al-Jabbār

The Compeller, and the Restorer who mends what is broken

Recited as it sounds in the Qur'an, 59:23.

Heard together with: al-ʿAzīz / al-Jabbār / al-Mutakabbir

The One who mends

In people, jabbār means a tyrant: the Qur'an uses it of proud oppressors (40:35). Of God it means the Compeller, whose will nothing resists; and, from the same root, the One who mends. Jabr is the setting of a broken bone. It gave English the word “algebra”, through al-Khwārizmī's book on restoring balance in equations.

It is heard in its classical company: “the Almighty, the Compeller, the Supremely Great” (59:23), always beside mercy. Muslims pray between the two prostrations: “O God, forgive me, have mercy on me, and mend me (ijburnī).”

Living it: humility; never to compel others; to mend what we have broken.

On screen

In Endgame, putting the world back costs the hero everything. al-Jabbār mends, and nothing is spent.

Where it shows up

In scripture: Q 59:23; 5:22; 40:35. Psalm 147:3
The same thread in Jewish and Christian scripture: Moderate. Hebrew gibbor (Deut 10:17 'mighty') likely cognate; Psalm 147:3 'healing their broken hearts, and binding up their wounds'
In the universe: NASA reports the Antarctic ozone hole recovering after the 1987 Montreal Protocol; full recovery projected around mid-century
In nature: Coral regrowth: Blue Planet II, BBC iPlayer (general)
In people: Kintsugi: 'repairing broken pottery by mending the areas of breakage with… powdered gold' (Wikipedia); bone-setters; the Montreal Protocol
In science: Biology: a fractured bone remodels itself until the break can be invisible; mathematics: al-jabr, 'restoring' terms across an equation

Living it

Humility; do not compel others; mend what you have broken

Its kind

In a pair: a hard Name, always heard beside its partner.

In the Qur'an: 59:23

Sources for this page

mathshistory.st-andrews.ac.uk/Biographies/Al-Khwarizmi; Wikipedia Kintsugi, Bone healing, Infinity Stones; sefaria.org Ps 147:3; api.quran.com