Al-Muqtadir

The root. Al-Muqtadir comes from the same q-d-r root as Al-Qadir, but built on the reflexive-intensive iftaʿala pattern, which in Arabic typically marks power turned actively toward asserting itself, often against something that resists. Where qadara simply names being able, iqtadara leans toward being able and prevailing, power shown in a context where it meets and overcomes opposition.

What it means here. Al-Muqtadir is read as power exercised as mastery — not capacity held quietly in reserve, but capacity demonstrated over what might have contested it. The tradition places it beside Al-Qadir as the more forceful of the pair: where Al-Qadir states that Allah can, Al-Muqtadir states that nothing can stand against Him once He has willed, a distinction closer to dominance than to bare ability.

Where it is met. The exact form Al-Muqtadir, with its definite article, does not appear spoken of Allah in the Quran, but the word muqtadir without it does, several times: Surah Al-Kahf calls Allah "ever, over all things, Perfect in Ability" in a parable about the fragility of worldly life; Surah Az-Zukhruf uses it of Allah's power over what He has promised; and Surah Al-Qamar twice pairs it with ʿazeez, "Exalted in Might," describing the seizing of a disbelieving people and, three verses later, the honored seat of the righteous "near a Sovereign, Perfect in Ability."