The Ninety-Nine Names · the 19th name
الْعَلِيم
Al-'Alim
The All-Knowing
- The rootع ل م
- From the root'alima: to know; the root of 'ilm, knowledge, and 'alam, a sign or marker
The essay
His knowledge is not large. It is different in kind. Ours is assembled: gathered by senses, stored, retrieved, and always in the past tense. His is not acquired, never absent, and includes what has not happened and what would have happened had you chosen otherwise. The Qur'an says He knows the whisper and what is more hidden than the whisper. That is a claim about His knowing, not about the loudness of your secret.
In the Qur'an
قَالُواْ سُبۡحَٰنَكَ لَا عِلۡمَ لَنَآ إِلَّا مَا عَلَّمۡتَنَآۖ إِنَّكَ أَنتَ ٱلۡعَلِيمُ ٱلۡحَكِيمُ
They said: glory be to You, we have no knowledge but what You have taught us. It is You who are the All-Knowing, the All-Wise.
this Name is in the Qur’an
What it asks of you
You will not be understood completely by anyone alive. You already are, by Him. Let that settle both the loneliness and the pretending.
Read beside it
The words