The 99 Names: Ar-Rahim, the Especially Merciful

Some names of God are attributes you can study. This one is a name you receive — usually at the hour you had stopped asking.

“Mercy that arrived on schedule would only have been wages. This one came as a gift, and the gift is the point.”

I keep a small list in the back of my notebook of the times I was met with more kindness than I deserved. It is the most convincing theology I own.