Has there not passed over man a long stretch of time
before he was anything worth mentioning?
Al-Insan 1
You were never remembered, to be forgotten
You had no name, to be asked
Before they knew you
they gave you a name
You were called, you turned
You took that sound for yourself
We named the star; the star did not hear
We called water water; no lip grew wet
We knew its name
and thought we knew the thing itself
They ask a person for name and renown
What you call renown is only what you reckon
The trace left in sand is called a step
The trace left in stone is called a name
Wind erases the one
time the other
Both point to someone who passed
The one who passed is in neither
Whom are you calling?
We clung to names
Rank, title, fame
The name grew, grew heavy
Its owner was buried beneath it
These are nothing but names
that you and your fathers have given.
Al-Najm 23
And He taught Adam all the names.
Al-Baqarah 31
We have no knowledge
except what You have taught us.
Al-Baqarah 32
Man told everything its name
When his own turn came, he fell silent
Âdem, the human; adem, nothingness
Between them, the length of one breath
We give you good news of a boy whose name is Yahya.
We have given this name to no one before.
Maryam 7
There was no child; there was a name
Perhaps you too
are a name that has been called
In the presence of Moses, the staff was called a staff;
in the presence of the Creator, a dragon.
The truth of our name
is whatever our end is in His presence.
Rumi, Masnavi I
The same rain
mercy to one, flood to another
What fell was one
The one who looked gave it its name
We counted ninety-nine
The prayer beads ran out
The names did not
Name would not fit into number
The tongue remembered a thousand times
The heart, not for a moment
So remember Me, and I will remember you.
Al-Baqarah 152
There is a name
your voice trembles as you say it
Its letters are in the dictionary
Its trembling is in you
He is the Forgiving, the Loving.
Al-Buruj 14
All the names were said
One word remained
He
Not a name, a pronoun
A pronoun stands in for a name
Here the names stood in for the pronoun
And a person's inmost heart, too, is called zamir
Your love has taken me from me
It is you I need, you
Yunus Emre
No one's name appears in the couplet
Only an I remains, and a you
Then the I goes too
Say: He is Allah, the One.
Al-Ikhlas 1
Eyes do not perceive Him;
He perceives all eyes.
Al-An'am 103
We searched for the meaning of names
What were we really searching for?
Who was the first to remember you?
O soul at peace!
Well pleased with Him, and He well pleased with you,
return to your Lord!
Al-Fajr 27-28
There is no name in this call
The one who returns is nameless
Here the names fall silent
He