Al-Jabbar
Al-Jabbar is the One whose will prevails over all — and who mends what is broken, the same word carrying both.
Name 9 of 99
الْجَبَّارُ
Al-Jabbar
The Compeller
- In Arabic
- الْجَبَّارُ
- Transliteration
- Al-Jabbar
- Position in the list
- Name 9 of 99
Al-Jabbar — The Compeller
What the name means
The root j-b-r means to set a fracture. Arabs called the splint that mends a broken bone a jabirah. From the same root comes compulsion — a will that cannot be resisted. Allah is both: irresistible in His decree, and the One who restores what has been shattered.
Living by this name
When a human being is called jabbar the Quran uses it as blame, because a creature has no right to overpower. The name belongs to Allah alone in its full sense, and the response is submission rather than imitation.
It is the name for the broken — bereaved, wronged, bankrupt of hope. The One who compels is the One who mends. See also Al-Aziz and Al-Mutakabbir.
Al-Jabbar 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-Jabbar really is in the verse it is cited from.
هُوَ ٱللَّهُ ٱلَّذِى لَآ إِلَٰهَ إِلَّا هُوَ ٱلْمَلِكُ ٱلْقُدُّوسُ ٱلسَّلَٰمُ ٱلْمُؤْمِنُ ٱلْمُهَيْمِنُ ٱلْعَزِيزُ ٱلْجَبَّارُ ٱلْمُتَكَبِّرُ ۚ سُبْحَٰنَ ٱللَّهِ عَمَّا يُشْرِكُونَ
He is Allah, other than whom there is no deity, the Sovereign, the Pure, the Perfection, the Bestower of Faith, the Overseer, the Exalted in Might, the Compeller, the Superior. Exalted is Allah above whatever they associate with Him.
Surah Al-Hashr 59:23Read 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-Jabbar
Al-Jabbar (الْجَبَّارُ) means "The Compeller". 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-Jabbar, each checked against the Arabic text before publishing.
Address Allah with "Ya" before the name — "Ya Jabbar" — 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 9 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.