Section Four: The Hadith “Allah Has Ninety-Nine Names”
Al-Bukhārī, Muslim and others reported from Abū Hurayra, may Allah be pleased with him, that the Messenger of Allah, may Allah bless him and grant him peace, said:
“Allah has ninety-nine names—one hundred less one. Whoever memorizes them will enter Paradise. He is One and loves that which is odd.”
Another version reads: “Whoever takes full account of them1 will enter Paradise.” This hadith is agreed to be authentic2.
Other versions of this hadith have been transmitted through various routes, adding to the preceding report a list of names of Allah Most High. These versions occur through three routes in the collections of al-Tirmidhī3, Ibn Mājah4 and al-Hākim56. These routes have been judged weak with regard to both their chains of transmission and their texts, as a number of scholars and critical researchers have explained. Their statements follow.
Al-Bayhaqī, may Allah have mercy on him, said concerning the version transmitted by ʿAbd al-ʿAzīz ibn al-Husayn: It is possible that the explanation was supplied by one of the narrators. The same applies to the report of al-Walīd ibn
1 Scholars have differed over what is meant by ihsā’ (taking full account of the names). The most convincing view—and Allah knows best—is that stated by Ibn al-Qayyim in Badā’i‘ al-fawā’id, 1:164: “Taking full account of them has several levels. The first is listing the names and counting them. The second is understanding their meanings and what they signify. The third is calling upon Him by them, as Allah Most High says: ‘To Allah belong the most beautiful names, so call upon Him by them’ (al-A‘rāf, verse 180). This has two levels: the first is invocation through praise and worship; the second is supplication through request and petition.” This is also the view adopted by Ibn Sa‘dī, may Allah have mercy on him. See al-Haqq al-wādih al-mubīn, p. 22. For further discussion, see Fath al-bārī, 11:226, and al-Nahj al-asmā, 1:46.
2 Sahīh al-Bukhārī, 7:169, Book of Supplications, chapter “Allah, Mighty and Majestic, has one hundred names less one”; and Sahīh Muslim, 4:2062–2063, Book of Remembrance, chapter on the names of Allah Most High and the merit of taking full account of them.
3 Sunan al-Tirmidhī, hadith no. 3574.
4 Sunan Ibn Mājah, hadith no. 3861.
5 Al-Hākim, al-Mustadrak, 1:17.
6 Shaykh Muhammad ibn Hamad al-Humūd collected these transmission routes, presented scholars’ assessments of them, and graded them in his book al-Nahj al-asmā fī sharh asmā’ Allāh al-husnā, 1:50. Shaykh ‘Abd Allāh ibn Sālih al-Ghusn did likewise in his book Asmā’ Allāh al-husnā, p. 155.