Al Muhaymin

Three rare letters: they occur twice in the whole Qur’an, and both occurrences are this one participle. Lexicographers gloss it as watching over a thing in order to keep it, the way a bird spreads a wing over what is beneath it.

Its other appearance is not a name at all: the Book itself is called muhaymin over the scripture that came before it, a guardian set over a text. Then the roll of names in Sūrat al-Ḥashr, where it stands between al-Muʾmin and al-ʿAzīz. Being watched is not always being judged — sometimes it is the reason nothing was lost.