Al-Jabbar — The All Compelling

الْجَبَّارُ

Name 9 of the ninety-nine. The One that nothing happens in His Dominion except that which He willed

Al-Jabbar (in Arabic: ٱلْجَبَّارُ), there are several accepted meanings to this name.

The root

From the root jim-ba-ra (ج ب ر), which has the following classical Arabic connotations: to restore something to sound, right or good state to bring back to normal, reform to benefit, to confer a benefit to be supreme, high, above all of creation to be compelling, irresistible.

Reflection

When we come to know Al-Jabbar, we realize Allah سُبْحَٰنَهُۥ وَتَعَٰلَىٰ as having extreme power, supremacy, strength over all His creation. " In coming to realize this, we are subdued. We can no longer believe in our superiority. We understand that He is the one who elevated our rank. He benefits His creation but needs no benefitting Himself.

" (Qur'an 40:35) Supplications from Hadith: We should call upon this name for help in desperation. A cry to Al-Jabbar to remedy a broken heart, marriage, or confidence. In a weak hadith narration, "Ibn Abbas narrated: 'Between the two prostrations, the Prophet would say: (Allahummaghfir li, warhamni, wajburni, wahdini, warzuqni).

'O Allah! ' [1] اللّهُـمَّ اغْفِـرْ لي وَارْحَمْـني وَاهْدِنـي وَاجْبُرْنـي وَعافِنـي وَارْزُقْنـي وَارْفَعْـني Allāhumma'ghfir lī, war'ḥamnī. wahdinī, wajburnī. wa `āfinī, warzuqnī, warfa`nī. " Here wajaburni means to help or rectify me - which aligns with the meaning of Al-Jabbar being the restorer/repairer. Although this narration is da'if (weak), the supplication is still very much relevant.

A word of caution, repeating this in your prostration would be ritualizing something unsound, and it's not the way to reach definitive practices taught by rasulullah. If you do so because, at the moment, your heart desires to supplicate in prostration, and you recite this particular du'a because it comes to your mind, then that's fine.

It's still a beneficial act that praises Allah سُبْحَٰنَهُۥ وَتَعَٰلَىٰ. The words of dhikr are still applicable, but ritually doing something off of a weak hadith is generally not advisable.

Where it appears

[1] Da'if (weak) Jami` at-Tirmidhi 284,[2] Sahih (Darussalam) Sunan an-Nasa'i 1069

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