He replied:

Praise be to Allah. Although a group of later scholars, such as Abū Muhammad ibn Hazm and others, held this view, the majority of scholars hold otherwise. This was also the position of the early generations of this community and its leading scholars. It is the correct view for several reasons.

First, no authentic hadith from the Prophet, may Allah bless him and grant him peace, specifies which names constitute the ninety-nine.

The best-known report concerning them is the hadith recorded by al-Tirmidhī, narrated by al-Walīd ibn Muslim from Shuayb, from Abū Hamzah. The leading hadith scholars say that this addition consists of names al-Walīd ibn Muslim compiled from his teachers among the hadith scholars. There is a second hadith concerning them, weaker than this one, narrated by Ibn Mājah. Other enumerations besides these two have also been transmitted, compiled by some of the early generations.

The person who restricted Allah’s names to ninety-nine was unable to derive them from the Quran. If there is no binding evidence specifying them, it cannot be said that these alone are the names by which one may supplicate, to the exclusion of all others. For there would be no way to distinguish those one is commanded to use from those one is forbidden to use. Any name whose status is unknown could be among those commanded or among those forbidden.

If it is said, “Supplicate only by a name mentioned in the Book and the Sunnah,” the answer is, “These number more than ninety-nine.”

The second reason is that, if the names are taken to be those specified in the hadith of al-Tirmidhī, for example, the Book and the Sunnah contain names not found in that hadith, such as the name