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Should I change my name from AbdulMunaf due to its association with a pre-Islamic idol?

Answered as per Hanafi Fiqh by Muftisays.com
Recently I joined classes for learning Arabic, at
which my arabic teacher said that my name i.e.
AbdulMunaf is not a good name. As Munaf was the
name of pre-islamic idol the meaning of name is
Slave of Munaf an idol, and thus must be changed.

I searched internet to find the meaning and found:
1) Munaf/Manaf was indeed name of an Idol.
2) AbdulMunaf was name of great gradfather of our
beloved Prophet Muhammad(P.B.U.H.).
3) Meaning of Munaf is “the Exalted/ the high”,
and who is more high than Allah SWT. So this may
mean Slave of Allah.

So now I am bit confused.

Now my questions are:
1) Should I change my name?
2) If I change my name, should I have to change
is officialy i.e. change it in all my degrees,
documents etc?

Allah Hafiz

Answer
Bismillah

Al-jawab billahi at-taufeeq (the answer with Allah’s guidance)

Abdul Manaf means “servant of Manaf, ” Manaf is the name of the pre-Islamic idol in Makkah. Also, the name Abdul ‘Uzza which means “servant of ‘Uzza,” was also a name of an idol.

Therefore, it is necessary to change this name, even in documents etc.

Please refer to: http://www.muftisays.com/qa.php?viewpage=viewQA&question=922

http://www.muftisays.com/qa.php?viewpage=viewQA&question=35

And Only Allah Ta’ala Knows Best.

————————————–
Moulana Qamruz Zaman
London, UK

Original Source Link

This answer was collected from MuftiSays.com, based in London (UK). It is one of the fruits of Darul Uloom London. Many ‘ulama are involved in answering the Q&A on the site, including: Shaikul Hadeeth Mufti Umar Farooq Sahib, Mufti Saifur Rahman Sahib, Mufti Abdullah Patel Sahib, Maulana Qamruz Zaman Sahib, Mufti Abu Bakr Karolia Sahib.

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