Having an inappropriate name

13-6-2001 | IslamWeb

Question:

My name is Sifaturrahman. Should I change it? Please comment with Daleel.

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Answer:

Praise be to Allah, the Lord of the Worlds; and blessings and peace be upon our Prophet Muhammad and upon all his Family and Companions.
All the scholars are agreed that it is forbidden to name people after the Attributes or Names of Allah.
Narrated Abu Huraira that the Prophet said: "The most awful name, the meanest and that which angers Allah the most on The Day of Judgement is that of a man who called himself king of kings. There is no king but Allah". Al Nawawi said while explaining this Hadith: "Know that giving oneself this name is forbidden, so is naming a person with one of the Names of Allah or one of His Attributes like Al Rahman, Al Qudus, Al Muhaimin, … etc.".
The writer of the Convenants of Muhammad (Peace and blessing be upon him) wrote: "The Prophet took a convenant from us that we shall never give our children or slaves names that he forbade us and which he (the Prophet) said Allah did not like. If we happen to give such names to any of our children or slaves, we shall change them imitating the Prophet. Many people do not respect this convenant, and indeed the Prophet had not made it unlawful except because of a sin that could stem from it". So, it is unlawful to be named by the name you mentioned and it should be changed to a lawful name. We suggest one of the best names which are Abdullah and Abdurrahman.
Allah knows best.