Ruling on changing a name to an Islamic name
Machine translationRead the Arabic original
Question:
Honorable Shaykh, may Allah grant you success. He says: Is it permissible to change a name to an Islamic name if my previous name does not contradict the Shari'ah?
Answer:
What is obligatory? If he changes it, it is permissible to change the name, but the obligation is not required unless it is a bad name, a bad name like 'Abd of other than Allah, like 'Abd al-Amir, 'Abd al-Husayn. This must be changed if it is 'Abd of other than Allah; it must be changed. But if it does not have a bad meaning, you have the choice: if you wish, change it, and if you wish, keep it. Yes.
Honorable Shaykh, may Allah grant you success. He says: Is it permissible to change a name to an Islamic name if my previous name does not contradict the Shari'ah?
Answer:
What is obligatory? If he changes it, it is permissible to change the name, but the obligation is not required unless it is a bad name, a bad name like 'Abd of other than Allah, like 'Abd al-Amir, 'Abd al-Husayn. This must be changed if it is 'Abd of other than Allah; it must be changed. But if it does not have a bad meaning, you have the choice: if you wish, change it, and if you wish, keep it. Yes.
Source
شرح إغاثة اللهفان من مصائد الشيطان لابن القيم، بداية من قول المُصَنِّف : ومن علامات صحة القلب — islamhouse.com (1:11:07)
The Arabic text is a machine transcription of the audio recording.