What’s in a name?
“What’s in a name?” Shakespeare once asked.
“Everything,” I say.
I find that to be a relevant question considering the fact that a name symbolizes more than identity for us Muslims as a minority in North America. It may be a symbol of defiance or, some may say, a struggle to avoid assimilation in the Melting Pot and maintaining the purity of our faith and culture.
If my name was Mike or Bob, I would easily integrate into society with my white complexion. But that integration would bolster my desire to assimilate, which would eventually endanger my faith.
But, thankfully, my name is Asim.
I always wondered how and why my parents came to choose an Arabic name to identify a non-Arab son. Since they are not of Arab descent, they could have chosen any name.
On query, I learned that my name is in three different ayahs of the Qur’an. But that didn’t make my name special since Fira‘un, Jahannum, and Shaytan are also in the Qur’an and no one would dream of naming his/her child Shaytan.
Would my parents have chosen my name Asim from the Qur’an if it meant hatred or Lucifer? So, the reality behind the choosing of my name lies in the meaning. Asim means ‘protector’ and ‘savior.’
The fact that it is in the Qur’an is just the cherry on top.
The tradition of naming a newborn
This name [Asim] also holds an honorable place in Islamic history. There was a great sahabi by the name Asim bin Thabit (may Allah be pleased with him). A nefarious woman named Sulafa had put out a bounty for anyone who brought her his head. She had sworn to drink wine from it to avenge her son who was killed by Asim (may Allah be pleased with him) in the battle of Uhud. He made du‘a at the time of death seeking the protection of Allah against a band of mushriks who had come to sever his head.
When the mushrik assassins came, his body was covered by a swarm of bees so thick that it could barely be seen beyond the buoyant wall of bees. They decided to return later in the night to retrieve his body. It rained so hard that evening, the valley flooded and carried his body away. They were never able to retrieve his head (Hayat al-Sahaba; Yaum al-Raji‘).
It is nice to have a name with a fulfilling meaning, but it would be a privilege to be named after this eminent sahabi (may Allah be pleased with him) whose life embodied it. Traditionally, choosing a name with a nice meaning was not paramount to Muslims. It seems that they cared less about meaning and more about imbuing good character. In that character-driven society, the focus in the art of name-selection for a newborn was to name it after someone blessed with good character or a virtuous life.
Why did you name your son Muhammad?
In some ways, that tradition is still alive today. Ask any parent why they named their son Muhammad and they will give you that duh look at you as if you should know better. They may say, “Don’t you know that the Prophet’s name was Muhammad (peace be upon him)?”
You shrug your shoulders and say, “Well, I thought maybe the beautiful meaning (the praised one) may have inspired you to name your son Muhammad.”
And they are thinking, “What a dufus.”
The Prophet’s (peace be upon him) sons
Based on authentic narrations, we know that the Prophet (peace be upon him) had at least two sons. The first was Qasim, who was born from Khadija, but he passed away before prophethood. The Prophet (peace be upon him) took his kunya, Abul Qasim, from him (Bukhari; ‘Alamat al-Nubuwwat).
The second son was Ibrahim, born from Mariya Qibtiyya in 9 A.H., though he died 18 months later in 10 A.H.
The Prophet (peace be upon him) named him after his forefather and the great prophet, Ibrahim (peace be upon him). He said, “Every prophet has a mentor among the prophets. My mentor is my father and the khalil of my Lord” (Musnad Ahmad: 6/348).
As for Qasim, the Prophet (peace be upon him) named him after himself. Like Ahmad, Aqib and Hashir, (Muslim; Asma’ihi) one of the Prophet’s (peace be upon him) famous epithets was Qasim. The Prophet (peace be upon him) said, “I am Qasim (distributor), and Allah is the Giver” (Bukhari; Man yurudillahu yufaqqihu).
Why was meaning never a reason for name-selection
It is no coincidence that he named the son he had before prophethood with the epithet he received after it.
He also did not choose the name purely for its meaning, for that was hardly a criteria for name-selection. This point can be corroborated by the fact that the Prophet (peace be upon him) never obsessed with the meaning of names of Sahaba (may Allah be pleased with them) who continued to carry their childhood names from Jahiliyya into Islam. Most of those names were wild and defiant in meaning as the Arabs revered the cowboys of the East: the bedouin.
One example is Jareer (may Allah be pleased with him). Jareer means a rope or nose-rein of a camel, but the Prophet (peace be upon him) raised no objection against it.
Another more glaring example is ‘Umar (may Allah be pleased with him). ‘Umar derives from the root word a-ma-ra. The inflectional form for Umar fu‘al is not be found in the Arabic lexicon unlike ‘amr, ‘umr, ‘umratan, and ‘amarun, which derive from the same root as ‘Umar. So, one can only speculate to its exact meaning.
The meaning of Jundub, another sahabi (may Allah be pleased with him), is also unspectacular. The name means locust (E.W. Lanes; look under ja-da-ba).
I dare you name your son locust.
Zubayr, another famous sahabi (may Allah be pleased with him), from the ten who were given the glad tidings of Paradise, is an ancient Arab name but there is little in its meaning to tickle our religious sentiments. It means to ‘repel,’ ‘forbade,’ or ‘prohibit someone.’ Another variant meaning is to ‘pelt with stones.’
The Prophet (peace be upon him) never changed the names of any of the above-named Sahaba (may Allah be pleased with them) for the very reason that meanings mattered less, character mattered more. The above names were neutral in meaning and could be interpreted both positively or negatively.
Sahaba (may Allah be pleased with them) whose names had terrible meanings
But, what about the Sahaba (may Allah be pleased with them) whose names had terrible meanings?
Hanzala was a common Arab name and the birth name of at least three different Sahaba (Hanzala bin Abi Amir, Hanzala bin al-Rabi‘, and Hanzala bin Hudhaym (may Allah be pleased with them)). The blessed Prophet (peace be upon him) in one hadith used the Hanzala, a type of odorless plant with a bitter taste, to illustrate the example of a hypocrite who does not recite Qur’an (Bukhari: Fadl al-Qur’an ‘ala Sa’ir al-Qur’an).
In addition, he explained that the shajarat al-khabeetha (bad tree) in the ayat ‘and the example of a bad word is like a bad tree’ (14:26) was the Hanzala (Ibn Hibban; Dhikr al-Akhbar ‘an tashbih al-Mustafa).
Still, there is no record of the Prophet (peace be upon him) ever changing the names of the three Sahaba. It is quite interesting that the Prophet (peace be upon him) likens the hypocrite to the Hanzala plant but still takes no measure to change the names of three Sahaba who carry the name of that very same execrable plant. It is obvious that the Prophet (peace be upon him) was not so concerned with meanings otherwise the above Sahaba and many others would have had their names changed. Umar would have been, “Jameel, the second caliph, said...”
Whatever the meaning of their names, it had little effect on their glorious status as the fundamentally greatest people in Islam after the prophets of Allah (peace be upon them all), a status that was acquired through diligence in the building of good character, purification of the hearts and attainment of selflessness under the prophetic shade.
Changing the names with beautiful meanings
In contrast, he did change the names of a few Sahaba (may Allah be pleased with them all) whose names carried beautiful meanings.
Quite shocking, isn’t it?
He changed the name of two Sahabiyyat by the name Barra (piety). One became Juwayriya and the other Zaynab (may Allah be pleased with both of them) (Muslim: Istihbab taghyir al-ism al-qabih).
The hadith implies that the Prophet (peace be upon him) elected to change the names because they were suggestive of a holier-than-thou attitude. In other words, a name with a good meaning could be an unintended assertion of superiority over another in a specific virtue. Although such an assertion is unintended, it is understood that a name that flaunts a virtue is not ideal of good Muslim conduct.
In another case, the Prophet (peace be upon him) advised the Sahaba (may Allah be pleased with them all) to avoid names like Yasar (ease), Rabah (benefit), Najih (successful), and Aflah (salvation).
These names have perfectly sound meanings, but the Prophet (peace be upon him) explained that if you were to ask if he (Yasar) was there and the response was no, it would mean that ease is absent (Muslim; Karahit al-tasmiya).
Now, that wouldn’t be nice would it?
What if someone said, “There is no ease and comfort in your home,” or they asked, “Is there really any ease and comfort in your home?”
All in all, we learn from the Prophet’s (peace be upon him) approbation of most neutral names and disapprobation of a few beautiful names that he was not obsessed with the idea of choosing newborn names purely on the basis of meaning. To him, the embodiment of these meanings was paramount, which is why he named his son after Ibrahim (peace be upon him) who embodied the most beautiful character and virtue.
Habit of the Sahaba
The Sahaba inherited the same character-driven ideal from the blessed Prophet (peace be upon him). Zubayr bin al-Awwam (may Allah be pleased with him) once said, “Verily, Talha bin Ubaydullah bin al-Taymi (another one of the Ashara Mubashshara) names all his sons after the prophets though he knows that there is no prophet after Muhammad (peace be upon him). I name my sons after the martyrs; maybe they will be granted martyrdom” (al-Tabaqat al-Kubra; look under Zubayr bin al-Awwam: 3/74).
Thereafter, he named his son Abdullah after Abdullah bin Jahsh;
his son Mundhir after Mundhir bin Amr;
his son Urwa after Urwa bin Mas‘ud;
his son Ja‘far after Ja‘far bin Abi Talib;
his son Mus‘ab after Mus‘ab bin Umayr;
his son Hamza after Hamza bin Abdul Muttalib;
his son Ubayda after Ubayda bin Harith;
his son Khalid after Khalid bin Saeed;
and his son Amr after Amr bin Saeed bin al-As who was martyred on the Day of Yarmuk (may Allah be pleased with them all) (Tabaqat Ibn Sa‘d; al-Zubayr bin al-Awwam).
The famous sahabi, Anas bin Malik, was named after his uncle Anas bin al-Nadar (may Allah be pleased with both of them), martyred in Uhud (al-Isti‘ab; Anas bin al-Nadr).
Imam Abu Hanifah named his son Hammad after his beloved teacher, Hammad bin Abi Sulayman.
Reverence is an important element if one wants to keep in touch with their past. This is a part of the promise of the generic Islamic name. Even if the Ayeshas, Bilals, Fatimahs, and Umars of today are asked by a non-Muslim about the meaning and background of their name, they must know and revere the predecessors to some level to respond appropriately.
Another benefit of Islamic names
Generic Islamic names are beneficial in another way. They are designed to preserve the Islamic identity more than the individuality of a person. A unique name rooted in a beautiful meaning focuses exclusively on the individuality. They are individualistic because they focus on the uniqueness of an individual attaching no importance to any other aspect of their identity. Their “muslimness”, so to say, is second to their self.
Often it happens that Muhammad becomes Moe because the named person is desperately trying to strip the “muslimness” from his identity but such is not the case with a unique name like Eefa (fulfillment of promise). There is no need to strip anything as it is already bare in its individuality.
One may say that there is a “muslimness” to an Arabic name since Arabic is often associated with Islam, and that is true.
Association does not equal synonymity
Association does not equal synonymity, though.
Qur’an is synonymous with Islam, but kitab is not, even though kitab is Arabic for book. Muhammad is synonymous with Islam, but Tariq is not, even though the Qur’an dedicates a whole Surah by that name. Tariq Aziz was the former deputy prime minister of Iraq to Saddam Hussain.
Tariq Aziz was an Arab Christian.
Generic Islamic names
Generic Islamic names can be novel and different. Based on the more common examples cited earlier, many are wondering if our Umma is going to be a whole lot more uniform now that the list of Islamic names has been reduced to a finger count.
Truth is that a generic Islamic name is any Islamic name that is rooted in exemplariness of a meaning and not on the meaning of a word itself. And the exemplariness of virtue is rooted in the names of the prophets (peace be upon them), the Sahaba (may Allah be pleased with them), and other pious predecessors. When you keep a generic Islamic name, you typically do not look up the meaning of the word; you look up to a great personality.
Ibn Umar and Saalem Maula Abi Hudhayfa (may Allah be pleased with them)
To cite an example, Ibn Umar (may Allah be pleased with him) had a son Saalem, the main narrator of his father’s ahadith in the hadith collections. Saalem was named after Saalem Maula Abi Huzayfa (may Allah be pleased him). To name his son after him, Ibn Umar (may Allah be pleased with him) set an exemplary precedent to show that naming our children out of reverence for exemplariness of character trumps everything else, including the tribal hubris that existed prior to Islam.
Here is why:
Ibn Umar (may Allah be pleased with him) was from Quraysh, the noblest tribe in Arabia. He named his son after Saalem (may Allah be pleased with him) who was a slave, a virtual nonentity in Arab society. After Saalem Maula Abi Hudhayfa (may Allah be pleased with him) accepted Islam, he rose through the ranks and became one of the top reciters of Qur’an and a beloved of the Prophet (peace be upon him). Ibn Umar (may Allah be pleased with him) was in awe of Saalem Maula Abi Huzayfa (may Allah be pleased with him) and named his son after him.
Name selections vary today, but the general trend of searching root words and going to imams curious to know the meaning of a word indicates a shift away from the traditional pattern of name-branding.
The cause is obvious.
In a culture of individualism, the trends toward individualistic name-selection increases exponentially with the growing irreverence for our predecessors, thus dropping the value of Islamic generic names like Ayesha, Bilal, and Ali. Books published on Islamic names are often nothing less than a dictionary of Arabic root words and conjugations.
Names of famous imams
The traditional pattern of name-branding is apparent in the names of our pious predecessors. For example, the name of the famous imams of the six books of hadith are as follows:
1. Imam Bukhari was Muhammad bin Isma‘il.
2. Imam Muslim was Muslim bin al-Hajjaj.
3. Imam Abu Dawud was Sulayman bin al-Ash‘ath.
4. Imam Tirmidhi was Muhammad bin ‘Isa.
5. Imam Nisa’i was Ahmad bin Shu‘ayb.
6. Imam Ibn Maja was Muhammad bin Yazid.
Names of the imams of fiqh
Now, the imams of fiqh:
1. Imam Abu Hanifah was Nu‘man bin Thabit (Nu‘man is the plural of na‘am, meaning camel; ([al-Misbah al-Munir fi Gharib al-Sharh al-Kabir; look under na-‘a-ma]). The meaning held little significance for Imam Abu Hanifa’s father who was of Persian descent (the Persians preferred mode of travel was the elephant or horse). But Nu‘man was also the name of at least 13 Sahaba ((may Allah be pleased with them)(Ma‘rifat al-Sahaba by Abu Nu‘aym).
1. Imam Abu Hanifa, out of the spirit of the time and the zeal of his father, a reverted Muslim, was likely named after one of these heroes of Islam.
2. . Imam Malik was Malik bin Anas bin Malik (he was named after his grandfather Malik).
3. Imam Shafi‘ was Muhammad bin Idris
4. Imam Ahmad bin Hanbal was Ahmad bin Hanbal.
Now for other eminent scholars throughout the centuries:
Imam al-Tahawi was Ahmad bin Muhammad;
Ibn Kathir was Ismael bin Umar;
Imam al-Tabari was Muhammad bin Jarir al-Tabari;
Imam Ibn Taymiyya was Ahmad bin Abdul Haleem;
Ibn Qayyim was Muhammad bin Abi Bakr…
We do need to remember that imbuing a beautiful meaning into the identity of our child is in no way detestable or wrong. In fact, it is the most natural thing for a parent to do, just that there is scarce proof of this criterion for name-selection in our tradition and the modern trend actually reflects the widening rift between us and our pious predecessors.
There are occasions where the Prophet (peace be upon him) did change names for the sake of meaning in order to provide flexibility in choosing non-generic names. For example, Ali (may Allah be pleased with him) named his first son, Hamza, after his uncle Hamza, and his younger son, Ja’far, after the boy’s uncle Ja‘far in line with the tradition of naming children after their predecessors. The Prophet (peace be upon him) renamed them Hasan and Husayn (may Allah be pleased with them) (al-Mu‘jam al-Kabir: al-Husayn bin Abi Talib, 3/98).
Existential names
There is an exception to the general tradition for generic Islamic names. These are the existential names. My name is Asim, but that does not necessarily qualify me as a protector or savior (though I wish I was). But, I will always be Abdullah, a servant of Allah, because that is who I am. I will always be a servant of al-Mannan, of al-Hannan, and of al-Rahman. These are the existential names, which are the most beloved names to Allah. The blessed Prophet (peace be upon him) said, “The most beloved of names to Allah are Abdullah and Abdul Rahman” (Abu Dawud; fi taghyir al-Asma).
Unique names
If parents are seeking a name that is unique and novel, and there is certainly nothing wrong with that, then there are many options outside of Arabic lexicons and the colorful bouquet of individualistic names to choose from. Names of the Sahaba (may Allah be pleased with them) and their successors run in the hundreds if not thousands. Taking their names for your sons and daughters will reap the benefit of uniqueness combined with the spiritual connection and association with a great Sahabi (may Allah be pleased with them all).
Click here, download the PDF file and share a list of over 90 Sahaba names (alif-haa) for newborns and born-agains (reverts) with the world. Or, maybe your interested in changing your own name to Jundub.