An Introduction to the Significance of Allah’s Beautiful Names

Allah tells us in the Quran that He did not create us except to worship Him. [Quran 51:56].Imam ibn ‘Abbas, the great commentator of the Quran and companion of the Prophet (may peace and blessings be upon him), said that “to worship” means, “to know” according to Imam Ibn Kathir in his Tafsir. Thus, we may know Allah through ourselves.We know Him through the attributes that He imbued into us.Obviously, this is in a way that is unlike Him.“There is nothing like the likes of Him, yet he is Hearing and Seeing.”{Quran 42:11].Another verse that indicates this is when Allah informed the angels that He would be placing a vicegerent on the earth.[Quran 2:30]A vicegerent must rule the way that the King does.The Prophet (may peace and blessings be upon him) said, “Allah has 99 beautiful names.Whoever acts upon them has entered Jannah.” (Related by Imam Muslim).Thus, it has been said by some of the righteous, “Take upon the traits of Allah.”

In a nutshell, what this means for us is that Allah did not inform of His beautiful names for no reason. Rather, it is so that we may know what beauty is and then to inculcate it so as to know Allah through ourselves. The different names have different ways of being acted upon and that is something that will be made clear later by Allah’s help.

Allah’s Impoverished Slave
-Ibraheem Shakfeh