Al-Awwal
Al-Awwal is the First — before whom there is nothing, with no beginning to His being.
Name 73 of 99
الْأَوَّلُ
Al-Awwal
The First
- In Arabic
- الْأَوَّلُ
- Transliteration
- Al-Awwal
- Position in the list
- Name 73 of 99
Al-Awwal — The First
What the name means
First here is not first in a sequence but prior to sequence itself: there was no time before Him in which He was not.
The Prophet ﷺ explained it in the plainest possible terms: You are the First, so there is nothing before You — the definition given as a negation.
Al-Awwal in the Quran
The verse below contains this name. Each reference is checked against the Arabic text of the Quran before it is published, so Al-Awwal really is in the verse it is cited from.
هُوَ ٱلْأَوَّلُ وَٱلْءَاخِرُ وَٱلظَّٰهِرُ وَٱلْبَاطِنُ ۖ وَهُوَ بِكُلِّ شَىْءٍ عَلِيمٌ
He is the First and the Last, the Ascendant and the Intimate, and He is, of all things, Knowing.
Surah Al-Hadid 57:3Read the full surah →
How reliable is the list of ninety-nine?
That Allah has ninety-nine names is established in Sahih al-Bukhari and Sahih Muslim, and both are agreed upon. The specific enumeration — this list of ninety-nine — comes from a narration in Jami' at-Tirmidhi that at-Tirmidhi himself called gharib, and which many hadith scholars grade weak; several held that a narrator compiled the names by searching the Quran and Sunnah. Classical scholars including al-Khattabi, Ibn Hazm, al-Qurtubi and al-Ghazali compiled lists of their own that differ from it. None of this touches the names themselves, every one of which is established elsewhere; it means the count of exactly these ninety-nine is a scholarly arrangement rather than a revealed roster, and Allah's names are not limited to them.
Questions about Al-Awwal
Al-Awwal (الْأَوَّلُ) means "The First". Like every one of the ninety-nine names, it describes an attribute of Allah rather than serving as a label — the names are how the Quran teaches who Allah is.
Yes. This page cites 1 verse containing Al-Awwal, each checked against the Arabic text before publishing.
Address Allah with "Ya" before the name — "Ya Awwal" — and ask for what that attribute gives. The Quran instructs it directly: "To Allah belong the most beautiful names, so call upon Him by them" (7:180).
It is number 73 in the well-known list. The order comes from the narration of at-Tirmidhi and is a scholarly arrangement, so numbering can differ slightly between printed lists — the names themselves do not.