The names of God in Islam (or the 99 names of Allah; Arabic: أسماء الله الحسنى ʾasmāʾ allāh al-ḥusnā) are the names by which Muslims regard God. Among other places, they are described in the Quran and Sunnah.[1][2] There is, according to hadith, a special group of 99 names, but no enumeration of them. Thus the exact list is not agreed upon, and the names of God (as adjectives, word constructs, or otherwise) exceed a total of 99 in the Quran and Sunnah. According to a hadith narrated by Abdullah ibn Mas'ud, some of the names of God have also been hidden from mankind.[3]
Contents [hide] 1 Origin 2 Lists of names 3 The Greatest Name 4 Personal names 5 Views of other religions 5.1 Bábí and Bahá'í view 6 See also 7 Notes 8 External links Origin[edit]
The 99 Names of God on the ceiling of the Grand Mosque in Kuwait. According to Islamic tradition,[4] Muhammad is said to have invoked God by a number of names. The most common hadith used to cite the 99 names is considered weak, though there are less commonly cited hadith which are considered authentic and also support the same point.[5] A widely accepted hadith in Sahih Muslim states:
Abu Hurairah reported Allah's Messenger [Muhammad] (may peace be upon him) as saying: "There are ninety-nine names of Allah; he who commits them to memory would get into Paradise. Verily, Allah is Odd (He is one and it is an odd number) and He loves odd numbers. And in the narration of Ibn 'Umar [the words are]: "He who enumerated them"."
—Muslim ibn al-Hajjaj Nishapuri , Sahih Muslim [6] Over time, it became custom to recite a list of 99 names, compiled by al-Walid ibn Muslim,[citation needed] as an addendum to the hadith. In 2005, Mahmoud Abdel-Razek compiled an alternative list, endorsing only 69 from the al-Walid list.[7]
The Quran refers to the names of God as God's "most beautiful Names" (al-ʾasmāʾ al-ḥusnā).[8] According to Gerhard Böwering:
They are traditionally enumerated as 99 in number to which is added as the highest Name (al-ism al-ʾaʿẓam), the Supreme Name of God: Allāh. The locus classicus for listing the Divine Names in the literature of Qurʾānic commentary is 17:110, “Call upon God, or call upon The Merciful; whichsoever you call upon, to Him belong the most beautiful Names,” and also 59:22-24, which includes a cluster of more than a dozen Divine epithets.
Mystic philosopher Ibn Arabi surmised that the 99 names are outward signs of the universe's inner mysteries.[5][9]
Most, though not all, of the 99 names appear in the Quran with a smaller number appearing exclusively in the hadith.[5][9][10][11] The total number of all names in both the Quran and the hadith actually add up to more than 99,[9][12][13] though only 99 are supposedly those which are referred to in the hadith as the exclusion of others.
Lists of names[edit] There isn't universal agreement among Muslims as to what exactly counts as a name and what does not. Additionally, while some names are only in the Quran, and others a
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