Kitaab At-Tawheed, Chapter: 49

Allah's Words: " The Most Beautiful Names Are For Allah, So Call on Him by Them"

Allah, Most High says:

 

" The most beautiful Names are for Allah, so call on Him by them, but shun those who deny His Names" (Qur'an 7:180)

Allah , Most Glorified, Most High, informs us in this verse that His Names are of the utmost beauty and that He is Most Perfect and Complete in all of His Divine Attributes, then He tells us that we should supplicate Him using these Names, in order that our prayers be answered and that they be answered quickly. Then He , Most High, commands us to avoid those who reject His Names or knowingly alter their meanings in order to suit their deviated understanding of Tawheed. Then He , Almighty, All-powerful, warns them of the condign punishment which awaits those who deny His Names and Attributes on the Day of Resurrection.

That it proves the forbiddance of denying Allah's Divine Names and Attributes.

Relevance of This Verse to the Subject of Tawheed

That it forbids the denial of Allah's Divine Names and Attributes; such denial includes bestowing His Names upon His creatures or bestowing His creatures' names upon Him, for this is Shirk in the matter of His Names and Attributes.

Important Note

 

(a) Mentioning the Divine Names by which the Believer may enter Paradise may be described as being on three levels: (i) Pronouncing the words; (ii) understanding their meanings and (iii) calling upon Allah by them.

(b) Some of Allah's Names may be pronounced alone, such as Al-Hakeem (the Judge), while others may be pronounced together, such as As-Samee' (the All-hearing) and Al-Baseer (the All-seeing), while others must never be pronounced except together, such as An-Naafi' (the Benevolent) and Adh-Dhaarr (the Harmer), because Allah's Complete-ness is not made clear except by this combination, for were one to pronounce the Name Adh-Dhaarr alone, it would not be a word of praise unless the Name An-Naafi' was mentioned along with it.

(c) The rule regarding Allah's Names and Attributes is that we do not ascribe to Him any name or attribute which is not found in the Qur'an or the authentic Ahadith of the Prophet , and we reject all names and attributes which He and His Messenger have rejected, and we remain silent concerning matters connected with His Names and Attributes about which we have no knowledge.

(d) It is not permissible to derive names for Allah from the verbs used in the Qur'an to describe His Actions: Thus, we may not refer to Him as Al-Mun'im (the Provider of Blessings), even though the Qur'an speaks of His Ni'am (Blessings), nor is it allowed for us to call Him As-Sattaar (the Veiler) even though He has been described as As-Satteer (derived from the same verb) in an authentic Hadith; and whoever does so is in error.

(e) Denial of Allah's Divine Names and Attributes is of five types: (i) Bestowing Allah's Names or names derived from them upon idols, as the pagan Quraish did, when they named one of their gods Al-Laat, which is derived from the same root as Allah ; (ii) ascribing to Allah names which do not befit His Majesty, as the Christians do when they refer to Him as the Father, or as the philosophers do when they refer to him as the Active Cause, or the Power etc.; (iii) ascribing to Him attributes which He is far above, such as the Jews' obnoxious claim that He rested on the seventh day (i.e. Saturday); (iv) changing the meaning of Allah's Divine Names and Attributes and rejecting the true meanings as did the Jahmiyyah¹ who claimed that Allah is the All-hearing, but He does not hear and that He is the Living, but He does not live;² (v) Comparing the Attributes of Allah with those of His creatures, when in truth, we should affirm only that which does not suggest any comparison between Allah and His creation.

..ooOOoo..

Ibn Abi Hatim reported on the authority of Ibn `Abbas (ra) that he said: "Those who belie or deny His Names are guilty of Shirk."

Relevance of This Narration to the Subject of the Chapter and to the Subject of Tawheed

That the narration proves that Ibn `Abbas (ra) held that ascribing Allah's Names to idols is an act of denial of those Names and it is confirmed that those who do so are guilty of Shirk.

..ooOOoo..

It is reported on the authority of Al-A'amash that he said that they used to ascribe names to Allah which were not His.

Relevance of This Narration to the Subject of the Chapter and to the Subject of Tawheed

That the narration is evidence that Al-A'amash was of the view that calling Allah by names which are not His is a denial of those Names and it has been confirmed that denial of Allah's Names is Shirk.

Footnotes

1. The Jahmiyyah: A deviant sect which perverted Islamic beliefs. Although, as a group, they are no longer present, many of their distorted beliefs have been adopted by others.

2. That is, these are just names, without meaning.