Asma al Husna

The purpose of our total existence is to simply worship Allah. For us to be able to worship Him completely and sincerely we must love Him, fear Him and be grateful to Him. However, this is very difficult for some, but there is an obvious reason why this is and there’s an easy solution.

To Love Allah you must know Allah; to know him through his Perfection, Magnificence and beauty.

There is nothing comparable to Him in any of His attributes. If you were to assume that the whole of creation was in its most exquisite form, and you were to try and compare their collective outward and inward beauty to the Beauty of the Lord, the Glorious, the comparison would be more ineffectual than a faint torch being held against the blazing disk of the sun.

It is sufficient to know of His beauty that if His veil was lifted, everything that the splendour of His Face fell upon of His creation would be obliterated. It is sufficient to know that all beauty, external and internal, to be found in this world and the Hereafter is from the resultant effects of His work, so what then would one think of the beauty of the One from whom this beauty emanated?

One of His names is al-Jamil (the Beautiful), in the Sahih Muslim it is reported by ibn Mas’ud that the messenger (SAW) said, ‘Allah is Jamil and He loves beauty’.

His Beauty is of four levels: the beauty of His Essence, the beauty of His Attributes, the beauty of His Actions and the beauty of His Names. All of His Names are beautiful, all of His Attributes are perfect, all of His Actions are based upon pure wisdom, they are beneficial, just and serve as a mercy….therefore it is upon the servant to know that there is none worthy of worship besides Him, it is upon him to love Him simply because He is who He is.

Here is another important reason why we should get to know Him through His Names. Ibn al-Qayyim (RA) said: “Knowledge of the Most Beautiful Names of Allah is the basis of all other kinds of knowledge, for all of these other branches of knowledge are devoted to either a command or a creation of His”

Ibn al-Qayyim (RA), also said: “The key to the call of the Messengers, the essence of their Message, is knowing Allah through His Names, His Attributes, and His Actions, because this is the foundation on which the rest of the Message, from beginning to end, is built”. Therefore, when a person occupies himself with learning about Allah, he is fulfilling the purpose for which he was created, but if he ignores this matter, he is neglecting what he was created for.

The meaning of faith is not merely to utter words without knowing Allah, because true faith in Allah means that the slave knows the Lord in Whom he believes, and he makes the effort to learn about Allah through His Names and Attributes. The more he learns about his Lord, the more he increases in faith.

Many people think that Allah has 99 names and attributes but that is not true. They are not actually limited to a specific number.

In an authentic hadith of Ibn Mas’ud reported by Ahmed and others, the Messenger of Allah (SAW) said, ‘I ask you by every one of Your Names with which You have named Yourself, or which You have revealed in Your Book, or taught to anyone of Your creation, or which You have kept to Yourself in knowledge of the unseen.’

As for the sahih hadith which mentions 99 names, its meaning is that whoever memorises, understands, implements in his daily life and acts in accordance with these Names will enter Paradise.

How do we implement them in our life, by simply using these Names and Attributes when glorifying and praising Him. Calling upon Allah & praising Him by these names is one of the greatest deeds and best forms of dhikr. Allah says: “And to Allah belong the Most Beautiful Names, so call upon Him by them” [7:180]. So use His names when making dua’a, and try to use His names that fit what you are asking for, e.g. using His name Al-‘Afuww ( the Forgiving) ‘Oh Allah, You are Al-‘Afuww so forgive me’, or His name Al-Wali (the Protector and Supporter) ‘Oh Allah, You are Al-Wali so protect me and support me through this trial’.

An example of how to act in accordance to His Names is, if we take His Name Razzaq (the Sustainer) for example, one should never be worried about his sustenance, or even Al-Afuww (The All-Forgiving), many people have doubt that Allah will forgive them and this is wrong. Allah loves nothing more than when a slave of His asks for forgiveness.

A'ishah relates that the Prophet (SAW) placed a man in command of an expedition. Whenever he would lead his companions in prayer, he would finish his recitation with Qul Huwa Allahu Ahad [Surah al-Ikhlas]. When they returned, they mentioned this to the Prophet (SAW), so he said, “Ask him why he does that?” He said, “Because it is the Description of the Most Merciful (Sifat al-Rahman), and I love to recite it.” The Prophet (SAW) said, “Inform him that Allah loves Him” [Agreed Upon].