الصَّمَدُ
As-Samad
The Eternal Refuge
What As-Samad Means
As-Samad is the second name of Surah Al-Ikhlas: ‘Allahu As-Samad’ (112:2). Classical Arabic gives the word two rich sides, which the early commentators combined. As-Samad is the Master to whom everyone turns for every need — the One besought by all creation; and He is the Perfect One, complete and solid, with no hollow and no need, while everything else depends on Him. Ibn Abbas and the early scholars summarised it as the Lord whose lordship and nobility are perfect and complete: the needy go to Him, and He needs no one. For the believer, this name redirects every request: needs that we carry from door to door of people are first carried to the Refuge who is never empty-handed, never absent and never turned away unanswered by His own promise.
As-Samad in the Quran
ٱللَّهُ ٱلصَّمَدُ
“Allah is Besought of all, needing none.”
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 Buraydah ibn al-Hasib: The Messenger of Allah (ﷺ) heard a man saying: O Allah, I ask Thee, I bear witness that there is no god but Thou, the One, He to Whom men repair, Who has not begotten, and has not been begotten, and to Whom no one is equal, and he said: You have supplicated Allah…”
“`Abdullah bin Buraidah Al Aslami narrated from his father, who said: “The Prophet (ﷺ) heard a man supplicating, and he was saying: ‘O Allah, indeed, I ask you by my testifying that You are Allah, there is none worthy of worship except You, the One, As-Samad, the one who does not beget, nor was…”
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.”
In the hadith of Buraydah, a man called on Allah as ‘Al-Ahad, As-Samad’ and the Prophet (saw) declared that he had used Allah’s Greatest Name (Abu Dawud 1493, Sahih; At-Tirmidhi 3475, Hasan). When a need presses you, then, use that Prophet-approved pattern — bear witness that Allah is Al-Ahad, As-Samad — and then ask Him. Directing the need to the Eternal Refuge before directing it to any person is itself the lesson of this name.
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.