The Ninety-Nine Names · the 83rd name
الرَّءُوف
Ar-Ra'uf
The Most Kind
- The rootر ا ف
- From the rootra'afa: to be compassionate in the tender, immediate sense; ra'fah is softness toward suffering
The essay
Ra'fah is the softest word in this family. Rahmah is wide; ra'fah is the wince at another's pain, the tenderness that moves before thinking. The Qur'an uses it of Him toward people in general, not only toward believers, and it uses it in the middle of a verse about a change of direction in prayer that confused everyone: reassuring them that the prayers already offered were not wasted. The tenderness is over a technicality.
In the Qur'an
وَمَا كَانَ ٱللَّهُ لِيُضِيعَ إِيمَٰنَكُمۡۚ إِنَّ ٱللَّهَ بِٱلنَّاسِ لَرَءُوفٞ رَّحِيمٞ
Allah would never let your faith go to waste. Allah is Tender with people, Ever-Merciful.
this Name is in the Qur’an
What it asks of you
He is tender about the small things you are afraid did not count. They counted.
Read beside it
The words