The Ninety-Nine Names · the 32nd name
الْحَلِيم
Al-Halim
The Forbearing, who does not hasten to punish
- The rootح ل م
- From the roothaluma: to be forbearing, slow to anger, deliberate under provocation
The essay
Hilm is not the absence of anger; it is power that declines to move at speed. He sees the wrong as it happens and does not strike, and the delay is not weakness or indifference: it is room. Every person reading this has been given that room at some point and used it badly at least once. The Qur'an notes it plainly: if He seized people for what they have earned, He would not leave a single creature on the earth.
In the Qur'an
۞قَوۡلٞ مَّعۡرُوفٞ وَمَغۡفِرَةٌ خَيۡرٞ مِّن صَدَقَةٖ يَتۡبَعُهَآ أَذٗىۗ وَٱللَّهُ غَنِيٌّ حَلِيمٞ
A kind word and a pardon are better than a charity followed by injury. And Allah is Free of need, Forbearing.
this Name is in the Qur’an
What it asks of you
The room you are standing in was given to you. Extend the same delay to the person who wronged you last week.
Read beside it
The words
Lights that name it