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The 99 Names · Name 98 of 99 · Act
ar-Rashīd الرَّشِيدُ
Perfectly sound in judgement.
Say it: ar-Rashīd. A recording by our own reciter is on its way.
Heard together with: al-Hādī / ar-Rashīd
The teacher Anne Sullivan held a deaf and blind girl's hand under cold water from a pump in Alabama. It was April 1887, the girl was six, and into her other hand Sullivan spelled w-a-t-e-r. Suddenly Helen Keller understood that things had names.
A good guide can change a whole life. Ar-Rashīd, the Rightly-Guiding, names the One whose guidance is perfectly sound and never needs correcting.
Start with something we know. Then take away everything it needs. What is left is not a bigger version of us: it is the Name.
Episode 1Anne Sullivan was only twenty when she arrived to teach Helen Keller. She had nearly lost her own sight as a child and had been taught at the Perkins School for the Blind. At the water pump, after weeks of frustration, the word finally connected, and Helen went on to become an author and campaigner. Mentors like this are among the greatest gifts a person can have. But every teacher learned from someone, makes mistakes, and can lead only so far. Even the wisest guide is fallible.
Episode 2Meerkats in the Kalahari feed on scorpions, which can sting. In 2006 Alex Thornton and Katherine McAuliffe reported in Science that adult meerkats teach their pups in stages. First they bring dead scorpions, then live ones with the sting removed, then whole live scorpions, as the pups grow more skilled. It was one of the first clear examples of teaching in wild animals. But meerkat teaching covers one skill. It can guide a pup to its dinner, not tell it how to live.
Episode 3In 2009 a study in the New England Journal of Medicine led by Alex Haynes tested the World Health Organization's simple Surgical Safety Checklist in eight hospitals around the world. Deaths after surgery fell from about 1.5% to 0.8%, and complications from 11% to 7%. A one-page list of questions, asked aloud before and after operations, saved lives. It is guidance at its best: humble, practical and shared. But a checklist only works if people follow it, and it cannot think for them.
Episode 4Every guide we know makes errors, knows in part, once needed guiding, and offers a list that works only if followed. Every guide we know points the way with some uncertainty. Ar-Rashīd guides with perfect soundness, to what is truly good. The Qur'an does not use this as a Name of God word for word. Its meaning is there in the prayer of some young people who fled for their faith: “When the young men fled for refuge to the Cave and said: Our Lord! Give us mercy from Thy presence, and shape for us right conduct in our plight.” (Qur'an 18:10, Pickthall).
Read: 18:17.
From the tradition: Ps 25:4–5.
On screen
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The Qur'an tells of a group of young people who lived in a city where they were not free to worship God alone. Rather than give up their faith, they left everything and took shelter in a cave, with their dog stretched out at the entrance.
Before they slept, they prayed: our Lord, grant us mercy from Yourself, and set our affair on the right path, rashadā (18:10).
God caused them to sleep for many years. The Qur'an describes the sunlight moving across the cave. It turned away from them on the right as it rose and passed them on the left as it set, while they were turned from side to side (18:17-18). When they woke, they thought they had slept a day or part of a day. One of them went into the city with an old coin to buy food, and found the world changed.
Christian tradition tells a closely related story, the Seven Sleepers of Ephesus, young Christians who hid in a cave during a time of persecution and woke centuries later. The Qur'an says that people argue about how many they were, and that only God knows (18:22).
The site's page on the Sleepers in the Cave tells the story fully.
“'I will instruct thee and teach thee in the way which thou shalt go; I will give counsel, Mine eye being upon thee.'”
Psalms 32:8 · JPS 1917
In Psalm 32 God speaks as a teacher: “I will instruct thee and teach thee in the way which thou shalt go; I will give counsel, Mine eye being upon thee.” The word Torah itself comes from a root meaning to teach or point the way.
Proverbs adds a lesson in humility: “Trust in the LORD with all thy heart, and lean not upon thine own understanding; in all thy ways acknowledge Him, and He will direct thy paths” (Proverbs 3:5-6).
A would-be convert once asked Hillel to teach him the whole Torah while standing on one foot. Hillel answered: what is hateful to you, do not do to another; that is the whole Torah, the rest is commentary, now go and learn (Talmud, Shabbat 31a). Every synagogue reads the Torah aloud in a yearly cycle, and at Simchat Torah congregations dance with the scrolls as they finish and begin again.
“But if any of you lacks wisdom, let him ask of God, who gives to all liberally and without reproach; and it will be given to him.”
James 1:5 · WEB
The letter of James encourages anyone who lacks wisdom to ask God for it, because God “gives to all liberally and without reproach”.
Christians also tell the story of the Seven Sleepers of Ephesus, honoured in Orthodox and Catholic tradition. They often speak of being guided by the Holy Spirit.
Many British congregations sing the old Irish prayer “Be Thou My Vision”, put into English by two women scholars, Mary Byrne in 1905 and Eleanor Hull in 1912.
“And when My servants question thee concerning Me, then surely I am nigh. I answer the prayer of the suppliant when he crieth unto Me. So let them hear My call and let them trust in Me, in order that they may be led aright.”
Qur'an 2:186 · Pickthall (1930)
Ar-Rashīd is in the traditional list of 99 but is not used of God in the Qur'an, where rashīd describes people of sound judgement (11:78; 11:87). The meaning is carried by rushd and rashad, right guidance, as in the youths' prayer (18:10). The jinn also said: we do not know whether their Lord intends good guidance for them (72:10).
The Qur'an promises: “And when My servants question thee concerning Me, then surely I am nigh. I answer the prayer of the suppliant when he crieth unto Me. So let them hear My call and let them trust in Me, in order that they may be led aright.” (2:186, Pickthall).
Psalm 32, James 1:5 and Qur'an 2:186 all invite people to ask God for guidance and promise an answer. The story of the young people in the cave is shared by Christians and Muslims, and honoured in different forms. They differ in how guidance comes: through Torah, through Christ and the Spirit, or through the Qur'an.
A moment to reflect
BBC's Earthflight: a condor parent teaching its young to fly.
How meerkat adults teach pups to handle venomous scorpions.
Write a letter to a teacher, coach or mentor who changed your life, telling them what they did. Read Psalm 32:8 and James 1:5 together.
Pair older and younger members of your community for an hour, to share a skill: cooking, fixing a bike, writing a CV. Tell the story of Anne Sullivan and Helen Keller first.
7 films and talks, chosen for this page. They play here.
When You're Searching For Meaning | Allah’s Names | Dr. Omar Suleiman | Ep. 3
Yaqeen Institute · 16 min
Yaqeen: Dr Omar Suleiman on ar-Rashid, al-Hadi and an-Nur (episode 3).
Al-Haadi & Al-Rasheed | Rahmah Weekly Halaqa With Shaykha Dr. Rania Awaad
Rania Awaad Official · 76 min
Dr Rania Awaad: al-Hadi and ar-Rashid.
13 - The Divine Name Al-Mughni until Al-Sabur - Ninety-Nine Names of Allah for Youth - Imam Yama
SeekersGuidance · 51 min
SeekersGuidance: Imam Yama Niazi on the Names from al-Mughni to as-Sabur, including ar-Rashid.
A Guided Examination of Conscience
Ascension Presents · 8 min
Ascension Presents: a guided examination of conscience, finding the right path.
A Baby Falcon's First Flight | Animal Babies | BBC Earth
BBC Earth · 3 min
Pied Flycatcher chick take its first flight from the nest | RSPB Nature Breaks
RSPB · 3 min
Squeaks' First Flight! | The Science of Flying | SciShow Kids
SciShow Kids · 22 min