Al-Mu'akhkhir
Al-Mu'akhkhir is the Delayer — the One who defers whom and what He wills, always by wisdom.
Name 72 of 99
الْمُؤَخِّرُ
Al-Mu'akhkhir
The Delayer
- In Arabic
- الْمُؤَخِّرُ
- Transliteration
- Al-Mu'akhkhir
- Position in the list
- Name 72 of 99
Al-Mu'akhkhir — The Delayer
What the name means
Ta'khir is to put back. Its clearest instance is the deferral of reckoning: the Quran says Allah delays them to a Day when eyes will stare in horror — a delay that is not neglect.
Like its pair, the name is not in the Quran as a noun; it enters the ninety-nine through at-Tirmidhi and appears in the Prophet's ﷺ supplication.
Living by this name
It interprets waiting. An answer withheld may be an answer deferred to a better moment, which is why the Quran couples delay with a fixed term rather than with abandonment.
Its response is patience that keeps asking. See also Al-Muqaddim and Al-Halim.
Where Al-Mu'akhkhir comes from
Al-Mu'akhkhir does not appear in the Quran as a standalone name. It reaches the famous list of ninety-nine through the narration of at-Tirmidhi, and its meaning is established by the Quran in other words — through verbs and related forms rather than the name itself. Scholars accepted such names on that basis; this page marks the distinction rather than hiding it.
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-Mu'akhkhir
Al-Mu'akhkhir (الْمُؤَخِّرُ) means "The Delayer". 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.
Not as a standalone name. Al-Mu'akhkhir reaches the list of ninety-nine through at-Tirmidhi's narration, while its meaning is established in the Quran through verbs and related forms. This page says so plainly rather than attaching a verse that does not contain it.
Address Allah with "Ya" before the name — "Ya Mu'akhkhir" — 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 72 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.