God the Procrastinator

In a recent thread in one of the fora here a wiki link was made to Islam’s 100 Names of God:

(Names of God in Islam - Wikipedia)

I found it all very interesting, but especially # 72:

The Delayer, He Who Puts Far Away

Can anyone shed some light on this aspect of divinity? I mean, it seems really cool and raises my lack of diligence in house cleaning and lawn maintenance to a level I hadn’t considered before, but I’m sure there’s more to it than that.

Look at the next column on that Wiki page. Click on the “71:4”, and it will show you the part of the Qur’an which is the source for that “name”.

Read the various translations of 071.004 and draw your own conclusion. But to me, God is being described not as a procrastinator, but as being patient. In all three translations, the idea is that He will put up with sinners for a while, but there is a limit beyond which He will not go.

(Or at least, that’s how it sounds to this Jew. I’m no Qur’an scholar by any means, just applying some Talmudic reasoning to another text.)

Oh, and by the way, what attracted me to this question was that while Judaism does not have a comparable list of God’s attributes, some of them are famously listed in Exodus 34:6-7, which does include His patience. (Most translations of those verses use a phrase like “slow to anger” or “long-suffering”.)

Thank you, Keeve. I was also wondering which other, if any, monotheistic religions has such numerous names for God.

Does it have to be a real religion? :slight_smile:

If you’re interested in science fiction, you might enjoy this short story by Arthur C. Clarke: The Nine Billion Names of God

On a more serious note, Wikipedia can be your friend: Names of God.