The Ninety-Nine Names · the 43rd name
الرَّقِيب
Ar-Raqib
The Watchful
- The rootر ق ب
- From the rootraqaba: to watch closely; raqabah, the neck, from watching over it
The essay
The root is physical: the neck, and the watcher who keeps his eye on it. Ar-Raqib is the One who watches continuously: not sampling, not checking in. The Qur'an places this Name in the mouth of Jesus on the Day of Judgement, saying that while he was among them he was a witness, and when Allah took him, Allah was the Watcher over them. The switch is the point. Human oversight ends. This does not.
In the Qur'an
وَٱتَّقُواْ ٱللَّهَ ٱلَّذِي تَسَآءَلُونَ بِهِۦ وَٱلۡأَرۡحَامَۚ إِنَّ ٱللَّهَ كَانَ عَلَيۡكُمۡ رَقِيبٗا
And be mindful of Allah, in whose name you ask of one another, and of the ties of kinship. Allah has always been Watchful over you.
this Name is in the Qur’an
What it asks of you
The thing you do when the door closes is the thing you actually are. Start there rather than with the public version.
Read beside it
The words