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The question

What is the ruling on naming a boy (Ghanim) and naming a girl (Sharifah)?

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Source: FtawySummarized from the full answer at Ftawy · reviewed Sep 2, 20261 min readAlso available in العربية
The answer

The rule for names forbidden by Islamic law is that they either involve servitude to other than Allah Almighty, or are names and attributes exclusive to Him, or contain self-raise, dispraise, or ugliness. Ibn al-Qayyim mentioned that the dislike of naming with names that contain self-raise, like "Barrah" (Pious) and "Al-Taqi" (The Righteous), is due to the praised person possibly being asked to live up to what they were praised for, and people might not find it in them, which then turns into dispraise. Also, the named person might believe they are truly so, thus falling into self-raise. Therefore, it is advised to avoid names like "Ghanim" (Victor) or "Sharifa" (Noble) due to the self-raise they imply, although they are not forbidden unless the meaning is intended, and the name is merely for identification.

Summarized from the full answer at Ftawy · reviewed Sep 2, 2026

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