The Ninety-Nine Names · the 72nd name
الْمُؤَخِّر
Al-Mu'akhkhir
The Delayer, who holds back
- The rootا خ ر
- From the rootakhkhara: to put back, to defer, to delay
The essay
He defers. The verse is severe and merciful in the same breath: if He took people to task for their wrongdoing, He would not leave a single creature on the earth, but He defers them to an appointed term. Every delay you have been given is this Name at work, including the ones you took for a sign that nothing was being noticed.
In the Qur'an
وَلَوۡ يُؤَاخِذُ ٱللَّهُ ٱلنَّاسَ بِظُلۡمِهِم مَّا تَرَكَ عَلَيۡهَا مِن دَآبَّةٖ وَلَٰكِن يُؤَخِّرُهُمۡ إِلَىٰٓ أَجَلٖ مُّسَمّٗىۖ
Were Allah to take people to task for their wrongdoing, He would not leave a single creature on the earth; but He defers them to an appointed term.
from the enumeration · the verse carries the meaning
What it asks of you
Your reprieve is not an acquittal, and it is not nothing either. Use it for the thing you have been putting off.
Read beside it