The Ninety-Nine Names · the 33rd name
الْعَظِيم
Al-'Azim
The Magnificent
- The rootع ظ م
- From the root'azuma: to be great; from 'azm, the bone, the solid core of a thing
The essay
The root is the word for bone, the hard structure everything else hangs on. Greatness here is not size and not volume; it is the weight that things have to be measured against. The verse of the Throne, the most quoted verse in the Book, ends on this Name, after four lines describing knowledge, dominion, and a throne wider than the heavens, and the summary is not a description. It is a refusal to describe.
In the Qur'an
وَسِعَ كُرۡسِيُّهُ ٱلسَّمَٰوَٰتِ وَٱلۡأَرۡضَۖ وَلَا يَـُٔودُهُۥ حِفۡظُهُمَاۚ وَهُوَ ٱلۡعَلِيُّ ٱلۡعَظِيمُ
His seat spans the heavens and the earth, and keeping them does not weary Him. And He is the Most High, the Magnificent.
this Name is in the Qur’an
What it asks of you
Put your problem next to the Throne verse and read it once. This is not to belittle the problem. It is to get it into scale.
Read beside it