الْعَلِيُّ
Al-Aliyy
The Most High
What Al-Aliyy Means
Al-Aliyy comes from the root ‘ayn-lam-waw: height and exaltedness. Allah is high above His creation in every sense — in essence, in power, and in irresistible authority; nothing is above Him and everything else is beneath Him, dependent on Him. The Quran sets the name against every false object of worship: Allah is the Truth, what they call upon besides Him is falsehood, ‘and Allah is Al-Aliyy, Al-Kabir’ (22:62). Even His speech descends from that height by His leave, for ‘He is Aliyy, Hakim’ (42:51). The believer meets this name most intimately in sujud: the Prophet ﷺ taught us to place the highest part of the body — the face — on the lowest place, the ground, while declaring ‘Glory be to my Lord, the Most High.’ For the believer, this name ends all rival heights: no tyrant, no fortune, and no self is truly high beside Him.
Al-Aliyy in the Quran
ذَٰلِكَ بِأَنَّ ٱللَّهَ هُوَ ٱلْحَقُّ وَأَنَّ مَا يَدْعُونَ مِن دُونِهِۦ هُوَ ٱلْبَـٰطِلُ وَأَنَّ ٱللَّهَ هُوَ ٱلْعَلِىُّ ٱلْكَبِيرُ
“That is because Allah is the truth and that whatever they invoke beside Him is false and that Allah is the High, the Great.”
سَبِّحِ ٱسْمَ رَبِّكَ ٱلْأَعْلَى
“Pronounce the purity of the name of your most exalted Lord,”
۞ وَمَا كَانَ لِبَشَرٍ أَن يُكَلِّمَهُ ٱللَّهُ إِلَّا وَحْيًا أَوْ مِن وَرَآئِ حِجَابٍ أَوْ يُرْسِلَ رَسُولًا فَيُوحِىَ بِإِذْنِهِۦ مَا يَشَآءُ ۚ إِنَّهُۥ عَلِىٌّ حَكِيمٌ
“It is not (possible) for a human being that Allah speaks to him, except by way of revelation, or from behind a curtain, or that He sends a messenger, and he reveals, with His permission, what He wills. Surely, He is All-High, All-Wise.”
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.”
“Hudhaifa reported: I prayed with the Messenger of Allah (ﷺ) one night and he started reciting al-Baqara. I thought that he would bow at the end of one hundred verses, but he proceeded on; I then thought that he would perhaps recite the whole (surah) in a rak’ah, but he proceeded and I thought he…”
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 you may say, in your own words: ‘Ya Aliyy — O Most High — raise my heart above love of this low world and let nothing in it be greater in my eyes than You.’ Then live the name in your prostration, as the Prophet ﷺ did: face on the earth, declaring the Most High. The lesson is humility in its truest form — the closer a servant bows down, the nearer he comes to Al-Aliyy.
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.