One of the meanings of Allah Al Jabbar is the one who compels.
This name is mentioned a few times in the Quran and sometimes it’s mentioned talking about describing a human being and in those cases it a negative connotation. But when it describes Allah, it means a few things:
1- The one who overpowers, compels, the most mighty
2- The one who mends. He is the one who fixes something that’s broken. He is the one who rectifies. He is the one who completes that which is incomplete.
It’s actually an interesting fact that Algebra comes from the same root of Al Jabbar. And the reason for that is algebra is to fix equations.
Allah is the one who fixes our affairs; He is the one who fixes the broken hearts; He is the one who mends anything that is broken or that needs fixing or completing.
As we know, every attribute of Allah is a way for us to know Allah better and to get closer to Allah. In fact, it will look at everything in the universe, everything that is created and everything that we experience in our lives.
The ultimate objective of every single thing that we see and experience is actually to show us the attributes of Allah.
Knowing Al Jabbar
If we look at the experiences that we have in life and we realize that actually intended to allow us to know Allah deeper and better.
How can we know Al Jabbar? What are some of the ways that Allah allows this attribute to be known and experienced by us?
If you think about it at a deep level, if something is never broken, then you don’t see how it is mended. So one of the reasons why Allah allows things to become broken is that for us to know Allah as Al Jabbar.
Moreover, you’re not going to call a carpenter unless you first have a break. And so often times, it is the fact that things break that make us call on Al Jabbar.
It is the fact that hearts break, it’s the fact that relations break, it’s the fact that our affairs fall apart, it’s the fact that we’re incomplete, by definition, that things go wrong…
Call on Al Jabbar
These are actually blessings in disguise because they push us to call on the one who mends; they allow us to know Allah by this attribute. Had we not experienced break, had we not experienced things going wrong or things falling apart, then we would never have the opportunity to experience Al Jabbar: the one who fixes and mends.
It’s actually profound because it becomes a means by which we know Allah. To call on Allah by Al Jabbar, to ask Allah to mend our affairs, to ask Him to mend our hearts when they have become broken.
He Mends Completely
One point that is very powerful is that Al Jabbar is not only the one who mends and fixes the broken things; but He mends and fixes completely, so that there no break left.
When Allah mends for example, a broken heart or a broken situation, He doesn’t just sort of fix it, He mends it completely so that there is no break left.
And in fact, Allah not only does He the power to return things completely to the way they were before the break, but He can actually return them to better and stronger than they were before the break.
There is an interesting sign in the universe and that is that, for example, after a broken bone heals, it becomes stronger than it was before it broke.
Allah can actually restore a broken heart such that it becomes stronger than it was before it broke. And that is only Al Jabbar who can do that.
We should never despair when we feel like we’re broken; we should never despair when things shutter in our lives, because we can always go back to the one who not only fixes and mends, but fixes and mends perfectly so that there is no break.
This is one of the most beautiful attributes especially for people who have been through calamities and difficulties. It is quite timely attribute.