The Ninety-Nine Names · the 14th name
الْغَفَّار
Al-Ghaffar
The Ever-Forgiving
- The rootغ ف ر
- From the rootghafara: to cover, to veil over; the root of the word for a helmet
The essay
The root is not erasure but covering. To forgive in Arabic is to place something over the fault so it no longer shows and no longer harms. Al-Ghaffar is the intensive form: the One who does this over and over, without the covering wearing thin. The Book keeps this Name close to the ones who keep failing, because the form is chosen precisely for the repeat offender. He is not described as having forgiven. He is described as forgiving, again.
In the Qur'an
رَبُّ ٱلسَّمَٰوَٰتِ وَٱلۡأَرۡضِ وَمَا بَيۡنَهُمَا ٱلۡعَزِيزُ ٱلۡغَفَّـٰرُ
Lord of the heavens and the earth and all that lies between them, the Almighty, the Ever-Forgiving.
this Name is in the Qur’an
What it asks of you
Ask again for the thing you have already asked forgiveness for and gone back to. The form of this Name was chosen with you in mind.
Read beside it
A story