الْأَوَّلُ
Al-Awwal
The First
What Al-Awwal Means
Al-Awwal, the First, opens the great verse of Surah Al-Hadid: ‘He is the First and the Last, the Manifest and the Hidden, and He has knowledge of all things’ (57:3). The Prophet (saw) explained the name in his bedtime supplication: ‘You are the First, and there is nothing before You’ (Muslim 2713). Before the heavens, before the earth, before time itself, Allah was — uncreated and unbegun, owing His existence to no one. Scholars point out that this firstness belongs to Him alone: every other ‘first’ had something before it, but nothing precedes Him. For the believer, Al-Awwal anchors everything: whatever trouble you face had a beginning, but your Lord was there before it began — and the One who was before all things is never taken by surprise by anything that happens within them.
Al-Awwal, Al-Akhir, Az-Zahir and Al-Batin — four names in one verse
Allah gathers these four names into one verse (57:3), and the Prophet (saw) glossed each in a line: the First — nothing before Him; the Last — nothing after Him; the Manifest — nothing above Him; the Hidden — nothing beyond Him (Muslim 2713). Scholars explain them as two pairs closing every escape of the imagination: in time, nothing precedes Him and nothing outlasts Him; in existence, nothing is more evident than He, yet nothing is more hidden from eyes. Together, the four leave the heart nowhere to turn except to Him.
Al-Awwal in the Quran
هُوَ ٱلْأَوَّلُ وَٱلْـَٔاخِرُ وَٱلظَّـٰهِرُ وَٱلْبَاطِنُ ۖ وَهُوَ بِكُلِّ شَىْءٍ عَلِيمٌ
“He is the First and the Last, and the Manifest and the Hidden, and He is All-Knowing about every thing.”
What the Prophet ﷺ Taught Us
THE FOUNDATION OF THE 99 NAMES
“Allah has ninety-nine names, i.e. one-hundred minus one, and whoever knows them will go to Paradise.”
“Suhail reported that Abu Salih used to command us (in these words): When any one of you intends to go to sleep, he should lie on the bed on his right side and then say:” O Allah.”
Calling Upon Allah by This Name
Allah Himself commands us to call upon Him by His beautiful names:
وَلِلَّهِ ٱلْأَسْمَآءُ ٱلْحُسْنَىٰ فَٱدْعُوهُ بِهَا ۖ وَذَرُوا۟ ٱلَّذِينَ يُلْحِدُونَ فِىٓ أَسْمَـٰٓئِهِۦ ۚ سَيُجْزَوْنَ مَا كَانُوا۟ يَعْمَلُونَ
“For Allah there are the most beautiful names. So, call Him by them, and leave those who deviate in (the matter of) His names. They shall be recompensed for what they have been doing.”
The Prophet (saw) taught this name inside a supplication for the settling of debts and relief from poverty (Muslim 2713): ‘O Allah, You are the First; there is nothing before You…’ Use his wording before sleep, and in your own words add: ‘Ya Awwal — O First, who was there before my problem existed — be the first I turn to, before every person and every plan.’
Quran translations: Mufti Taqi Usmani. Hadith texts and gradings: the DeenHub hadith library. Every reference on this page is from the Quran or from hadith graded Sahih or Hasan.