When Abd al-Rahman is used as a person’s proper name, the whole identifies that person; the constituent words are not being used to divide that person’s identity into semantic parts. In that use it is mufrad. When “servant of the Merciful” is intended descriptively, its constituent meanings are deliberately combined, so the expression is murakkab. The words do not lose their dictionary meanings; the intended function changes.
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Abd al-Rahman as name versus description
Simple and Composite Expressions: Definitions, Four Forms, and Examples
When Abd al-Rahman is used as a person’s proper name, the whole identifies that person; the constituent words are not being used to divide that person’s identity into semantic parts. In that use it is mufrad. When “servant of the Merciful” is intended descriptively, its constituent meanings are deliberately combined, so the expression is murakkab. The words do not lose their dictionary meanings; the intended function changes.