Part 1

Explanation to the wit A

Shaykh Aba ‘Abdu-r-Rahman Nasir as-Sa ‘di

Explanation to the Beautiful and Perfect Names of Allah

Extracted from Taysir al-Karim al-Rahman

by Shaykh Abii ‘Abdu-r-Rahman Nasir as-Sa‘di (d1376H)

Translated from the Original Arabic by Abu Rumaysah

[i] All of Allah’s Names are Beautiful and Perfect

lu] The Names of Allah are proper names and descriptions

[ut] If a Name of Allah points to manifold descriptions

lw] The Names of Allah can only be known through revelation

[vy] The Names of Allah are not limited to a particular number

SOME DESCRIPTIONS OF ALLAH THAT ARE MENTIONED IN THE QUR’AN

A WARNING AGAINST FIGURATIVE INTERPRETATION OF THE NAMES AND ATTRIBUTES

BIOGRAPHY OF THE AUTHOR Aba ‘Abdu-r-Rahman Nasir as-Sa‘di (d1376H)

EXPLANATION TO THE BEAUTIFUL AND PERFECT NAMES OF ALLAH

Al-Malik (The Master and Owner) Alladhi lahu-l-Mulk (the One to Whom belongs the dominion) Al-Wahid

As-Samad (The Self-Sufficient) AL‘Alim (the All-Knowing) ALKhabir (the All-Aware) Al-Hakim (the All-Wise) Ar-Rahman (The Most Beneficent) Ar-Rahim (the Most Merciful) Al-Barr (The Generous)

Al-Jawwad (The Bestower of Good) Ar-Ra’af (the Kind)

Al-Wahhab (The Bestower) As-Sami* (the All-Hearing) Al-Basir (the All-Seeing)

Al-Hamid (the One Who is praised) Al-Majid (the Glorious)

Al‘Afuww (the Forgiving) Al-Ghafar (the Forgiving) Al-Ghaffar (the All-Forgiving) At-Tawwab (the Oft-Returning) Al-Quddas (the Holy)

Al-Jabbar (the Compeller) Al-Mutakabbir (the Supreme) AL-Khiliq (the Creator)

Al-Bari’ (the Originator) Al-Musawwir (the Shaper) Al-Mu’min (The Giver of Security) Al-Muhaymin (the Ever-Watching) Al-Qadir (All-Powerful, the Able) Al-Latif (the Most Subtle, the Kind) Al-Hasib (the Reckoner)

Ar-Raqib (the All-Watcher) Al-Hafiz (The Guardian)

Al-Muhit (The Encompassing) Al-Qahhar (The Subduer) Al-Qahir (The Irresistable) Al-Mugit (The Powerful)

Al-Wakil (The Disposer of Affairs, the One Who is relied upon)

Dhu-l-Jalali wa-l-Ikram (The One possessing Majesty and Honour)

Al-Fattih (The Judge, The Opener) Ar-Razzaq (The Provider)

AL ‘Adl (The Just)

Jami‘u-n-Nas (The Gatherer of Mankind) AL-Hayy (Ihe Living)

Badi‘ u-s-Samawati wa-l-Ard (The Originator of the heavens and the earth)

AL-Mu'‘id (The Recaller, The One Who repeats creation)

al-Fa‘alu-l-Lima Yurid (The One Who does what He Wills)

Al-Ghani (The Self-Sufficient, The Rich) Al-Mughni (The Sufficient)

Ash-Shakir (The Recogniser and Rewarder of good)

ADDITIONAL NAMES NOT MENTIONED

al-Mubin (the Clear and Manifest) 102 al-Mawla (the Master and Supporter) 102 al-Mugtadir (The All-Able, the One who has al-Wali (The Protector and Supporter) 105

ALPHABETICAL LISTING OF THE NAMES 106-112

initial: unexpressed medial and final:

Sb dah or Jr Ooh Jz gj Os Cth O* sh Tkh vu,

All praise and thanks are due to Allah, we praise Him, seek His help and ask Him for forgiveness. Whoever Allah guides, none can misguide and whoever Allah leaves to stray, none can guide. I bear witness that there is no deity worthy of worship save Allah alone, who has no partner and I bear witness that Muhammad

($8) is His servant and Messenger.

Allah, the Exalted says,

so invoke Him by them. Abandon those who des-

ecrate His Names, they will be recompensed for what they did.

‘From the most noble and lofty stations of cognisance is to know the Lord, the Glorious, through His beauty. This is the knowledge possessed by the elite of this creation. All of them know Him through an Attribute from amongst His Attributes

EXPLANATION TO THE BEAUTIFUL AND PERFECT NAMES

but those amongst them who have the most complete cognisance are those who 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? It is sufficient to know of His beauty that to him belongs nobility in its entirety, strength and power in its entire generosity and kindness in its entirety, beneficence in its entirety, knowledge in its entirety and grace in its entirety.

From the light of His Face are all darknesses illuminated, as

the Prophet ($8) said when supplicating at Ta’if,

I take refuge with the Light of Your Face that illuminates the darknesses and upon which the affairs of the world and the Hereafter are rightly ordered.!

‘Abdullah bin Mas‘id said, ‘there is no night and day with your Lord, the light of the heavens and the earth comes from the light

‘Ali Hasan: Reported by ibn Ishaq, as-seerah, at-TabarL, Tarikh and others and the hadith is not authentic. - summarised.

of His Face.’ ? Therefore, He, the Glorious is the light of the heavens and the earth and on the Day of Judgement, when He comes to judge mankind, His light will illuminate the earth.

One of His Names is a/-Jamil (the Beautiful), in the Sahih it is reported from him (4) that he said,

Allah is Jamil and He loves beauty.*

His beauty is of four levels: the beauty of His Essence or Person (dbaé), 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 ts 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 and due to His perfection. It is also upon him to know that in reality there is none who favours one with every type of outward and inward blessing except He and therefore he should love Him for this as well and praise Him. Hence the servant should love Him for both of these matters...” *

Aly Hasan: Reported by at-Tabrany, a/-Kabir [no. 8886] and others and viewed authentic by ibn Taymiyyah, Majma' Hatawe [6/391]

**Ali Hasan: Muslim [no. 91] from ibn Mas‘id.

Ibn al-Qayyim, af Fawd'id [p. 258}.

EXPLANATION TO THE BEAUTIFUL AND PERFECT NAMES

In compliance to the above exhortation, this treatise has been extracted from the opening words of Shaykh Nasir as-Sa‘di, may Allah have mercy upon him, to his tafsir of the Qur’an, Zaysir alKarim al-Rabman, in which he succinctly and beautifully explains those Names of Allah that occur in the Qur’an. After each explanation the translator has added some verses of the Qur’an showing the usage of the particular Name in question. It should also be noted that the author, may Allah have metcy upon him, has only mentioned those Names that occur in the Qur’an and these come to a total of eighty-nine in his view. Additional Names mentioned in the Qur’in have been added from the work of ibn “Uthaymin, Qawa’idu-l-Muthla fi Sifati-Allahi wa Asma’ ihi-l-Husna, bringing the total to one hundred and three

Before proceeding to the treatise it would be beneficial to present some general principles with regards the Names of Allah, the Mighty and Magnificent.>

[1] All of Allah’s Names are Beautiful and Perfect

This is because they comprise perfect descriptions and attributes that contain absolutely no defect, they do not even suggest the mere possibility of a deficiency.

To Allah belong the most beautiful and perfect

SSummarised from ibn ‘Uthaymin, Qava'idu-LMuthla fi SifitiAllahi ma Asma ibiLHusnd

{u.] The Names of Allah are proper names and descriptions

They are proper Names with respect to their teferring to the Essence or Person of Allah and descriptions with respect to the meanings they carry. Allah, the Exalted says,

Sys acies@ LO ves OIE He is the Ever Forgiving, the Most Merciful [alAbgaf (46): 8}

Bera 4 s4c ote, Peer HIT) Your Lord is the Ever Forgiving, possessing Mercy

Hence the second verse proves that the Most Merciful is one who possesses and is described with mercy. There also exists a consensus of the linguists that the term ‘one who knows’ (‘aliz) is only given to one who has knowledge, ‘the one who sees’ (sami’) is only given to one who sees and so on.

EXPLANATION TO THE BEAUTIFUL AND PERFECT NAMES

{ii.| If a Name of Allah points to a description that is Transitive ‘

It is necessary to affirm three matters:

1. That particular Name

2. The Attribute that the Name points to.

3. The ruling and necessary implications contained [in the mention of that Name]

This is why the scholars stated that the prescribed punishment for highway robbers is lifted if they repent, based upon the saying of Allah,

et IGS cuAc is Oy A At aia ..except for those who repent before you gain power over them. Know that Allah is Ever

Forgiving, Most Merciful. [al-Ma’idab (5): 34]

This is because the necessary implications of these two Names is that Allah has forgiven them their sins and shown them mercy by lifting the application of the prescribed punishment upon them.

Similarly the Name, as-Sami‘ (the All-Hearing) necessitates that you affirm this Name, the Attribute of hearing and the necessary implication that He hears everything, open and secret

If the Name is not Transitive then it is only necessary to affirm the first two matters mentioned above. For example the Name, al-Flayy (the Living), it is only necessary to affirm this Name and its corresponding Attribute of life.

[iv.] The Names of Allah can only be known through revelation

This is because there is no way of the intellect independently coming to know of them. Allah, the Exalted says,

Lg ecseee ye Ry eae te eet OLE ADH Paige Kal ealiey Do not pursue what you have no knowledge of, indeed the hearing, the sight and the hearts will

[v.] The Names of Allah are not limited to a particular number

This is due to the authentic hadith of ibn Mas‘iid reported by Ahmad and others in which the Messenger of Allah (8) said,

Task 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