on the Most Beautiful Names. Others mention both interpretations but favor “the Master,” either because they believe it accords with Arabic usage or in order to deny the other meaning. Al-Khattābī, for example, favored interpreting al-Samad as the One to whom people turn in their affairs and whom they seek in their needs and calamities. The root meaning of al-Samad is “to seek out”: one says to a man, “Ismid samda fulān,” meaning, “Head toward so-and-so.”

Al-Khattābī said, “The soundest interpretation is that supported by the word’s derivation.” Abū Bakr ibn al-Anbārī stated in his book al-Zāhir that this was the view of all scholars of the Arabic language. Al-Qushayrī said in his commentary on the Names: “This is