One of the pet activities of Arabs was that they used to designate different names to the animal, things or person they loved. After all when Allah ﷻ revealed Al Quran He also took into consideration the Arab aesthetics.
There are thousand words for camel or horse. For lion and sword you can find 5000 words. These names are actually based on different attributes of that entity. Consider 99 names of Allah ﷻ; they are actually attributes of Allah ﷻ.
Allama Jalaluddin Suyuti (RA) an Egyptian religious scholar, juristic expert and teacher, and one of the most prolific Arab writers of the Middle Ages has counted 55 names for Al Quran, even this is not complete since one important name ‘Al Burhan’ is missing from the list. Here is a list of some of the important names and attributes:
- Al Quran, the most common name will be discussed in some detail in the later part.
- Al Kitab
- Az Zikr
- Al Huda
- An Noor
- Al Furqan
- Kalam-ullah
- Al Wahye
- Rohum-min-Amrena
From the point of view of attributes
- Al Kareem
- Al Hakeem
- Al Azeem
- Al Majeed
- Al Mubeen
- Rahma
- Al Alyy
- Basair
- Bushra
- Basheer
- Nazeer
- Aziz (Quran-ul-Aziz)
- Balagh
- Bayan
- Ahsan-ul-Qasas
- Ahsan-ul-Hadith
- Moedha
- Shifaa
- Mubarak
- Muhaiman
- Qayyim
- Masania
- Mutashabeh
The interesting discussion is about the most commonly used name ‘Al Quran’, what it means and from which root word it is derived?
Some people are of the opinion that Al Quran is a primitive noun neither it has any root word nor it is a proper noun, it is like ‘Allah ﷻ’, the name Allah ﷻ has no root word, it has no meaning and it simply refers to the entity ‘Allah.’
However some scholars do not agree to this they say that the name ‘Allah’ has been derived from the root word ‘ilah,’ for example ‘Hakeemun’ is an attribute if we add Al to it, it will become ‘Al Hakeem’ the name of Allah ﷻ. Similarly ‘ilahun’ means one lord, ‘Al-ilah’ would mean The Lord, this Al-ilah was modified and became the name ‘Allah ﷻ.
Majority of the scholars also disagree that ‘Al Quran’ is a primitive noun and doesn’t have a root word, and are of the opinion that Al Quran is a proper noun and has been derived from a root word.
However, there are two opinions with respect to the root word, one point towards ‘Qarn’ (قرن) and other toward ‘Qarả’ (قرء).
‘Qarn’ means something coming near, meet, together, join, add; Imam Farah is of the opinion that ‘Qarn’ is the root word for Quran since the verses have joined or added up together.
‘Qarả’ (ق ر ء), qáraʾa (قرأ) meaning ‘read,’ can also form a masdar for example from ‘rajah’ to ‘rujhan’ from ‘ghafara’ to ‘ghufran’ hence from ‘qáraʾa ’ to Quran, something that is read.
‘Qarả’ (ق ر ء) in Arabic is also used for ‘storage’, qariya قریِہ is also derived from the same root meaning ‘settlement or a small village’ where some people live together, from this aspect Quran is a storage or assembly of Allah’s signs (Verses).
It is difficult to say which opinion is appropriate, since majority of the scholars are of the opinion that the root word is ‘Qarả’ which also means ‘read’ and the derivative word Quran meaning something that is read, and if we look around this is the only book that is most read and recited in the whole world, hence this opinion seems to be quite appropriate and logical. Wallah O Alam.
اللهُمَّ أَرِنَا الحَقَّ حَقّاً وَارْزُقْنَا التِبَاعَةَ وَأَرِنَا البَاطِلَ بَاطِلاً وَارْزُقْنَا اجْتِنَابَهُ، بِرَحْمَتِكَ يَا أَرْحَمَ الرَّاحِمِين
“O Allah, let us see the good as good, and bless us with following it, and show us the falsehood as falsehood,
and bless us with staying away from it, with your mercy O Most Merciful.”
Compiled and written by Dr. Syed Faisal Jeelani
From the lectures of Dr. Israr Ahmed, a prominent Pakistani Islamic scholar followed particularly in South Asia as well as by the South Asian diaspora in the Middle East, Western Europe, and North America.