The Ninety-Nine Names · the 16th name
الْوَهَّاب
Al-Wahhab
The Bestower, who gives without being asked
- The rootو ه ب
- From the rootwahaba: to give as a gift, with no exchange and no expectation of return
The essay
Arabic has several words for giving, and this is the one with no transaction in it. A hibah is a gift, not a payment, not a wage, not a loan. Al-Wahhab gives in the intensive: constantly, to those who ask and those who do not, of things nobody could have earned: a child to the barren, understanding to the slow, an opening after years of a closed door. The Qur'an puts this Name in the mouths of people praying, which is where it belongs.
In the Qur'an
أَمۡ عِندَهُمۡ خَزَآئِنُ رَحۡمَةِ رَبِّكَ ٱلۡعَزِيزِ ٱلۡوَهَّابِ
Or do they hold the treasuries of the mercy of your Lord, the Almighty, the Bestower?
this Name is in the Qur’an
What it asks of you
Ask Him for something you have no case for. This Name is not about your case.
Read beside it
The words