The Ninety-Nine Names · the 37th name
الْكَبِير
Al-Kabir
The Most Great
- The rootك ب ر
- From the rootthe same root as Al-Mutakabbir: greatness, here as a plain statement
The essay
Al-Kabir names greatness that does not depend on anything being compared to it. Ours is always relative: bigger than, richer than, ahead of. Remove the others and it evaporates. His does not scale against anything, which is why the word Muslims say most often in a day is not a comparison either: Allahu akbar has no second term. It is left open on purpose. Greater than whatever you were about to put there.
In the Qur'an
ذَٰلِكَ بِأَنَّ ٱللَّهَ هُوَ ٱلۡحَقُّ وَأَنَّ مَا يَدۡعُونَ مِن دُونِهِۦ هُوَ ٱلۡبَٰطِلُ وَأَنَّ ٱللَّهَ هُوَ ٱلۡعَلِيُّ ٱلۡكَبِيرُ
That is because Allah is the Truth, and what they call upon besides Him is falsehood, and because Allah is the Most High, the Most Great.
this Name is in the Qur’an
What it asks of you
Say it at the start of the prayer and mean the open ending. Greater than the thing you walked in worrying about.
Read beside it