Chapter 242
Remembrance 1 from Chapter 242
The prohibition of giving repulsive names
Context
WE RELATE FROM the Ṣaḥīḥ of Muslim that Samurah ibn Jundub
narrated that the Messenger of Allah
said: “Do not call your son Yasār, Rabāḥ, Najāḥ or Aflaḥ. For you will say: ‘Is he here?’ and when he is not, you will say: ‘No.’ These are only four, so do not add to what I have said.” [1].
References
[1] Muslim (2137), Abū Dāwūd (4958) and at-Tirmidhī (2838). Yasār means ‘wealthy’; Rabāḥ means ‘profitable’; Najāḥ and Aflaḥ mean ‘successful’. This means that if someone asks if a person by one of these names is present and he is not, it could be construed as meaning that no-one present has those qualities. People will therefore take this as a bad omen.