الحق
al-Ḥaqq
Topic
A divine name meaning the ultimately True, Righteous and Real; also the quality of ultimate truth, righteousness and reality.
What it means
Al-Ḥaqq is a name of God that means the Real and the True, the One Whose being is certain and Whose word is right. The Quran says: “That is because God is the Truth, and what they call on besides Him is falsehood” (22:62), and “Exalted is God, the Sovereign, the Truth” (20:114). The same word, with the article, is also used for the revelation: “The truth has come and falsehood has vanished” (17:81).
The root carries a wide family of meanings: a thing that is real, a right owed to another, and a claim that is just. For this reason ḥaqq also means “right” in law, and Faruqi gives the second sense: the quality of ultimate truth, righteousness and reality. The believer’s speech and conduct are called to follow it. Sufis have used the name for God Himself.
Often misunderstood as
Reduced to “truth” as a statement; the Arabic joins truth, reality and right in one word.
Term and Arabic as listed in Ismail al Faruqi, Toward Islamic English (International Institute of Islamic Thought, 1995), p. 30, listed as AL ḤAQQ. The definition is restated here.