As-Sabur
As-Sabur is the Most Patient — who does not hasten punishment, though nothing prevents Him from it.
Name 99 of 99
الصَّبُورُ
As-Sabur
The Most Patient
- In Arabic
- الصَّبُورُ
- Transliteration
- As-Sabur
- Position in the list
- Name 99 of 99
As-Sabur — The Most Patient
What the name means
Sabr in a servant is endurance under difficulty. In Allah it cannot mean that, since nothing burdens Him — it means deliberate restraint: withholding a deserved consequence for as long as He wills.
The name is not in the Quran; it reaches the ninety-nine through at-Tirmidhi. It is close to Al-Halim, and scholars distinguish them by degree, as-Sabur adding length of forbearance.
Living by this name
The Prophet ﷺ said no one is more patient with harm heard than Allah: people attribute a child to Him, and still He grants them health and provision.
Its response is patience that keeps giving to those who have not earned it. See also Al-Halim and Al-Ghaffar.
Where As-Sabur comes from
As-Sabur 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 As-Sabur
As-Sabur (الصَّبُورُ) means "The Most Patient". 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. As-Sabur 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 Sabur" — 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 99 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.