He wants to name his son Najeeb – does he have the right to call his son Najeeb?

Question: 35705

Allaah has blessed us with a baby boy, but my husband and I disagree about what to call him. My husband wants to call him Najeeb, after his father, based on his father’s request, but I do not like this name because I think that I should play a part in choosing my son’s name, and not have this name forced upon me from anywhere. Doesn’t all the hardship that the mother endures during pregnancy, birth and breastfeeding and all the efforts of childrearing give her the right to choose the name of her child? I am afraid that this name may affect the way I deal with my son; how can I call him by a name that I do not like? I do not know if his father has the right in Islam to make this choice, and whether it is permissible to marginalize my opinion My opinion may be weak, but I am looking for the truth and I do not want to wrong myself, my son or my husband. Whatever the case, I will accept the verdict of sharee’ah in sha Allaah. Please advise us, may Allaah bless you and take care of you.

Answer

Praise be to Allah, and peace and blessings be upon the Messenger of Allah and his family.

Firstly: You have done well by accepting the ruling of Islam in all cases.

Secondly: May Allaah bless your newborn and cause him to grow up in obedience to Allaah.

Thirdly: The scholars have stated that naming the child is the right of the father, to whom he is to be attributed, so he is called So and so the son of So and so, or So and so the daughter of So and so.

Fourthly: It is not necessarily the case that the mother be rewarded for some of her efforts in this world, and it is better for her to take that in the Hereafter.

Fifthly: Despite all this, it is mustahabb for the father to try to reconcile all interests if possible, and to consult the mother, but in the case of disagreement, he is the one who makes the decision.

Sixthly: For the father to honour his own father is a good deed, especially when he grows older. If he misses the opportunity to honour him with this child, he may miss out on the opportunity to do so in the future, but if he honours him with this child, he will be rewarded for that, and he may please his wife by allowing her to choose the name of the next child.

We ask Allaah to bless you with more.

Seventhly: The name Najeeb in and of itself is a good name which means noble or generous.

Al-Fayroozabaadi said in al-Qaamoos (p. 136): Najeeb means “of noble descent”.

This is a name which bodes well for the child.

We ask Allaah to protect him and enable him to grow up in obedience to Allaah, and to give you more than you hoped for through him.

And Allaah knows best.

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