العليم
al-ʿAlīm
Topic
A divine name meaning the All-Knowing, He whose knowledge extends to everything.
What it means
Al-ʿAlīm is one of the names of God and occurs many times in the Quran. It teaches that God’s knowledge encompasses everything, seen and unseen: “With Him are the keys of the unseen; none knows them but He” (6:59). It appears in the Quran alongside other names, such as al-ḥakīm, the Wise. A hadith in Sahih al-Bukhari and Sahih Muslim speaks of ninety-nine names of God. The believer who recalls that God knows every action and every intention is moved to sincerity and to trust.
Often misunderstood as
Rendered “Omniscient”, a philosophical label, the name loses its relational sense: God knows each creature and responds with mercy and justice.
Term and Arabic as listed in Ismail al Faruqi, Toward Islamic English (International Institute of Islamic Thought, 1995), p. 40, listed as AL ʿALĪM. The definition is restated here.