Aaron as a boy's name
Fatwa No: 90495

Question

God has blessed me with a son and I want to give him the name "Aaron". My question is, if Aaron is a Muslim name and what dose it means? There is another old Arabic name "Aban" or "Abaan". What dose it mean? Please tell me which one is a good name for a Muslim boy.

Answer

All perfect praise be to Allaah, The Lord of the Worlds. I testify that there is none worthy of worship except Allaah, and that Muhammad is His slave and Messenger. We ask Allaah to exalt his mention as well as that of his family and all his companions.

 

We do not know whether the name mentioned in the question is an Islamic name or not, meaning whether the Muslims had this name or not. However, it seems that this name [Aaron] is the Latin name for the Prophet of Allaah, Haaroon . The Prophet of Allaah, Haaroon was mentioned in the Old Testament with this spelling [Aaron]. So whoever wants to be named with this name has to use the name Haaroon as Allaah named him. Allaah Says (which means): {And, indeed We gave Our Grace to Moosaa (Moses) and Haaroon (Aaron).}[Quran 37:114].

Being named with this name as it appeared in the Old Testament in Latin is resembling the Jews [who are People of the Book] and the Prophet forbade us from resembling them as he said: "He is not from us whoever imitates other than us. Do not imitate the Christians or the Jews." [At-Tirmithi]

As regards Aban, it is a name of a man and the Arabs and Muslims had it. The caliph 'Uthmaan Ibn 'Affaan had a son whose name was Aban and he was one of the great jurists of Madeenah, and he reigned over this holy town for a period of time in the era of Maalik Ibn Marwaan.

The origin of this word is 'Abaana' which means to clarify.

For more benefit, please refer to Fataawa: 87596 and 82724

Allaah Knows best.

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