🔼The name Muslim: Summary
- Meaning
- Peace Maker, Unifier
- Etymology
- From the verb שלם (shalem), to be or make whole or complete.
🔼The name Muslim in the Bible
The name Muslim obviously doesn't occur in the Bible because Muhammad finished his work on the Quran six centuries after Christ. But that the proper name Muslim expresses a sentiment that was very much alive in Biblical times is demonstrated by the degree of popularity of the highly similar name Meshullam, which, allowing for some variations, represents a colossal array of Biblical characters.
The name Muslim probably started out as a regular word and only later became used as a name. As such, it's probably the best-known Semitic word in the world, and yet, its proper and rather obvious meaning is unknown to a howling majority of people who use it, apply it to themselves or even their perceived enemies.
🔼Etymology of the name Muslim
The word Muslim, like the closely related word Islam, stems from the familiar Semitic root שלם (shalem), meaning to be whole or complete. This same root also spawns the other famous Semitic word, namely שלום (shalom), meaning peace:
שלם
The verb שלם (shalem) means to be or make whole or complete, and is also used to describe a righteous recompense or proper restitution (whether positive or not). The familiar noun שלום (shalom) means wholeness, completeness or peace.
Other derivatives are: noun שלם (shelem), peace offering; verb שלם (shalam), to be in a covenant of peace; adjective שלם (shalem), perfect, whole, complete, safe; noun שלם (shillem), recompense; nouns שלמן (shalmon), שלום (shillum), שלם (shillum) and שלמה (shilluma), reward or proper recompense.
The name Muslim (משלם) relates to the root שלם (shalem) the way the name Muhammad relates to its verb חמד (hamad), meaning to praise or desire, namely by sticking a מ (mem) in front of it. This prefixed מ may turn the root into a participle (which would then mean: completing, or peace-making) or it expresses an agent of instrument that performs the action of the root (same meaning) or the place at which it takes place (which is not applicable).
🔼Muslim meaning
The name Muslim literally means Peace Maker or Unifier, and probably started out as a regular word meaning precisely that. Here at Abarim Publications we think the name Nazarene reflects a similar thought, namely a motivation to unify all of God's revelations into a singular and harmonized body of knowledge of creation in order to be the best possible stewards of that creation.
The Quran declares the Prophets from Adam to Jesus' disciples and Muhammad to be Muslims, which does not mean that they were of a certain religion, but that they were peace-makers who served only YHWH and purified all beliefs of all people by disproving rubbish and harvesting truths for the sake of Truth.
The "peacemakers" whom Jesus blessed and who would be called the sons of God (Matthew 5:9) are not totalitarian rulers who suppress their subjects' needs and leanings, or folks who demand that we should all retire our most intimate concerns and have another round of chicken nuggets in perfect, sugar-coated harmony, but those people who are able to build bridges between opposing sides and show overbearing similitude of locally polarized opinions.