Names of God in Islam
Names of God in Islam
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Names of God in Islam

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Names of God in Islam

Names of God in Islam (Arabic: أَسْمَاءُ ٱللَّٰهِ ٱلْحُسْنَىٰ, romanizedʾasmāʾu llāhi l-ḥusnā, lit.'Allah's Beautiful Names') are 99 names that each contain Attributes of God in Islam, which are implied by the respective names.

These names usually denote his praise, gratitude, commendation, glorification, magnification, perfect attributes, majestic qualities, and acts of wisdom, mercy, benefit, and justice from Allah, as believed by Muslims. These names are commonly called upon by Muslims during prayers, supplications, and remembrance, as they hold significant spiritual and theological importance, serving as a means for Muslims to connect with God. Each name reflects a specific attribute of Allah and serves as a means for believers to understand and relate to the Divine.

Some names are known from either the Qur’an or the hadith, while others can be found in both sources, although most are found in the Qur’an. Additionally, Muslims also believe that there are more names of God besides those found in the Qur'an and hadith and that God has kept knowledge of these names hidden with himself, and no one else knows them completely and fully except him.

Different sources give different lists of the 99 names. The most commonly known list is based on the one found in the Jamiʿ at-Tirmidhi (9th century) that was narrated by al-Walid ibn Muslim, which is the most commonly known. However, al-Tirmidhi comments on his list: "This (version of the) hadith is gharib [unusual]; it has been narrated from various routes on the authority of Abu Hurayrah, but we do not know of the mention of the Names in the numerous narrations, except this one." Other hadiths, such as those of al-Bukhari, Sahih Muslim, Ibn Majah, al-Hakim al-Tirmidhi or Ibn ʿAsākir, have variant lists. Various early Muslim exegetes, including Jaʿfar al-Sadiq, Sufyan ibn `Uyaynah, Ibn Hazm, al-Qurtubi, and Ibn Hajar al-Asqalani, have given their own versions of lists of 99 names.

Based on al-Tirmidhi's list above, the names for which there is no evidence, as specified by Sheikh Abd al-Muhsin al-Abbad, Sheikh Ibn Uthaymeen, and others, are as follows:

الخافضُ، المعزُّ، المذِل، العَدْلُ، الجَلِيلُ، البَاعِثُ، المُحْصِي، المُبْدِئُ، المُعِيدُ، المُمِيتُ، الوَاجِدُ، المَاجِدُ، الوَالِي، المُقْسِط، المُغْنِي، المَانِعُ، الضَّارُّ، النَّافِعُ، البَاقِي، الرَّشِيدُ، الصَّبُور.

There is no universal agreement among Islamic exegesis scholars about the number of names of God, since it was only Ibn Hazm who argued a limitation of 99 names. Instead, Islamic scholars such as al-Khattabi, al-Qurtubi, Abi Bakr bin Thayyib, Ibn al-'Arabi (not Ibn Arabi), Abu Abdillah ar-Razi, Ibn Taymiyya, Al-Nawawi, Ibn Hajar al-Asqalani, Ibn Qayyim al-Jawziyya and Ibn Rajab, have stated that Allah has an infinite number of names. While there are rulings that only a few names and their attributes are revealed and known in the Qur'an and Hadiths, the uncountably unrevealed names and their attributes are only known by Allah Himself. The basis of these rulings was the Hadith, which contains a supplication as narrated in Hisn al-Muslim:

أَسْأَلُكَ بِكُلِّ اسْمٍ هُوَ لَكَ سَمَّيْتَ بِهِ نَفْسَكَ أَوْ أَنْزَلْتَهُ فِي كِتَابِكَ أَوْ عَلَّمْتَهُ أَحَدًا مِنْ خَلْقِكَ أَوْ اسْتَأْثَرْتَ بِهِ فِي عِلْمِ الْغَيْبِ عِنْدَكَ

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