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Is it permissible to utter names like "Abd Al-Uzza," "Abd Shams," and "Abd Manaf," which are mentioned among the names of the forefathers of the Mothers of the Believers, or is uttering them considered shirk (polytheism) to Allah?

1 min readAlso available in العربية

The titles of the Mothers of the Believers and the Prophet's صلى الله عليه وسلم ancestors, such as "Abd al-Muttalib" and "Abd Manaf," were changed, even though their original names were "Shaybah" and "al-Mughirah." This indicates that changing the names of the deceased is not obligatory, because mentioning their names is a matter of reporting, and changing them might hinder understanding who is meant.

Uttering these names is not considered shirk (polytheism). The Prophet صلى الله عليه وسلم himself uttered them, saying: "I am the Prophet, there is no lie; I am the son of Abd al-Muttalib." And in the hadith about the Dajjal, he said: "It is as if I liken him to Abd al-Uzza ibn Qatan."

However, if a living person's name contains an ascription of servitude to other than Allah, such as "Abd al-Masih" (servant of the Messiah) or "Abd al-Uzza" (servant of al-Uzza), it must be changed after embracing Islam, as happened with Abu Hurairah, whose name was "Abd Shams" (servant of the sun) and was changed to "Abd al-Rahman."

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

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