Al-Ghaffār - The Very Forgiving One

Al-Ghaffār is the One who makes manifest what is noble and veils what is disgraceful. The sins (of man) are among the disgraceful things which He veils by placing a veil upon them in this world and disregarding their punishment in the hereafter.

Man’s portion of this name lies in his veiling for the next man that part of him which needs to be veiled. (Muhammad) said – may the peace of God be upon him – “The one who veils the imperfections of a believer, his imperfections will God cover on the day of the resurrection”. The slanderer, the spy, the avenger and the one who requites evil with evil are far removed from this characterization. However, the one who is characterized by it is the one who does not divulge anything about God’s creation except those things which are best in them. There is no creature totally free from perfection and imperfection, from ugliness and beauty. The one who disregards the repulsive qualities and remembers the good ones is the person who possesses a share of this name, even as it is related of Jesus – may peace be upon him – that he and his disciples passed by a dead dog, and the stench of it was over-powering. His disciples exclaimed, “How this corpse smells!” but Jesus – may peace be upon him – replied, “How lovely is the white of his teeth!”. In this way he pointed out that they ought to mention only that which is good.