The Ninety-Nine Names · the 62nd name
الْحَيّ
Al-Hayy
The Ever-Living
- The rootح ي ي
- From the rootthe same root as Al-Muhyi: life, here as His own attribute
The essay
He is alive: not granted life, not sustained in it, not able to lose it. Everything else that lives is borrowing, and the loan is called back. The Throne verse opens with this Name and immediately says neither drowsiness nor sleep takes Him, which is the Book's way of ruling out the smallest lapse: not even the gap between two thoughts. There is no moment in which the universe is unattended.
In the Qur'an
ٱللَّهُ لَآ إِلَٰهَ إِلَّا هُوَ ٱلۡحَيُّ ٱلۡقَيُّومُۚ لَا تَأۡخُذُهُۥ سِنَةٞ وَلَا نَوۡمٞۚ
Allah, there is no god but Him, the Ever-Living, the Self-Subsisting. No drowsiness takes Him, nor sleep.
this Name is in the Qur’an
What it asks of you
There is no hour at which He is off duty. Pray at three in the morning if that is when you are awake.
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