Names that come in pairs
Twice the surah ends a verse with two names together, and the pairing is the point of the verse.
ٱلَّذِى خَلَقَ ٱلْمَوْتَ وَٱلْحَيَوٰةَ لِيَبْلُوَكُمْ أَيُّكُمْ أَحْسَنُ عَمَلًا وَهُوَ ٱلْعَزِيزُ ٱلْغَفُورُ
“Who hath created life and death that He may try you which of you is best in conduct; and He is the Mighty, the Forgiving…”
Al-ʿAzīz, al-Ghafūr. Ibn Kathīr explains: He is mighty, unassailable — and yet with that He forgives whoever repents and turns back to Him after disobeying. The verse that says life is a test ends by naming the One who tests as the One who forgives.
أَلَا يَعْلَمُ مَنْ خَلَقَ وَهُوَ ٱللَّطِيفُ ٱلْخَبِيرُ
“Should He not know what He created? And He is the Subtile, the Aware.”
Al-Laṭīf, al-Khabīr. “Does He not know, He who created?” Ibn Kathīr prefers the meaning “does the Creator not know?”, because the verse closes with these two names: the Subtle, whose knowledge reaches what is hidden, and the All-Aware.
Why “ar-Raḥmān” so often?
Ar-Raḥmān is the name the surah uses when it points to what He does for creation: a heaven without a flaw is “the creation of the Most Merciful” (67:3); the birds are held up by “none but the Most Merciful” (67:19); no army can help “besides the Most Merciful” (67:20); and the believers’ answer is “He is the Most Merciful; we believe in Him and upon Him we rely” (67:29). Ibn Kathīr says of the birds that He holds them up through the air He made subservient to them, out of His mercy and kindness.
أَوَلَمْ يَرَوْا۟ إِلَى ٱلطَّيْرِ فَوْقَهُمْ صَٰٓفَّٰتٍ وَيَقْبِضْنَ مَا يُمْسِكُهُنَّ إِلَّا ٱلرَّحْمَٰنُ إِنَّهُۥ بِكُلِّ شَىْءٍۭ بَصِيرٌ
“Have they not seen the birds above them spreading out their wings and closing them? Naught upholdeth them save the Beneficent. Lo! He is Seer of all things.”
“Their Lord”
The surah also speaks of Him as Rabb, Lord, 2 times: of “those who disbelieve in their Lord” (67:6) and of “those who fear their Lord unseen” (67:12) — the two groups the surah contrasts.
How this list was made
Each name was found by searching the surah’s word-by-word data, and the build stops if a name is ever found in a different verse than listed here. The Arabic shown is the word as it is written in its verse. Al-ʿAlīm, al-Baṣīr and al-Qadīr appear in the verse in their descriptive form — ʿalīm, baṣīr, qadīr (“all-knowing”, “all-seeing”, “all-powerful”) — and are also among the names of Allah. Read the meaning of the whole surah.