted.

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I mean, you might go through a certain level of torture yourself,

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even if you are a genuine and a good person.

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If you are named after a bad man, I mean, a gunman, a reputed gunman who caused

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trouble in a particular society.

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Once your name is mentioned, and people ran for cover, even though you might

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not be that, you know, a notorious gunman.

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There are some names that, you know, people who were drug dealers,

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in fact, people who had questionable characters.

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If by mistake, your name happens to match their names, sometimes at the airport,

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when you are traveling, you go through a lot of, you know, security checks.

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Because the authorities would want to ascertain whether you are related to this

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person or you endorse the person’s, you know, behavior or qualities.

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Those of you who have been going for visa from different embassies,

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there are some names alone, that name alone can let you lose the opportunity

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of being admitted into some of these countries,

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which means that names are very important and when we have to choose them,

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we should choose them carefully. carefully.

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Imagine a person who is going to the Israeli embassy for a visa,

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or you want to travel to Israel and your name is called Hitler.

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That alone is a no-go zone for such a person.

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Imagine going to the US embassy for visa and you have your name Bin Laden.

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Garden definitely i can assure you

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that you might not qualify for that

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you know application so when

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we are choosing names islam teaches us that there

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are quite a number of good names beautiful names unless

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attributes names of prophets names that

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you know encourage the bearers of

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those names to do good and not

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name that glorify you know indecency name

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that you know promote you know

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uncivilized behavior in societies

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these are quite you know a

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number of few things that i wanted to

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bring to our attention particularly as we discuss

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the attributes of allah as I

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said there are quite a number of them there are

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songs made about them with meanings and

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I believe in the subsequent days

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and maybe you know ahead inshallah we might feel of them so that we reflect

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on them particularly those that are at center of our prayer request you know

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when we are asking for this when we are asking for that when we are praising Allah Allah,

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what and what do we have to use?

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Battlefield. Even the soldiers will tell you that it’s not any bullet that will

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be used for, you know, certain kind of battles.

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There are some dedicated bullets that have special targets and special, you know, kind of use.

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Names also work that way, and particularly the attributes of Allah also work that way.

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Wrapping it up, I would entreat all of us to.

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Understand the the meaning of the names we have.

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I believe a vast majority of the people have names that are either after prophets,

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after holy people, after some good qualities.

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We have to try as much as possible to live by the meanings of those names.

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If your name is an angel, or if your

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name means good, if your name means beautiful, If your name means kind,

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the last thing people should expect from you is doing something contrary to

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that name, the meaning of that name.

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So those of us who know the meanings of our names, we should work towards it.

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Those who don’t know, we should begin finding out. And if for some reason we

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find out that the name that we have or the name that we’ve given to either our child or our children,

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the meanings are not good, but then we choose them without knowing, it could be changed.

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I have come across several instances in the hadith, in the Islamic history,

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where the messenger of Allah had to change people’s names because those names contained,

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some kind of glorification, I mean glorifying idols or names that did not have

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good meanings and we’re given proper beautiful names with good meanings.

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A person becomes a Muslim, it is not obligatory for the person to adopt an Islamic

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name, but then it is important.

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So it is not obligatory, you cannot force a person to adopt a Muslim name,

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but then it is important to have that kind of identity that,

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you know, links you with Islam.

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Because once you choose that name, the meaning will be given to you and you

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will be encouraged encouraged almost all the time to work towards the meaning of that name.

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And by doing so, definitely you will become best, you know, version of yourself.

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Going back to the attributes of Allah the Almighty,

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I have selected a quote from the writings of the founder of the Ahmadiyya Muslim

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community, the Holiness Mirza Ghulam Ahmad,

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the Messiah of the age, he says listen all those who can and what God desires from you.

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So listen all those who can, listen to what God desires from you and he says God desires.

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That you become solely his and do not associate any partners with him.

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As I stated in the beginning, that in the early part of the Holy Quran,

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it talks about God being, you know, God of all the worlds.

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And then the verses we read also indicate that God has no partner.

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So as Muslims, it is a very important, you know, claim and also pledge that we make.

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He continues to say, neither in the heavens nor in the earth.

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That is, God has no partner, neither in the heavens nor in the earth.

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He says, our God is that God who is alive, even now as he was alive before.

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Again here, I should explain that there are some people who think that God used

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to speak, but then doesn’t speak today. today.

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God used to listen and doesn’t listen today.

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He says none of the attributes of Allah is held in abeyas, meaning all the attributes,

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the qualities of Allah the Almighty are active today equally as they were active before,

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which means we should make good use of them.

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There are some Muslims today who think that God used to speak and cannot speak again.

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May Allah May Allah the Almighty enable us to make use of his attributes and

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may Allah the Almighty also shower his attributes of mercy,

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kindness and forgiveness and all these attributes that we stand in need of.

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May He shower them onto us and come into the names.

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When we have the opportunity to choose names, we should try as much as possible

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to choose names that have good meaning and purpose for us. May Allah bless us. Assalamualaikum.

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Warahmatullahi Wabarakatuh.

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La-ilaha Illallah…