Al-Hafiz
Al-Hafiz is the Preserver — the One who guards what He has made and keeps a record that nothing falls out of.
Name 38 of 99
الْحَفِيظُ
Al-Hafiz
The Preserver
- In Arabic
- الْحَفِيظُ
- Transliteration
- Al-Hafiz
- Position in the list
- Name 38 of 99
Al-Hafiz — The Preserver
What the name means
Hifz is both protection and retention: to keep a thing safe, and to keep it in memory. Allah is Hafiz in both senses — He preserves creation in existence and preserves every deed in the record.
The Quran applies it to His guarding of the revelation itself: We sent down the Reminder, and We are its guardian.
Living by this name
The Prophet ﷺ told Ibn Abbas: guard Allah and He will guard you. The guarding a servant does is obedience; the guarding he receives is protection.
Its response is to entrust what you cannot protect yourself. See also Al-Muhaymin and Al-Wakil.
Al-Hafiz in the Quran
The 3 verses below contain this name. Every reference is checked against the Arabic text of the Quran before it is published, so Al-Hafiz really is in each verse it is cited from.
فَإِن تَوَلَّوْا۟ فَقَدْ أَبْلَغْتُكُم مَّآ أُرْسِلْتُ بِهِۦٓ إِلَيْكُمْ ۚ وَيَسْتَخْلِفُ رَبِّى قَوْمًا غَيْرَكُمْ وَلَا تَضُرُّونَهُۥ شَيْـًٔا ۚ إِنَّ رَبِّى عَلَىٰ كُلِّ شَىْءٍ حَفِيظٌۭ
But if they turn away, [say], "I have already conveyed that with which I was sent to you. My Lord will give succession to a people other than you, and you will not harm Him at all. Indeed my Lord is, over all things, Guardian."
Surah Hud 11:57Read the full surah →وَمَا كَانَ لَهُۥ عَلَيْهِم مِّن سُلْطَٰنٍ إِلَّا لِنَعْلَمَ مَن يُؤْمِنُ بِٱلْءَاخِرَةِ مِمَّنْ هُوَ مِنْهَا فِى شَكٍّۢ ۗ وَرَبُّكَ عَلَىٰ كُلِّ شَىْءٍ حَفِيظٌۭ
And he had over them no authority except [it was decreed] that We might make evident who believes in the Hereafter from who is thereof in doubt. And your Lord, over all things, is Guardian.
Surah Saba 34:21Read the full surah →وَٱلَّذِينَ ٱتَّخَذُوا۟ مِن دُونِهِۦٓ أَوْلِيَآءَ ٱللَّهُ حَفِيظٌ عَلَيْهِمْ وَمَآ أَنتَ عَلَيْهِم بِوَكِيلٍۢ
And those who take as allies other than Him - Allah is [yet] Guardian over them; and you, [O Muhammad], are not over them a manager.
Surah Ash-Shura 42:6Read 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-Hafiz
Al-Hafiz (الْحَفِيظُ) means "The Preserver". 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 3 verses containing Al-Hafiz, each checked against the Arabic text before publishing.
Address Allah with "Ya" before the name — "Ya Hafiz" — 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 38 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.