The All-Beautiful Names of God.Part1

Since the time of the Last Messenger, upon him be peace and blessings, the All-Beautiful Names of God, exalted is His Majesty, have been a right-guiding source for knowing and recognizing the Divine Being in accordance with His Attributes of Majesty and Grace, and for protecting those who have been able to study and understand them correctly from straying, and for pouring forth true knowledge about the truth of Divinity to those who have been so protected.

Everyone who has set off to acquire true knowledge of God has advanced toward deepening in belief in the bright light of the All-Beautiful Names and in their areas of manifestation. In pursuit of true knowledge and love of God Almighty and in pursuit of spiritual pleasures, they have given these Names into the hands of their outer and inner faculties, like so many mysterious keys that will open the doors of knowing Him in accordance with His “true Nature or Identity;” thus they have advanced toward the horizon of “seeing,” knowing, and experiencing Him in the light of the truth that radiates through these doors.

Even if from the earliest days of Islam the All-Beautiful Names have always been a pure source for those who want to have recourse to them for knowledge of God, they began to be studied and discussed systematically in later eras.

So many books, brief or detailed, in prose or in verse, have been written about the All-Beautiful Names of God that it is not possible to determine them or to mention all of them. My following citations are only a drop in the ocean:

• Tafsirul-Asma’il-Husna (“The Interpretation of the All Beautiful Names”) by Abu Ishaq az-Zajjaj,
• Al-Minhaj fi Shu‘abil-Iman (“The Highway Concerning the Branches of Faith”) by al-Halimi,
• Al-Asma’ wa’s-Sifat (“The Names and the Attributes”) by ‘Abdu’l-Qahir al-Baghdadi,
• Al-Maqsadu’l-Athna’ fi Sharhi Asma’illahi’l-Husna (“The Best Means in Explaining the All-Beautiful Names of God”) by Imam al-Ghazzali,
• Al-Amadu’l-Aqsa’ (“The Farthest Aim”) by Abu Bakr ibnu’l ‘Arabi,
• Lawa’mi‘ul-Bayyinat (“Rays of Clarifications”) by Fakhru’d Din ar-Razi

Among the All-Beautiful Names, those such as al-Quddus (The All-Holy and All-Pure), as-Salam (The Supreme Author of peace and salvation), al-Ahad(The Unique One of absolute Oneness), and al-Wahid (The One of absolute Unity) mark, like the Attributes of Exemption,  the all-holiness, all-purity, and absolute uniqueness of the Divine Being.

The all-glorious Names al-Hayy (the All-Living), al-‘Alim (the All-Knowing), as-Sami‘ (the All Hearing), al-Basir (the All-Seeing), al-Murid (the All-Willing), al Qadir (the All-Powerful), and al-Mutakallim (the All-Speaking) appear as translators of the Positive or Affirmative Attributes; the all sacred Names, such as al-Khaliq (the Creator), al-Mubdi (the All Initiating), al-Muhyi (the All-Reviving, the Giver of life), al-Mumit (The One Who causes to die), ar-Razzaq (the All-Providing), al Wahhab (the All-Bestowing), al-Ghaffar (the All-Forgiving), as Sattar (the All-Veiling), al-Bari (the All-Holy Creator), and al-Mu sawwir (the All-Fashioning) are indicative of the manifestations of the Attribute of Making Exist on different wavelengths.