What are the meanings of the names of Allaah; Al-Ghafir, Al-Ghaffar and Al-Ghafur?

The origin of these names; Al Ghafir, al Ghaffar and Al Ghafur, are from the root Ghfr. Ghfr means covering and hiding. Relative to Allaah, these divine names refer to the One who covers sins which is Allaah’s quality. He is the one who can cover and blot out sins. This is the foundation for forgiveness; forgivness of sins through blotting them out. In distinction, Ibn Arabi tried to distinguish between the names Al-Ghafir, Al-Ghaffar and Al-Ghafur. He said that Al-Ghafir is the one who covers sins in this world, Al-Ghafur meant covering sins in the Hereafter, and Al-Ghaffar meant covering sins from the sight of Allaah’s creatures. This sounds nice, but linguistically speaking, we do not have any clear evidence to establish these different interpretations. The basic principle here is that they all relate back to Ghfr which means hiding, covering or blotting out. Relative to Allaah (SWT), they mean the One who removes sins which is what we call it forgiveness.