The Ninety-Nine Names · the 11th name
الْخَالِق
Al-Khaliq
The Creator
- The rootخ ل ق
- From the rootkhalaqa: to measure out and bring into being according to a proportion
The essay
The Arabic does not mean to make something out of nothing in the vague sense; it carries measure in it, the sense of a thing determined and proportioned before it exists. The three Names in this verse are one act described in three motions, and the order is the point: Al-Khaliq decrees and proportions, Al-Bari' brings out into existence, Al-Musawwir gives the particular face. Nothing in you is generic. It was measured.
In the Qur'an
هُوَ ٱللَّهُ ٱلۡخَٰلِقُ ٱلۡبَارِئُ ٱلۡمُصَوِّرُۖ لَهُ ٱلۡأَسۡمَآءُ ٱلۡحُسۡنَىٰۚ يُسَبِّحُ لَهُۥ مَا فِي ٱلسَّمَٰوَٰتِ وَٱلۡأَرۡضِۖ وَهُوَ ٱلۡعَزِيزُ ٱلۡحَكِيمُ
He is Allah: the Creator, the Originator, the Fashioner. To Him belong the most beautiful names. All that is in the heavens and the earth glorifies Him, and He is the Almighty, the Wise.
this Name is in the Qur’an
What it asks of you
Look at one thing you did not design: your hands, the fact that you heal, the fact that you sleep. It was proportioned before you arrived.
Read beside it