العليّ
al-ʿAliyy
Topic
A divine name meaning the Highest, God being exalted above all creation and every comparison.
What it means
Al-ʿAliyy is one of the names of God. The verse of the Throne ends with “He is the Most High, the Most Great” (2:255), and the same pair of names appears in 42:4. The name expresses God’s rank and transcendence: the Quran says, “There is nothing like Him” (42:11). The Muslim keeps this together with the closeness of God, who answers those who call on Him, and the two together describe the relation between Creator and creature.
Often misunderstood as
The word is sometimes taken in a spatial sense, as though God sat somewhere high up, whereas the name asserts rank and transcendence.
Term and Arabic as listed in Ismail al Faruqi, Toward Islamic English (International Institute of Islamic Thought, 1995), p. 40, listed as AL ʿALIYY. The definition is restated here.