Al-Musawwir
The Fashioner
Exalted and Glorious
He is Allah, the Creator, the Inventor of all things, the Bestower of forms.
To Him belong the Best Names. All that is in the heavens and on earth glorify Him.
And He is the All-Mighty, the All-Wise. (59:24)
This name gives a definite form or color, so as to focus a thing directly toward a goal. If a woman has been unable to bear a child and she keeps fast for 7 days and breaks her fast every evening with a drink of water over which this sacred name of Allah has been recited 21 times, she will be blessed with a child.
Al-Musawwir is the One who gives everything its form. He fashions it in a way that each has its own unique form which distinguishes it from any other; so do not look down upon anyone, because the One Who fashioned you and fashioned him is Allah.
From: The Meanings of the Names of Our Lord by Shaykh Muhammad Sa’id al-Jamal ar-Rifa’i Head of the Higher Sufi Council in Jerusalem and the Holy Land Teacher at the Dome of the Rock (al-Aqsa)
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The perfect artist who gives everything the most unique and beautiful form is al-Musawwir. He is the one who, without using any model, shapes everything in the most perfect shape. No two things are the same. Look at your fingerprints. Each and every creation is a choice creation, an expression of Allah’s infinite beneficence and wisdom.
These three beautiful Names of Allah: the Creator, the Maker of Perfect Harmony, and the Shaper of Unique Beauty, are the divine attributes manifested in the nearest and liveliest way in human beings. People make, build, and shape many beautiful and useful things, manifesting these attributes in themselves but we misjudge.
The artist says that he “creates” beauty. The engineer “invents” the flying machine. They think that it is they themselves who do this. They even forget the other people who might claim that they “created” the paint and the brush, and the sciences of geometry, physics, and mathematics, without whose “creation” their “creation” could not have been possible. They forget about the sources that produced the materials for that “creation”.
Who created the mind, the eyes, and the hands that put all this together? That which people make depends on many conditions, materials, and helpers. Allah’s creative act does not depend on any model, material, time, tool, helper, or anything else. When He creates, He says Kun, “Be!” and a whole universe becomes. Allah’s treasure is between two letters, “K” and “N” (in Arabic) or between “B” and “E” (in English). What man must do, instead of claiming to be a “creator”, is to try to see the divine power of creativity. He should try to lead others who seek to find Allah al-Khaliq, al-Bari’, and al-Musawwir, and help them to find Him through creative manifestations.
‘Abd al-Musawwir is the maker of things in accordance with the beauty manifest in all that Allah has created because no beauty is possible in opposition to the beauty created by Allah or outside of it.
If a woman who cannot have a child and believes that Allah is the only Creator fasts for seven days, reciting at each fast-break ya Khaliq, ya Bari’, ya Musawwir 21 times over a glass of water, and if she then breaks fast by drinking this water, it is to be hoped that she may have a child.
From: The Name & the Named by Shaykh Tosun Bayrak al-Jerrahi al-Halveti
