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Is It Fine to Name My Child Samuel?

19 April, 2016
Q As salamu alaykum. My husband’s name is Samuel, after his father, and his father before him. My husbands’ mother is Muslim, and his father, who is Irish, converted to Islam many years ago. The Irish tradition of my father-in-law is to name the first born son 'Samuel'. I want to keep with the tradition and demonstrate my respect to my father-in-law and husband, but I also want the name to have an Islamic meaning. Can I link the name Samuel to something so that holds some meaning? For example Samuel-Dean (Sami-ul-Din) which is my husbands name (except he uses the English version). Are there any other names? I have though of Samuel-iman, as I believe deen and iman have a close relationship. Your help on this would be greatly appreciated. Kind regards…

Answer

As salamu ‘alaykum sister,

There is nothing like a new opportunity to challenge us and what we actually know about our Islam. Here you are presented with the name of Samuel, so it would be a good time to explore the meaning of the name, and to learn about Prophet Samuel.

Prophet Samuel (Shammil pbuh) is mentioned in the Qur’an, albeit not by name as follows:

{Have you not considered the chiefs of the children of Israel after Musa, when they said to a prophet of theirs: Raise up for us a king, (that) we may fight in the way of Allah. He said: May it not be that you would not fight if fighting is ordained for you? They said: And what reason have we that we should not fight in the way of Allah, and we have indeed been compelled to abandon our homes and our children. But when fighting was ordained for them, they turned back, except a few of them, and Allah knows the unjust } (Al Baqarah 2: 246).

Samuel from its Hebrew origins, is a difficult name to establish the meaning from, because literally, Samuel means in English “the name of God’’. As Islam, we would not dare to put ourselves on the same footing as Allah (SWT), and others (non-Muslims), find this meaning difficult as well, so the other meaning that can be proven is ‘heard God’, and ‘asked God’ as the mother Hannah, asked God for Samuel because she could not conceive, and have children.

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So sister, if you want to follow in the tradition, the name ‘Shammil’ might be suitable until you can find a name the meaning of which you are more sure of.

About Hwaa Irfan
Late Hwaa Irfan, may her soul rest in peace, served as consultant, counselor and freelance writer. Her main focus was on traditional healing mechanisms as practiced in various communities, as opposed to Western healing mechanisms.