Al-Mateen

The root. Al-Mateen comes from m-t-n, a root centered on physical firmness — matn is the solid back or ridge of something, the part that bears weight without giving way. Applied outward from the body, the root names anything that holds under load rather than flexing or cracking: firm ground, a firm rope, a firm resolve. Al-Mateen is shaped on the faʿīl pattern, naming this firmness as a settled and total quality.

What it means here. Al-Mateen is read as strength that is not only great but incapable of strain — where Al-Qawiyy names the extent of the power, Al-Mateen names that this power costs Him nothing to hold, that no effort, fatigue, or wear attaches to it at all. It is this second sense that distinguishes it from Al-Qawiyy rather than merely repeating it: a strong thing can still tire from exertion, but what is mateen does not, because its firmness is not exertion in the first place.

Where it is met. Al-Mateen occurs once in the Quran, in Surah Adh-Dhariyat, where Allah is named "indeed it is Allah who is Ar-Razzaq, possessor of power, Al-Mateen" — provision, strength, and firmness named together in a single verse, immediately after an oath describing the scattering winds and the heavy-laden clouds that carry His provision to the earth.