Al Barr

Birr is goodness done towards another — the Qur’an uses this root for a child’s kindness to their parents, and for righteousness itself: you will not attain birr, it says, until you spend from what you love.

Its written form is shared with barr, the dry land, so most of the ayat on this page are not about the name at all: seven of the nineteen are “the land and the sea”, three are people brought safely to shore who forget about it once they are dry, and several are the word for righteousness being defined or asked for. Exactly one is the name, at the close of a sentence remembering that they used to call on Him — al-Barr, ar-Raḥīm. Goodness in this root is always goodness towards somebody.