But what does it mean? I have seen it variously translated as The Most Compassionate, The Beneficent, the Most Merciful, The Merciful, The All-Merciful, The Gracious One, and I am sure this does not exhaust the list of possible translations. I want to make it clear that all of these translations are given by Muslims and by scholars. I am not trying to be stubborn or officiously scholarly when I give different translations. On Wikipedia, there is currently a passionate argument that this is simply the personal name of Allah, and as such does not correspond to an attribute. (The author of this particular part of the article does not speak English in a very grammatical way, and I will be surprised if their addition stands for long. But I have been surprised before.)
Arabic is a language of three and four letter roots, which tie together families of related words. The root of this word is R-H-M ر ح مز According to the The Hans Wehr Dictionary of Modern Written Arabic, related words are رحمwhich can mean uterus, womb and relationship or kinship. The related word رحمة is variously translated as pity, compassion, human understanding, sympathy, kindness, and mercy. The Qur'an itself does not give us a lot of clues as to exactly what flavor is best ascribed to this word. In many places, it is used as a name without any particular clues.
So I have turned to the Tafsir Ibn Kathir, because it has been translated into English, and is available on the internet. Ibn Kathir was a mufassir (scholarly commentator on the Qur'an) who was born in 1302 C.E. Tafsir is commentary on the Qur'an which goes word by word, and phrase by phrase. There is a detailed discussion of the distinction between Ar-Rahman and the related name (they share the same root) Ar-Raheem. He cites a tradition (Hadith) judged to be authentic (graded Sahih) that Abdur-Rahman bin `Awf heard Mohammad say "Allah the Exalted said, 'I Am Ar-Rahman. I created the Raham (womb, i.e. family relations) and derived a name for it from My Name." Ar-Rahman is said to embrace a wider scope of Allah's mercies, and it applies to the mercies that are given to all of creation, believers and unbelievers alike. The term Rahman is not an adjective that can be applied to anyone but Allah. People can be Raheem (merciful) but not Rahman.
One of the places which I think gives the best flavor of the word is in the Surah which is named Ar-Rahman (Surah 55). You can hear this recited, with an interpretation/translation here:
This surah starts with the name of Allah, Ar-Rahman, and goes on to talk of the things that he has done: He taught the Qur'an; He created man; He taught him speech, and to extol the wonders of creation. He not only created man from clay, but the jinn from smokeless fire. There is the beautiful repeated line, "Then which of the favors of your Lord will you deny?"
As I think of this Surah, and of the boundless nature of the mercy and favor of God, I am reminded of Psalm 65:5-13,
5 You answer us with awesome and righteous deeds, God our Savior, the hope of all the ends of the earth and of the farthest seas, 6 who formed the mountains by your power, having armed yourself with strength, 7 who stilled the roaring of the seas, the roaring of their waves, and the turmoil of the nations. 8 The whole earth is filled with awe at your wonders; where morning dawns, where evening fades, you call forth songs of joy.
9 You care for the land and water it; you enrich it abundantly. The streams of God are filled with water to provide the people with grain, for so you have ordained it.10 You drench its furrows and level its ridges; you soften it with showers and bless its crops. 11 You crown the year with your bounty, and your carts overflow with abundance. 12 The grasslands of the wilderness overflow; the hills are clothed with gladness. 13 The meadows are covered with flocks and the valleys are mantled with grain; they shout for joy and sing.
I also think of Jesus encouraging his followers to pray for their enemies, so that they can be like their Father in heaven. "He causes his sun to rise on the evil and the good, and sends rain on the righteous and the unrighteous" (Matthew 5:45). The goodness and mercy and generous love of God flow out on everyone as freely and fully as the sunshine. And while we think of the sun as setting daily, in truth we know that the sun NEVER stops shining. It is constantly pouring out its blessing on the earth, just sometimes more fully on those we cannot see or know.
I like the fact that Ar-Rahman in Surah 55 is shown blessing not only mankind and the natural world, but even the jinn. His mercy and love are vast beyond our capacity to imagine them.
Here is the song that came as I considered and prayed about this name, with a WordArt calligraphy picture to illustrate it.
Ar-Rahman
Like the waves keep rolling in the ocean
Like the sun keeps shining up above
Ar-Rahman keeps giving gifts of mercy
Ar-Rahman keeps giving gifts of love
To the righteous one and faithless sinner
for the thankless and the thankful eye
There is still the cooling touch of water
There are still stars shining in the sky
You can't stop the rolling of the ocean
You can't stop the sparkling of the dew
You can't stop the changing of the seasons
You can't stop God's grace from touching you
Like the waves keep rolling in the ocean
Like the sun keeps shining up above
Ar-Rahman keeps giving gifts of mercy
Ar-Rahman keeps giving gifts of love.
Like the waves keep rolling in the ocean
Like the sun keeps shining up above
Ar-Rahman keeps giving gifts of mercy
Ar-Rahman keeps giving gifts of love
To the righteous one and faithless sinner
for the thankless and the thankful eye
There is still the cooling touch of water
There are still stars shining in the sky
You can't stop the rolling of the ocean
You can't stop the sparkling of the dew
You can't stop the changing of the seasons
You can't stop God's grace from touching you
Like the waves keep rolling in the ocean
Like the sun keeps shining up above
Ar-Rahman keeps giving gifts of mercy
Ar-Rahman keeps giving gifts of love.
And here I want to put a final set of thoughts. These are thoughts that I cannot avoid having as I consider this name as a Christian. However, it is not my purpose to be obnoxious and argumentative in this blog. Let me say, as Lemony Snickett did in the children's books, that I have to write this, but you DO NOT HAVE TO READ IT. The following section could be described as aggressively Christian. If you prefer to avoid such material, don't click on the +.
How can I read about the most Gracious mercy of God, God's goodness poured out to all, upon all of God's creation, without thinking of what is for me God's greatest act of self-giving? God so loved the world...(John 3:16) and "This is love, not that we loved God but that He loved us and sent his Son as an atoning sacrifice for our sins." (John 4:10). "God demonstrates his love for us in this. While we were yet sinners, Christ died for us" (Romans 5:18). How do I talk about this in a way that might make some kind of sense, especially in the light of the fact that the Surah of the Qur'an which uses the name Ar-Rahman the most is Surah Maryam (Surah 19). That Surah talks about the birth of Jesus, and Mary's virgin conception, the gift of a child to a woman who had never been with a man in a sexual encounter.
Surah 19:35 says "It is not for Allah to take [or beget] a son; exalted is He! When He decrees an affair, He only says to it "Be," and it is."
And here are the Christians, saying not only that Jesus is, in some sense God's "only begotten Son," but also that he is God. Christians believe that God, the one God, the only God, is Father, Son and Holy Spirit. That these three are not three Gods (though I can understand that it would feel like that to an outsider looking in) but one God. That forever and always God has been Father, Son and Holy Spirit.
if the issue is that, unlike the Greek gods, who were understood to come to women rather freely, and produced "heroes" like Hercules, God is not such as to have sex with a woman, then I am in complete agreement that God does not and did not do that. But the Qur'an repeatedly rejects the notion that God can have a son at all. And here, of course, Christianity disagrees.
For me, the most central and defining act of God's love and mercy for all humanity, and for the world as a whole is that seeing us all messed up in our sin, God did not stand aloof. He sent his son, and because of the nature of God, that means that he came himself. God who had the ability to be completely apart from us, who in some ways is completely apart and beyond us, also became fully human in Jesus. Having become fully human, and lived a life bound by the many limitations involved in being human, and though he was completely sinless himself, he did not stand aloof from our sin. He could have just come and showed us how it's done, lived a perfect life, and given us a brilliant example that we would not be able to follow. Instead, he did something about our predicament. He died on the cross, taking our sin upon himself, dying our death so that we could have his life.
Not that we loved God, but that God loved us. Not for righteous people but for us unrighteous sinners.
God is truly Ar-Rahman.
Surah 19:35 says "It is not for Allah to take [or beget] a son; exalted is He! When He decrees an affair, He only says to it "Be," and it is."
And here are the Christians, saying not only that Jesus is, in some sense God's "only begotten Son," but also that he is God. Christians believe that God, the one God, the only God, is Father, Son and Holy Spirit. That these three are not three Gods (though I can understand that it would feel like that to an outsider looking in) but one God. That forever and always God has been Father, Son and Holy Spirit.
if the issue is that, unlike the Greek gods, who were understood to come to women rather freely, and produced "heroes" like Hercules, God is not such as to have sex with a woman, then I am in complete agreement that God does not and did not do that. But the Qur'an repeatedly rejects the notion that God can have a son at all. And here, of course, Christianity disagrees.
For me, the most central and defining act of God's love and mercy for all humanity, and for the world as a whole is that seeing us all messed up in our sin, God did not stand aloof. He sent his son, and because of the nature of God, that means that he came himself. God who had the ability to be completely apart from us, who in some ways is completely apart and beyond us, also became fully human in Jesus. Having become fully human, and lived a life bound by the many limitations involved in being human, and though he was completely sinless himself, he did not stand aloof from our sin. He could have just come and showed us how it's done, lived a perfect life, and given us a brilliant example that we would not be able to follow. Instead, he did something about our predicament. He died on the cross, taking our sin upon himself, dying our death so that we could have his life.
Not that we loved God, but that God loved us. Not for righteous people but for us unrighteous sinners.
God is truly Ar-Rahman.
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