26 / Contemplating Allah’s Names and Attributes, Not Negating Them, and the Profound Effect This Has on the Servant

It is well known that the servants’ need to know their Lord, Creator, and Sovereign is their greatest need, and that nothing is more indispensable to them. The more a servant knows his Lord’s Names, the attributes of perfection and majesty that are rightfully His, and the deficiencies and flaws contrary to them from which He is exalted, the greater will be his share of extolling and praising Him. The way to attain this sublime objective and noble purpose is for the servant to contemplate Allah’s Most Beautiful Names as revealed in the Quran and Sunnah, considering them one by one and affirming the meanings they signify in a manner befitting the Lord’s majesty, perfection, and greatness. He must believe that this perfection and greatness know no limit, and that Allah Most High is exalted and sanctified above everything that contradicts this perfection in any respect. He should exert every effort within his ability to learn Allah’s Names and attributes, and make this momentous and sublime subject the most important of all subjects, the foremost in deserving his attention, and the one most worthy of being given priority, so that he may attain the fullest share of goodness.

Al-Bukhārī and Muslim narrated from the Mother of the Believers, Aisha—may Allah be pleased with her—that the Prophet—may Allah bless him and grant him peace—sent a man at the head of a detachment. When leading his companions in prayer, the man would conclude his recitation with, “Say: He is Allah, the One.” When they returned, they mentioned this to the Prophet—may Allah bless him and grant him peace—who said, “Ask him why he did that.” They asked him, and he replied, “Because it describes the Most Merciful, and I love to recite it.” The Prophet—may Allah bless him and grant him peace—then said, “Tell him that Allah loves him.”1