Naming Pets after Superheroes (False Gods) Is Not Kufr or Shirk

12-10-2021 | IslamWeb

Question:

Asalamu alaykum and hope you are well.We have pets named after superhereos. However these superhereos are based off and named after (false) gods in norse/Scandinavian mythology. are we committing shirk? Should we change the names?

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Answer:

All perfect praise be to Allah, The Lord of the Worlds. I testify that there is none worthy of worship except Allah, and that Muhammad is His slave and Messenger.

Staying away from the effects of disbelief and idolatry is part of a person’s good Islam.

We have already highlighted in previous Fatawa that it is not permissible for a Muslim to use the names of false gods or names of polytheistic symbols on any of the companies, institutions, hotels, or anything that he uses in his life, because doing so is showing the rites of disbelief and honoring them.

If this happens, it must be changed as much as possible, as a matter of forbidding evil.

In our view, this applies to naming animals with the names of those false gods. By naming those animals by those names is publicizing them and exalting their mention as they will be called out and uttered by tongues morning and evening; there is no doubt that this is blameworthy.

As regards the question ‘Does the one who is named by it become a disbeliever?’; then the answer is that he does not become a disbeliever by that.

Allah Knows best.