The Meaning of “Indeed, Allah has ninety-nine names”
Al-Bukhārī and Muslim narrate from Abū Hurayrah that the Prophet صلى الله عليه وسلم said: “Indeed, Allah has ninety-nine names, one less than one hundred. Whoever enumerates them will enter Paradise.” This wording is from Muslim.
The meaning of the ḥadīth is that whosoever enumerates these names shall enter Paradise; it is not to be understood as implying that Allah possesses only ninety-nine names. Rather, He has al-asmāʾ al-ḥusnā (the Most Beautiful Names), which exist across all languages, and are not limited to any particular tongue. Among them are those known to creation, and others which are unknown. Aḥmad and others narrate from Ibn Masʿūd a ḥadīth which states: “I ask You by every name that is Yours — by which You named Yourself, or revealed in Your Book, or taught to any of Your creation, or kept hidden in the knowledge of the unseen with You.”
Al-Khaṭṭābī said: The ḥadīth does not imply that He has no other names besides these. The true benefit of the statement lies in the clause, “whoever enumerates them,” which is the khabar (predicate) of inna, and not in “ninety-nine.” The proof for this lies in the aforementioned ḥadīth: “I ask You by every name…” Abū Bakr Ibn al-Ṭayyib said: This ḥadīth does not indicate that Allah has only these names; its apparent meaning is simply that whoever enumerates them enters Paradise. These names are not specified in the ṣaḥīḥayn (Bukhārī and Muslim); rather, al-Tirmidhī and others included them in their compilations, where various narrations differ: one set of names appears in one version, and another set in another.
Ibn Taymiyyah was asked about the claim that one may only invoke Allah using these ninety-nine names, and that one should not say “Yā Ḥannān, Yā Mannān,” or “Yā Dalīl al-ḥāʾirīn.” Is such a view valid?
He answered: Al-ḥamdu lillāh, though some later scholars like Ibn Ḥazm have made this claim, the majority of the scholars differ with them. The early generations of this ummah and their imāms did not hold this view, and this is what is correct, for several reasons:
First: There is no ṣaḥīḥ ḥadīth from the Prophet صلى الله عليه وسلم precisely specifying the ninety-nine names. The most well-known list is found in the ḥadīth of al-Tirmidhī, narrated by al-Walīd ibn Muslim from Shuʿayb from Abū Ḥamzah. However, the experts in ḥadīth say that this list is a collected addition by al-Walīd ibn Muslim from his teachers among the traditionists. There is another list in the narration of Ibn Mājah, but it is even weaker. Various other compilations of Allah’s names exist from different early authorities. Furthermore, those who claim that Allah’s names are restricted to ninety-nine are unable to derive them all from the Qurʾān. And since there is no definitive evidence for such restriction, one cannot say only these may be used to supplicate with — because there is no clear criterion to distinguish what is permissible from what is impermissible. Every unknown name might either be permissible or prohibited. Even if one were to say, “Do not invoke except with names found in the Qurʾān and Sunnah,” then the number of those names is clearly more than ninety-nine.
Second: Even if one were to say that the names are limited to those mentioned in al-Tirmidhī’s narration, then names that are used in the Qurʾān and Sunnah — such as al-Rabb (the Lord) — are not included in that list. Yet most of the prescribed supplications begin with this name: the supplication of Ādam, “Our Lord, we have wronged ourselves”; of Nūḥ, “My Lord, I seek refuge in You…”; of Ibrāhīm, “Our Lord, forgive me and my parents”; of Mūsā, “My Lord, I have wronged myself…”; and of ʿĪsā, “O Allah, our Lord, send down to us a table from the heaven…” Imām Mālik and others even disliked that one say “Yā Sayyidī” in duʿāʾ, preferring “Yā Rabb,” since this is how the prophets supplicated, as recorded in the Qurʾān.
Likewise, the name al-Mannān appears in the ḥadīth narrated by the collectors of al-Sunan, wherein the Prophet صلى الله عليه وسلم heard a man say: “O Allah, I ask You by virtue of Your having the dominion. You are Allāh, the Mannān, the Originator of the heavens and the earth, O Possessor of Majesty and Honour, O Ever-Living, Sustainer of all.” The Prophet صلى الله عليه وسلم then said: “He has indeed called upon Allah by His Greatest Name, which, when He is called upon by it, He responds, and when He is asked by it, He gives.” This invalidates the claim that al-Mannān is not among His names.
Imām Aḥmad (raḥimahu Allāh) once said to a man bidding him farewell: “Say: O Guide of the bewildered, guide me to the path of the truthful, and make me from among Your righteous servants.”
Some theologians, such as al-Qāḍī Abū Bakr and Ibn ʿAqīl, rejected the name al-Dalīl (the Guide), arguing that it is a description (dalālah) rather than a name. But the correct position, held by the majority, is that al-Dalīl — meaning the One who guides to Himself — is valid. Even if one argued that dalīl only means that by which one is guided, the servant also guides by Allah’s signs, making Him a dalīl from both angles.
Moreover, it is established in al-Ṣaḥīḥ that the Prophet صلى الله عليه وسلم said: “Indeed, Allah is One (Witr) and He loves odd numbers.” Yet al-Witr is not found among the ninety-nine names in the well-known narration. Similarly, the Prophet صلى الله عليه وسلم said: “Indeed, Allah is Beautiful and loves beauty” — again, not found in that list. Likewise, “Indeed, Allah is Clean and loves cleanliness,” and “Indeed, Allah is Good and accepts only what is good.” All of these are authentic and yet not included among the ninety-nine. Listing them all would be lengthy.
The most circulated version of the ninety-nine names, from the narration of al-Tirmidhī, includes names such as: Allāh, al-Raḥmān, al-Raḥīm, al-Malik, al-Quddūs, al-Salām, al-Muʾmin, al-Muhaymin, al-ʿAzīz… and so on. However, names like al-Subbūḥ (the Most Glorified) are not included, even though the Prophet صلى الله عليه وسلم would say: “Subbūḥ, Quddūs.” Likewise, al-Shāfī (the Healer) — from the authentic duʿāʾ: “Remove the harm, O Lord of mankind, and heal, for You are the Healer — there is no healing but Yours.” Also, names formed as relational constructs (iḍāfī) such as Arḥam al-Rāḥimīn (Most Merciful of the merciful), Khayr al-Ghāfirīn (Best of those who forgive), Rabb al-ʿĀlamīn (Lord of the worlds), Mālik Yawm al-Dīn (Master of the Day of Judgment), Aḥsan al-Khāliqīn (Best of creators), Jāmiʿ al-Nās (Gatherer of mankind), Muqallib al-Qulūb (Turner of hearts) — all of these are established through the Qurʾān and Sunnah, and are used in supplication by consensus, yet they are not among the commonly cited ninety-nine.
Third: Al-Khaṭṭābī and others cite as evidence the ḥadīth of Ibn Masʿūd wherein the Prophet صلى الله عليه وسلم said: “Whenever a servant is afflicted by grief or anxiety and says: O Allah, I am Your servant, son of Your servant, son of Your maidservant, my forelock is in Your hand, Your decree upon me is certain, and Your judgment concerning me is just. I ask You by every name that is Yours — which You have named Yourself with, revealed in Your Book, taught to one of Your creation, or kept hidden in the unseen with You — to make the Qurʾān the spring of my heart, the light of my chest, the remover of my sorrow, and the reliever of my distress, then Allah will remove his grief and replace it with joy.” They asked: “O Messenger of Allah, shall we not learn these words?” He replied: “Indeed, it is befitting for anyone who hears them to learn them.” This is narrated by Imām Aḥmad in al-Musnad, and by Abū Ḥātim and Ibn Ḥibbān in his Ṣaḥīḥ.
Al-Khaṭṭābī and others said: This proves that there are names which Allah has kept hidden, and thus the ḥadīth “Indeed, Allah has ninety-nine names…” is to be understood as: among His names are ninety-nine, whosoever enumerates them will enter Paradise — just as one might say: “I have a thousand dirhams which I have set aside for charity,” even though he owns more.
Please note: “Whoever enumerates them” means:
Whoever memorises, understands, and lives by them.
(Not merely listing them.)
And in the Qurʾān, Allah says: “And to Allah belong the Most Beautiful Names, so call upon Him by them.” He did not say that they are only ninety-nine. The meaning of the ḥadīth is sound. And Allah knows best.
(Majmūʿ al-Fatāwā, 22/481–486)
Disclaimer: This article was translated by AI. Original post: https://t.me/DrAkramNadwi/6447
