Zulfiqar Sword necklace

The meaning of the name is uncertain. The word ḏhu (ذُو) means "possessor, master", and the idafaconstruction "possessor of..." is common in Arabic phraseology, such as in Dhu al-Qarnayn, Dhu al-Kifl, Dhu al-Qadah and Dhu al-Hijjah.

The meaning of faqār (فَقَار), means "splitter, differentiatior". It is often vocalized as fiqārinstead of faqār; Lane cites authorities preferring faqār however the vocalization fiqār still sees more widespread use. The word faqār has the meaning of "the vertebrae of the back, the bones of the spine, which are set in regular order, one upon another", but may also refer to other instances of regularly spaced rows, specifically it is a name of the stars of the belt of Orion.

Interpretations of the sword's name as found in Islamic theological writings or popular piety fall into four categories:^[3]

• reference to the stars of the belt of Orion, emphasizing the celestial provenance of the sword
• interpretation of faqār as an unfamiliar plural of fuqrah "notch, groove, indentation", interpreted as a reference to a kind of decoration of regularly spaced notches or dents on the sword
• reference to a "notch" formed by the sword's supposed termination in two points
• reference to the literal vertebrae of the spine, yielding an interpretation in the sense of "the severer of the vertebrae; the spine-splitter"

The latter interpretation gives rise to the popular depiction of the sword as a double-pointed scimitar in modern Shia iconography. Heger (2008) considers two additional possibilities:

• the name in origin referred simply to a double-edged sword, the μάχαιρα δίστομη of the New Testament.^{[citation needed]}
• fiqār is a corruption of firāq "distinction, division", and the name originally referred to the metaphorical sword discerning between right and wrong.^[