البارئ
al-Bāriʾ
Topic
A divine name meaning the Creator who brings things into being.
What it means
Al-Bāriʾ is a name of God that means the Maker, the Creator who brings things into being. Faruqi glosses it as the Creator of all things. Muslim scholars often noted that it points to creation that is free of defect and without any previous model. The Quran names it among three: He is God, the Creator (al-Khāliq), the Maker (al-Bāriʾ) and the Fashioner (al-Muṣawwir) (59:24). In the story of Moses, his people are told to turn in repentance to their Bāriʾ (2:54). The name reminds the believer that creatures owe their existence to God and that He knows them from the beginning.
Often misunderstood as
That it is a duplicate of al-Khāliq, when the Quran gives it its own place beside the other names.
Term and Arabic as listed in Ismail al Faruqi, Toward Islamic English (International Institute of Islamic Thought, 1995), p. 24, listed as AL BĀRI'. The definition is restated here.