Changing the name of a deity other than Allah after embracing Islam
Machine translationRead the Arabic original
The questioner:
Honorable Shaykh, may Allah grant you the best. This questioner says: If a person embraces Islam and his name is one that is deified to other than Allah, is he required to change it after Islam?
The Shaykh:
However, they mentioned that if he fears for his life regarding fitnah (trial, discord or temptation) in his religion, he may ask Allah for death. If he fears that he will be led astray from his religion, he asks Allah to take his soul, because Yusuf (peace be upon him), when his matter was completed, feared fitnah and said:[Yusuf 12:101]. Yes.
The questioner:
Honorable Shaykh, may Allah grant you success. This questioner says: If a person embraces Islam and his name is one that is deified to other than Allah, is he required to change it after Islam?
The Shaykh:
Yes, he changes it to Abdullah or Abdur-Rahman or something similar, so that it is not deified to other than Allah. Yes.
Honorable Shaykh, may Allah grant you the best. This questioner says: If a person embraces Islam and his name is one that is deified to other than Allah, is he required to change it after Islam?
The Shaykh:
However, they mentioned that if he fears for his life regarding fitnah (trial, discord or temptation) in his religion, he may ask Allah for death. If he fears that he will be led astray from his religion, he asks Allah to take his soul, because Yusuf (peace be upon him), when his matter was completed, feared fitnah and said:
Cause me to die a Muslim and join me with the righteous."
تَوَفَّنِي مُسْلِمًا وَأَلْحِقْنِي بِالصَّالِحِينَThe questioner:
Honorable Shaykh, may Allah grant you success. This questioner says: If a person embraces Islam and his name is one that is deified to other than Allah, is he required to change it after Islam?
The Shaykh:
Yes, he changes it to Abdullah or Abdur-Rahman or something similar, so that it is not deified to other than Allah. Yes.
Source
شرح إغاثة اللهفان من مصائد الشيطان لابن القيم، فصل في بيان كيد الشيطان لنفسه قبل كيده للأبوين — islamhouse.com (58:20)
The Arabic text is a machine transcription of the audio recording.