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.
Praise be to Allaah.
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.
