The All-Beautiful Names of God.Part7

All of the All-Beautiful Names are absolutely sacred.

Some have regarded it impermissible to use some of these Names for others than God.

These are Names like Allah (God), ar-Rahman (the All-Merciful), al-Quddus (The All-Holy and All-Pure), al Muhyi, (The Giver of life and All-Reviving), al-Mumit (The One Who causes to die), Maliku’l-Mulk (The Absolute Master of all dominion),  Dhu’l-Jalali  wa’l-Ikram  (The  One  of  Majesty  and Grace), al-Akbar (The All-Great, the Greatest of all), al-‘A’la (The All-Exalted), al-Khaliq (The Creator), ‘Allamu’l-Ghuyub (The All Knowing of the whole of the Unseen), and so on.

• If people want to give these Names to their children then they should add the word ‘abd (servant) before them. For example, they must use ‘Ab dullah (God’s servant), ‘Abdur-Rahman (the servant of the All Merciful), and ‘Abdul-Quddus (the servant of the All-Holy and All Pure).

This knowledge of the Divine Names and this approach to both the Divine Names and the truths of Divinity are unique to the Muslim Community.

• This approach is exceptionally important, particularly in respect of reflecting the difference between the Creator and the created correctly; this is required by the Divinity as well as by the fact that God is the absolutely and exclusively All Worshipped One. This is also our duty.

In fact, God’s Essential, Affirmative, and Figurative Attributes and His Attributes of Exemption confirm this truth and call us to this accurate approach.

For this reason, in addition to knowing Him as the All-Knowing, the All-Living, the All-Powerful, the All-Hearing, the All-Seeing, the All-Willing, and the All Speaking, based on their Affirmative Attributes, we must also affirm His absolute freedom from whatever is inappropriate for Divinity such as impotence, poverty, neediness, defects, and having partners.

Furthermore, we must in no way attribute any features that are peculiar to the created to God, such as being concerned with matter, time, space, physicality, or energy. We must believe that, in the words of Ibrahim Haqqi of Erzurum,

God is an All Majestic, All-Exalted Being Who never eats or drinks, and Who is absolutely beyond time and space.

As will be mentioned below, some verifying scholars have divided the Divine Names into the categories such as the Names indicating the Divine Essence, the Names originating in the Affirmative Divine Attributes, and the Names indicating the Divine Acts.

They have also regarded some Names as being the leaders or foundations of all the Names, and have made another categorization under the titles of the Names of Majesty and the Names of Grace. They have considered all the Names to be the foundation or source in which the truths of things originate or even these truths themselves, as well as being the means of all things being transferred from the Realm of the Unseen to the visible or manifest world through the Divine Knowledge, Wisdom, Will, and Power.

Such scholars have stressed that these all-blessed Names are veils before the All-Sacred One Who is called by them.

It is He alone Who knows the exact truth of everything, and what we must do is to believe in whatever He teaches us. 

It is unnecessary to make a detailed explanation of the All-Beautiful Names here as there are numerous studies that have been made so to date—a few of these were mentioned at the beginning of this article. You will find below the most widely known Divine Names only with just brief definitions.

O God! Show us the truth as being true and enable us to follow it; show us falsehood as being false and enable us to refrain from it. And bestow blessings and peace on our master Muhammad and on his Family and Companions, all of them.