Saudi Arabia bans anti-Sharia names
Registration ban includes such names as ‘Slave of the Prophet’, ‘Angel’
Cairo: Saudi authorities have announced rules for registering names in the country, including a ban on names deemed violating the Islamic Sharia code.
The Interior Ministry’s Civil Affairs Agency said that names such as Abd Rasul (the Slave the Prophet) will not be registered. And so too Malak (an angel) due to a related fatwa or a binding religious edict prohibiting it.
The registration ban also includes titles preceding names and nicknames.
The agency also said that registration of compound names such as Mohammed Saleh and Mohammed Mustafa is not allowed. This means that the name, composed of two words, cannot function as one first name according to Saudi law.
The agency did not give an official explanation for this ban, which may be due to religious connotations or to avoid confusion. It is a tradition in several Arab countries to give a newborn a compound name either to commemorate two older relatives or out of belief that such names can stave off the evil eye.