الرحمن
al-Raḥmān
Topic
A divine name: the Merciful, whose mercy embraces all creation.
What it means
Al-Raḥmān is a divine name meaning the Merciful. It is used only of God. The Quran gives it as an alternative to the name Allah: “Call upon God or call upon the Most Merciful; by whichever you call, His are the best names” (17:110). It stands beside al-Raḥīm in the phrase that begins nearly every chapter. A whole chapter, al-Raḥmān (chapter 55), opens with the name and lists the favours of God to people and jinn. Muslims often read the name as pointing to the all-embracing scope of God’s mercy, which reaches every creature in this life.
Often misunderstood as
That God is chiefly a God of wrath, when His most frequent name is Merciful.
Term and Arabic as listed in Ismail al Faruqi, Toward Islamic English (International Institute of Islamic Thought, 1995), p. 33, listed as AL RAḤMĀN. The definition is restated here.