Names of God in Sikhism
Names of God in Sikhism are names attributed to God in Sikhism by Sikh gurus.
List
Below is a list of some names used by Sikhs for God:Meaning and usage
The various names for God in Sikhism may stem from either the Indic traditions or the Islamic one. Others are unique to the Sikh tradition, such as Waheguru, Akal Purakh, and Sarabloh. Employment of these terms does not mean Sikhs accept the religious context in which they are understood in their original sources. For example, the meaning of the words Hari or Ram as used by Sikhs does not mean the same thing as these terms do in the Hindu traditions. Usage of these names does not mean Sikhs conceptualize their concept of God in the form of the incarnated devas or devis from Indic mythology, but rather they are used to describe various aspects of God as per Sikh theology.The Sikh gurus adopted the names for the divine from various faith systems as they saw these sectarian differences in linguistics as unimportant in-comparison to the actual message they were trying to spread. On page 64 of the Guru Granth Sahib, various Islamicate terms for God are also presented freely.
The Sikh Rehat Maryada produced by the Shiromani Gurdwara Parbandhak Committee proposes to use the term Akal Purakh as the paramount/formal Sikh term for God, despite there being variations of this name found in the compositions authored by Guru Nanak which were employed far more commonly than Akal Purakh, with variations being Adi Purakh and Karta Purakh. Furthermore, other terms for god, sourced from Arabic or Persian, that were used by Nanak were even more commonly used, such as Sahib, Khasam, or Patishah.