Behind the name Aaron Houdd

-Aaron Houdd: first week of his life-

Tomorrow, 22nd of February 2012, Aaron Houdd is turning 2! Nothing much can I say than Alhamdulillah, Alhamdulillah, Alhamdulillah...

Well well well, I suppose this entry should have been written a long time ago. But here I am, sharing you the meaning of our son's name, and where we got the idea of such a name :)

::History::

The name Aaron Houdd has appeared long before he existed. I used to create an email using this name particularly for one da'wah yahoo group that I joined. Apparently majority of the group members had thought that this person was a non muslim, especially through the questions 'he' used to ask, (perhaps) supported by this non typical muslim name. Nobody knew about this, even my best friends who were also in that group. (Opss... now they know. Haha). The name facilitated my da'wah strategies, Alhamdulillah.

I got pregnant about a year later. I still love this name, and when my hubby and I discussed about the name of our baby, this name appeared first. Alhamdulillah, my hubby also loved it and so we gave our first son this name...

:: Why Aaron Houdd?::

The name Aaron Houdd is taken after the name of our beloved Prophets, Nabi Haruun (Aaron) and Nabi Hudd (Houdd). This is the meaning of Aaron Houdd = Prophets Haruun + Hudd.

Prophet Harun was the brother of Prophet Musa (Moses). He was a very wise man and had been bestowed with a great talent in speech. Therefore, Allah has appointed him to follow his brother (Prophet Moses) to do da'wah. (Please refer to Surah Al-A'raf, Ta ha and a few other chapters in Quran regarding the stories of these Prophets).

Prophet Hudd was sent by Allah to one civilization named 'Aad. 'Aad could be described as a wealthy community, but very proud and arrogant with what they had until they became kufur and ungrateful. (Doesn't this seems very similar with today's lifestyle? Na'uzubillah) - Also, please refer to Surah Al-A'raf, As-Syu'araa and Hudd.

However, there are other meaning of Aaron Houdd that make us really admire this name:

Aaron is originated from Hebrew language, which means High mountain. It also means exalted, on high or noble.

There was no other meaning found for Hudd, except for just 'The name of a Prophet' and 'One of the chapter in Al-Quran'. 

We've also purposely chosen Aaron instead of Harun and not starting the name with Muhammad for da'wah reasons. 1) To show that Islam doesn't prohibit the use of any name, as long as it doesn't reflect bad meaning. The name doesn't necessarily has to be in Arabic. 2) Some people were a bit unhappy when they know that our son's name doesn't start with Muhammad. Well, Harun and Hudd were also the Prophets of Allah and we should love them too. 3) I love the meaning of Aaron, i.e exalted and noble :)

 Prophet Muhammad has said:

 Mafhumnya: “Sesungguhnya kamu semua akan dipanggil pada hari kiamat dengan nama-nama kamu dan nama bapa-bapa kamu, oleh kerana itu perelokkanlah nama-nama kamu semua.” (HR Abu Daud, al-Darimi, Ibn Hibban dan Ahmad. Sanad hadith ini dinilai baik oleh al-Imam al-Nawawi di dalam al-Majmu’, demikian juga al-Sakhawi di dalam al-Maqasid al-Hasanah)

* We hope and pray to Allah that by giving this beautiful name to our beloved son, he'll be a good servant of Allah, with the quality that the prophets had shown to us, and also an anak soleh.

The name is considered short. We want him to be called in full name with meaning. People can call him Aaron, Houdd, or Aaron Houdd. And I personally prefer to call him Aaron Houdd :)

:: Disclaimer::

Some of our friends made jokes that this name is 'glamor' and 'sophisticated' like what most parents love to do nowadays - giving sophisticated name to their kids, without considering the meaning.

Truth is, I first love this name long before I got pregnant to my son, and once we decided to shortlist this name, we both read a lot of stories about these prophets and the other prophets as well. Alhamdulillah, to our surprise, apart from looking for names, we were indirectly refreshing our knowledge about our great prophets :)

My husband was a bit blur when many people relate his son's name with an actor Aaron Aziz. Seriously he didn't know Aaron Aziz until he once asked "Who is Aaron Aziz? Why do people mention this name when they know our son's name?" Hahaha...

And if you are a muslim and happen to meet my husband and want to say something about our son's name, never relate this name with Robin Hood, otherwise you'll get an answer as if the words could slap you on your face --> Muslims nowadays know Robin Hood better than their own prophet (Prophet Hud).... -_-