Bin, ibn, abu and al, what they mean in a name

Bin and ibn both mean "son of". Umar ibn al-Khattab is "Umar, son of al-Khattab". Bint means "daughter of", Abu means "father of", Umm means "mother of", and al- is simply "the". A full classical Arabic name strings these together, so one name can tell you a person's children, father, title and home town.

Ibn or bin: which is right?

They are the same word, ابن. In writing, the first letter (alif) is usually dropped when the word sits between a person's name and their father's name, and in everyday speech it is said "bin". So Muhammad bin Salman and Muhammad ibn Salman mean the same thing. Many people use "ibn" in formal and historical names and "bin" in modern ones. Neither is wrong.

Bint and binte

Bint (بنت) is "daughter of", as in Fatimah bint Muhammad and Khadijah bint Khuwaylid. Binte and binti are South Asian and Malay spellings of the same word. In many Arab countries today a woman keeps her father's name after marriage, so the "bint" part does not change.

Abu, Abi and Aba

Abu means "father of". The ending changes with Arabic grammar: Abu when the word is the subject, Abi after "ibn" or a preposition, and Aba as an object. That is why it is Abu Talib, but Ali ibn Abi Talib. A name that starts with Abu or Umm is called a kunya. It is a respectful way to call someone by the name of their child, such as Abu Bakr, Umm Salamah, or the Prophet's ﷺ own kunya, Abul-Qasim. Some kunyas are nicknames, not real children: Abu Hurayrah means "father of the kitten", because he loved a small cat.

What "al" means

Al- is the Arabic word for "the". Before some letters (t, th, d, dh, r, z, s, sh, ṣ, ḍ, ṭ, ẓ, l and n) the l sound blends into the next letter, so al-Rahman is said ar-Rahman and al-Din is said ad-Din. "Al" in a name is usually one of two things:

• A title (laqab), such as al-Faruq or as-Siddiq.
• A place or family link (nisbah), ending in -i, such as al-Bukhari, "from Bukhara", or al-Qurashi, "from Quraysh".

Do not confuse al- (ال, "the") with Āl (آل, "family of"), spelled with a long a. Surah Al Imran is "the family of Imran", and Al Saud is "the family of Saud".

Abd, Abdul and Abdur

Abd means "servant", and is always joined to one of Allah's names: Abdullah, Abdur-Rahman, Abdul-Karim. Abdul is Abd plus al-, so it also changes before the letters above: Abdur-Rahman, Abdus-Salam, Abdun-Nur. The Prophet ﷺ said the most beloved names to Allah are Abdullah and Abdur-Rahman.¹ For this reason scholars say Abd should only be joined to a name of Allah, not to a prophet or anyone else. Browse the 99 Names of Allah for the meanings.

Ud-Din, uddin and ullah

Ud-Din means "of the religion". Names like Salah ad-Din (righteousness of the religion), Nur ad-Din (light of the religion) and Siraj ad-Din began as titles, and in South Asia they are written as one word, such as Salahuddin or Nooruddin. Some scholars, an-Nawawi among them, are reported to have disliked being called by such titles out of humility. Ullah means "of Allah", as in Rahmatullah (mercy of Allah) and Amatullah (servant of Allah, for a girl).

Reading a full classical name

The full name of Imam al-Bukhari is Abu Abdullah Muhammad ibn Ismail al-Bukhari:

1. Abu Abdullah: his kunya, "father of Abdullah".
2. Muhammad: his own name (ism).
3. ibn Ismail: his lineage (nasab), "son of Ismail".
4. al-Bukhari: his nisbah, "from Bukhara".

Browse Islamic names with meanings to choose a name, and see each one in Arabic.

1. Sahih Muslim 2132.
2. The spelling of ibn and the case endings of abu follow the standard Arabic grammars.

The rulings on this page are pending review by the scholars on our team.