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What is the ruling on being named with the names of Allah, such as Kareem, Aziz, and the like?

1 min readAlso available in العربية

There are two aspects to naming oneself with the names of Allah:

The first aspect: It is impermissible to name oneself with the names of Allah that are prefixed with "Al-" (the definite article), such as "Al-Aziz" (The All-Mighty) and "Al-Hakim" (The All-Wise). This is because "Al-" indicates the complete original meaning of the attribute. It is also impermissible to name oneself with one of Allah's names if the intention is to signify the meaning of the attribute encompassed by the name, even if it is not prefixed with "Al-".

The second aspect: It is permissible to name oneself with Allah's names that are not prefixed with "Al-", if the intention is not to signify the meaning of the attribute, such as "Hakim" (wise). However, some names, such as "Jabbar" (Compeller), should not be used even if the meaning of the attribute is not intended, due to the potential for it to foster tyranny and arrogance in the person.

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

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