The Ninety-Nine Names · the 34th name
الْغَفُور
Al-Ghafur
The Much-Forgiving
- The rootغ ف ر
- From the rootthe same root as Al-Ghaffar: to cover over so that the fault no longer shows
The essay
Ghaffar is the intensive of repetition, Ghafur is the intensive of extent: the covering is total. Not managed, not conditional, not a suspended sentence. The Qur'an's most extreme statement of it tells those who have wronged themselves beyond all measure not to despair, because He forgives all sins, all of them. Despair is treated by the Book as its own error, and this Name is the argument against it.
In the Qur'an
يَعۡلَمُ مَا يَلِجُ فِي ٱلۡأَرۡضِ وَمَا يَخۡرُجُ مِنۡهَا وَمَا يَنزِلُ مِنَ ٱلسَّمَآءِ وَمَا يَعۡرُجُ فِيهَاۚ وَهُوَ ٱلرَّحِيمُ ٱلۡغَفُورُ
He knows what goes into the earth and what comes out of it, what comes down from the sky and what goes up into it. And He is the Ever-Merciful, the Much-Forgiving.
this Name is in the Qur’an
What it asks of you
Whatever you think is past forgiving, that specific thing, the one that came to mind just now, is inside the word all.
Read beside it