Question:
I am a Christian European woman married to a Muslim Egyptian man. We are expecting a baby boy. Our son is going to live in our both countries. That is why, we want to chose for him a Muslim name with good meaning but also reflecting our both cultures. The name Daniyal is included in most lists of Muslim names. It has a very nice meaning and it is the only name which is pronounced in the same way in our both languages, so it will not be changed like, for example Jibril to Gabriel. Daniyal is accepted by Muslims as a Prophet in Islam. There are a few Hadith and Muslim records which bear his name but he is not mentioned in the Qur’an. Is Daniyal a permissable Muslim name?
Answer:
Yes, it is a permissible Muslim name although uncommon. The names of all Prophets are in theory permissible but in practice some are rarer than rare in Islamic history such as Ezekiel, Isaiah and Jeremiah.
Danyal appears to be in between as gleaned by the following few examples:
– The hadith master of Damascus Abu al-Hajjaj al-Mizzi in his Tahdhib al-Kamal lists among one of his authorities the Shafi`i qadi Abu al-Fada’il Diya’ al-Din Danyal b. Mankali b. Sirma’ al-Karaki al-Turkmani (617-696). Al-Dhahabi describes him as a hadith scholar and specialist of canonical Qur’anic readings in addition to his several judgeships.
– The Shafifi Yemeni qadi and historian Baha’ al-Din al-Jindi al-Saksaki in his biographical encyclopedia al-Suluk fi Tabaqat al-Ulama’ wal-Muluk listed among his main teachers “my shaykh, Abu al-Fida Ismail b. Ahmad b. Daniyal b. Muhammad al-Hurmuzi… born in 686… he studied law with one of the students of al-Baydawi.”
– Also famous was the poet and philologist Shams al-Din Muhammad b. Danyal b. Yusuf al-Kuza`i al-Kahhal of Mosul. He is listed in many biographical dictionaries.
– Two or three more recent examples of the first name Danyal for Muslim scholars and one Muslim king are mentioned in the biographical work Nuzhat al-Khawatir, which is devoted to the Indian Subcontinent.
These examples, even if they are not exhaustive, nevertheless show that cases of the usage of Danyal as a Muslim first name can be counted on the fingers of the hand.
Hajj Gibril Haddad
