AL-MUTAKABBIR

Meaning and Explanation

Al-Mutakabbir appears as a divine name in the closing movement of Surah Al-Hashr. The Arabic root k-b-r carries the sense of greatness. In ordinary human conduct, takabbur describes a false enlargement of the self: a person treats a limited gift, office, achievement, or social position as though it made them inherently greater than other people. Applied to Allah, the name does not carry that defect. It affirms greatness that is real rather than claimed, complete rather than borrowed, and free from dependence or need. The immediate Quranic setting matters. Al-Hashr 59:23 does not present Al-Mutakabbir as an isolated label. It places the name after Al-Malik, Al-Quddus, As-Salam, Al-Mu'min, Al-Muhaymin, Al-Aziz, and Al-Jabbar, then declares Allah exalted above what people associate with Him. The sequence keeps greatness within tawhid and transcendence. It is therefore misleading to translate the name with a human vice such as “the arrogant” and stop there. English needs to show why a quality condemned as pretension in a creature expresses perfection when attributed to the Creator. The contrast also has an ethical consequence. Reflection on Al-Mutakabbir is not a license to speak harshly, dominate a family, humiliate a colleague, or present one's own religious judgment as unquestionable. The name exposes the fragility of such behavior. Human beings remain dependent, fallible, and answerable; no amount of knowledge, wealth, authority, or devotion turns a person into the owner of greatness. For devotional reading, the safest response is humility joined to truthful self-knowledge. A reader may remember Allah by this name without attaching a guaranteed worldly result to a number or schedule. The point is not to acquire superiority but to release the need to perform it: to admit error, respect another person's dignity, and use entrusted authority without treating it as absolute.

Arabic root: k-b-r (ك ب ر), conveying greatness, magnitude, and elevation.

This Name in the Quran

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Dhikr Tradition