The Ninety-Nine Names · the 50th name
الشَّهِيد
Ash-Shahid
The Witness, from whom nothing is hidden
- The rootش ه د
- From the rootshahida: to witness, to be present at; shahadah, both testimony and martyrdom
The essay
To witness in Arabic requires presence: a witness is someone who was there. He was present at everything, which makes His testimony unlike any other. Nothing was outside the room. This is the root of the word a Muslim says to enter Islam and the word for the one who dies for it, and the connection is not decorative: both are a person putting their whole weight behind a statement about what is real.
In the Qur'an
مَّآ أَصَابَكَ مِنۡ حَسَنَةٖ فَمِنَ ٱللَّهِۖ وَمَآ أَصَابَكَ مِن سَيِّئَةٖ فَمِن نَّفۡسِكَۚ وَأَرۡسَلۡنَٰكَ لِلنَّاسِ رَسُولٗاۚ وَكَفَىٰ بِٱللَّهِ شَهِيدٗا
Whatever good reaches you is from Allah, and whatever harm reaches you is from yourself. We sent you to people as a messenger. And Allah is enough as a Witness.
this Name is in the Qur’an
What it asks of you
Where you were wronged in private, there was a witness. Where you wronged someone in private, there was a witness. It is the same sentence.
Read beside it
The words