The Ninety-Nine Names · the 12th name
الْبَارِئ
Al-Bari'
The Originator, who makes from nothing
- The rootب ر ا
- From the rootbara'a: to bring forth, to make free and separate from what it came from
The essay
Al-Bari' is the second motion: what was measured now stands apart, distinct, actually there. The root also gives the word for being cleared of a debt or a charge, and the sense of separation runs through both. He makes a thing that is genuinely other than Himself. This is the line the Book never lets blur: the creation is not a piece of Him, not an emanation, not a lesser portion of the divine. It is made, and it is other.
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
You are not a fragment of God and you are not an accident. Both of those are easier to believe than the truth, which is that you were brought forth on purpose and are not Him.
Read beside it