In the Name of God

There are various names of God, many of which enumerate the various qualities of a Supreme Being.

When writing the name of God (Allah), Muslims often follow It with the abbreviation "SWT, swt, or SwT," which, stands for the Arabic phrase "Subhanahu wa ta'ala” meaning "The most glorified, the most high," or “Jalla Jalaluhu” meaning “May His glory be glorified,” often following His name in the Hadith and in Islamic calligraphy.

Thus, Allah SWT is the name of the God almighty creator and sustainer of the Universe, Who is similar to nothing, and nothing is comparable to Him.

The word Allah SWT is never used for any other being or thing! To take God's (Allah’s SWT) name in vain is forbidden in almost every religion, and forcefully proscribed by the Judeo-Christian and Islamic traditions.

Etymologically “hizb or hezb” stands for a (group, band, or faction), as a noun, hizb (plural, hizbs or ahzab) could also represent each of the roughly equilongitudinal 60 ahzab (parts) in which the Holy Quran has been traditionally divided to ease its reading and memorization. Each hizb (group) is subdivided into four quarters, making eight quarters per juz? (segment), called maqra? (lit. "reading"). There are 240 of these maqra?s (quarters) in the Holy Quran.

The 99 names of Allah SWT, known as "The 99 Names of God” or “The 99 Attributes of God” (al Asma-ul Husna meaning “the beautiful and good names”), are the names attributed to Allah SWT in Islam by Muslims.

Because the names themselves are reserved to Allah SWT and their use as a person's given name is considered religiously inappropriate, theophoric names are formed by prefixing the term “‘abd” (slave or servant of); "nasr" (victory of); "seif" (sword of), etc. to the name in the case of male names. “Hizb” coincidentally is not one of them.

The prefixing of the definite article would indicate that the bearer possesses the corresponding attribute in an exclusive sense, a trait reserved to Allah SWT.

As a general rule, according to Shafi’i Fikh (one of the four major traditional schools of religious law in the Sunnī branch of Islam), one should avoid placing the name of Allah SWT, His Prophets, Quranic verses, and the like on objects where these names may be disrespected or adversely labelled.

According to Imam Fakhru-Din Ibn Asakir in his Aqidah ("creed"): “Allah SWT existed before the creation. He does not have a before or an after, an above or a below, a right or a left, an ahead or a behind, a whole or a part. It must not be said: When was He, Where was He, or how was He? "Allah SWT exists without a place. He created the Universe and willed for the existence of time. He is not bound by time or designated with place."

The word Allah SWT has been used by Arabs of different religions since pre-Islamic times. The pre-Islamic Arabs worshipped a supreme deity whom they called Allah, alongside other lesser deities. Prophet Muhammad SAAWS used the word Allah to indicate the Islamic conception of God.

Which, brings into question, the “Hezbollah” (lit. 'Party of Allah' or 'Party of God', also transliterated Hizbullah or Hizballah, among others), a Lebanese Shia Islamist political party and militant group.

Is the appellation a ‘mubah’ (permissible), ‘haram’ (prohibited), ‘makruh’ (reprehensible) but not ?aram, carrying a strong stigma, or ‘mustankar’ (objectionable) placing it in an exceptionable category?

Hezbollah being designated as a terrorist organization by a large portion of the international community, makes the name strongly reprehensible, giving it a repugnant meaning that gives way to disrespect, by denoting reference to sinful acts, notoriety, and tyranny; thus, emphasizing the unbefitting use of His name, as It is the case with the name of the State of "Israel", meaning "God shall fight"…

Food for thought!