الْقَابِضُ
Al-Qabid
The Withholder
What Al-Qabid Means
Al-Qabid is built on the root q-b-d, to grasp, take hold of and contract. The name belongs to the balance of provision: ‘Allah withholds and extends, and to Him you will be returned’ (2:245). In His perfect wisdom Allah contracts provision, ease or circumstance for whom He wills — sometimes as a test, sometimes as a protection from what abundance would have corrupted — just as He extends them for whom He wills. The Prophet ﷺ placed this name in the marketplace itself: refusing to fix prices, he declared Allah to be Al-Qabid, Al-Basit, Ar-Razzaq (Abu Dawud 3451) — tightening and loosening both lie in the Provider’s hand. The verse itself is about spending in tight times, when a ‘goodly loan’ to Allah is multiplied many times over. For a believer, then, constriction is never abandonment: it is an appointment with the Withholder who is also the Extender, and the door He points to in tightness is generosity, not despair.
Al-Qabid and Al-Basit — withholding and extending
The two names appear together in the Quran (2:245) and on the Prophet’s ﷺ tongue in the prices hadith, and scholars explain them as one balance: Allah contracts provision for whom He wills — in wisdom, as a trial or a mercy in disguise — and extends it for whom He wills. Neither state means He has left His servant. The hand that withholds today is the hand that gives tomorrow, and both actions belong to the All-Wise Provider.
Al-Qabid in the Quran
مَّن ذَا ٱلَّذِى يُقْرِضُ ٱللَّهَ قَرْضًا حَسَنًا فَيُضَـٰعِفَهُۥ لَهُۥٓ أَضْعَافًا كَثِيرَةً ۚ وَٱللَّهُ يَقْبِضُ وَيَبْصُۜطُ وَإِلَيْهِ تُرْجَعُونَ
“Who is the one who would give Allah a good loan so that Allah multiplies it for him many times? Allah withholds and extends, and to Him you are to be returned.”
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.”
“Narrated Anas ibn Malik: The people said: Messenger of Allah , prices have shot up, so fix prices for us. Thereupon the Messenger of Allah (ﷺ) said: Allah is the one Who fixes prices, Who withholds, gives lavishly and provides, and I hope that when I meet Allah, none of you will have any claim on…”
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.”
Allah commands us to call upon Him by His names (7:180), so in a tight season you may call Him ‘Ya Qabid, Ya Basit — O Withholder, O Extender’ in your own words, asking Him to widen what He has narrowed for you. Follow the pointer of the verse itself (2:245): in constriction, keep giving what you can. The multiplication is promised by the Extender, and no tightness outlasts the hand that controls it.
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.