Al-Barr
Al-Barr is the Source of All Goodness — kind and generous to His servants, in what they earn and what they do not.
Name 79 of 99
الْبَرُّ
Al-Barr
The Source of All Goodness
- In Arabic
- الْبَرُّ
- Transliteration
- Al-Barr
- Position in the list
- Name 79 of 99
Al-Barr — The Source of All Goodness
What the name means
Birr in Arabic is expansive goodness — the same word used for kindness to parents. Applied to Allah it means good that arrives widely, including to those who have not deserved it.
The verse pairs it with mercy after describing the fear the believers lived with: indeed He is al-Barr, ar-Rahim.
Living by this name
It answers the assumption that Allah's default is severity. The Quran gives the name at the end of a passage about people who were afraid, as the reason their fear ended well.
Its response is birr toward parents and others — the same word, scaled to a servant. See also Ar-Rahim and Al-Karim.
Al-Barr 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-Barr really is in the verse it is cited from.
إِنَّا كُنَّا مِن قَبْلُ نَدْعُوهُ ۖ إِنَّهُۥ هُوَ ٱلْبَرُّ ٱلرَّحِيمُ
Indeed, we used to supplicate Him before. Indeed, it is He who is the Beneficent, the Merciful."
Surah At-Tur 52:28Read 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-Barr
Al-Barr (الْبَرُّ) means "The Source of All Goodness". 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-Barr, each checked against the Arabic text before publishing.
Address Allah with "Ya" before the name — "Ya Barr" — 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 79 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.