Ar-Rashid
Ar-Rashid is the Guide to the Right Path — whose management of every affair is sound, needing no correction.
Name 98 of 99
الرَّشِيدُ
Ar-Rashid
The Guide to the Right Path
- In Arabic
- الرَّشِيدُ
- Transliteration
- Ar-Rashid
- Position in the list
- Name 98 of 99
Ar-Rashid — The Guide to the Right Path
What the name means
Rushd in Arabic is soundness of judgement, the opposite of ghayy, misdirection. Applied to Allah it means His directing of creation is right in itself — not guidance offered, but wisdom enacted.
The name is not in the Quran as a divine noun; it enters the ninety-nine through at-Tirmidhi, and the Quran uses rushd of the guidance He grants.
Where Ar-Rashid comes from
Ar-Rashid 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 Ar-Rashid
Ar-Rashid (الرَّشِيدُ) means "The Guide to the Right Path". 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. Ar-Rashid 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 Rashid" — 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 98 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.