The Ninety-Nine Names · the 4th name
الْقُدُّوس
Al-Quddus
The Most Holy, free of every defect
- The rootق د س
- From the rootqadusa: to be pure, set utterly apart; the root behind the word for sanctity
The essay
Al-Quddus does not mean very good. It means removed from the whole category of defect, so far outside it that the comparison never begins. Every word we have for praise was built by people describing creatures, which means every word arrives already too small. So this Name works by subtraction: no need, no flaw, no tiredness, no partner, no shadow. The Book pairs it with the King, because power without purity is the most ordinary catastrophe in human history, and here they are the same thing.
In the Qur'an
يُسَبِّحُ لِلَّهِ مَا فِي ٱلسَّمَٰوَٰتِ وَمَا فِي ٱلۡأَرۡضِ ٱلۡمَلِكِ ٱلۡقُدُّوسِ ٱلۡعَزِيزِ ٱلۡحَكِيمِ
All that is in the heavens and all that is on the earth glorifies Allah, the King, the Most Holy, the Almighty, the Wise.
this Name is in the Qur’an
What it asks of you
Purify one intention today rather than adding one more good deed. He is approached by subtraction more often than by addition.
Read beside it