Al-Quddus

The root. Al-Quddus comes from q-d-s, the root also behind quds — "the holy" — and taqdis, sanctification, the same root that names the holy city of Jerusalem in Arabic. Across its words, this root does not describe ordinary goodness but a purity set apart, elevated beyond the reach of contamination or flaw. Al-Quddus is built on an intensive pattern that Arabic reserves for a quality held completely, so the name does not describe something merely clean but something for which impurity, in any form, is not even a possibility.

What it means here. Al-Quddus is read as freedom from every imperfection that could be imagined of Him — not only from wrongdoing, but from need, from partnership, from any description that would place a limit on Him. It stands beside Al-Malik and As-Salam, the two names it is grouped with in the Quran: where Al-Malik affirms sovereignty and As-Salam affirms soundness and safety, Al-Quddus affirms the absence of every deficiency that could be attached to Him, even metaphorically.

Where it is met. Al-Quddus appears only once in the Quran, named together with Al-Malik and As-Salam in a single verse of Surah al-Hashr — a name used far less often in the text than several others on this page. Outside the Quran, the same root is recited in supplications said while bowing and prostrating in prayer, pairing Al-Quddus with a related word from the same root to affirm this purity directly to Allah.