The Ninety-Nine Names · the 20th name
الْقَابِض
Al-Qabid
The Withholder
- The rootق ب ض
- From the rootqabada: to close the hand, to grasp, to take hold and withhold
The essay
The image is a hand closing. He constricts: the provision narrows, the chest tightens, the way that was open is not. The Qur'an puts this and its opposite in a single half-verse, one hand closing and opening, because they are one act and one actor. A narrowing that comes from Him is not the absence of His giving; it is a different form of it. Souls are taken with this same word.
In the Qur'an
وَٱللَّهُ يَقۡبِضُ وَيَبۡصُۜطُ وَإِلَيۡهِ تُرۡجَعُونَ
And it is Allah who withholds and who gives in abundance, and to Him you are returned.
from the enumeration · the verse carries the meaning
What it asks of you
When it tightens, do not go looking for who did it to you. Ask what the closing hand is holding you back from.
Read beside it
The words