‘And what do you worship?’ we answer, ‘Allah.’ Thus, we give the same answer concerning the name as we do concerning the One worshipped. This indicates that the name of the One worshipped is none other than the One worshipped Himself. They also cite His words:

‘You worship besides Him nothing but names which you and your fathers have named.’

“What they worshipped were the things named, not the utterances, which are accidents and are not worshipped.”

He said:

“If it is objected, ‘Is it not said that Allah is one God and has many names? How, then, can the one be many?’ the answer is: When the term ‘names’ is used, what is meant is what the name-givers have named. A thing may be called by the name of that which signifies it, just as an object of power may be called ‘power.’”

He said:

“Accordingly, ‘In the name of Allah’ means ‘By Allah.’ The preposition ‘by’ expresses seeking assistance and acknowledging one’s need. Its sense is: ‘From You I seek assistance, and of You I am in need.’ It has also been said that the implied wording is: ‘I begin,’ or ‘I start, in Your name, in what I say and do.’”

I say:

Had they confined themselves to saying that, when the names of things occur in speech, what is intended is the things named—as they explained concerning His words, ‘O John,’ and similar expressions—this would have been a clear meaning that no one who understood it would dispute. But they did not confine themselves to that. For this reason, most people, both Ahl al-Sunnah and others, rejected their position because of the false claims it contains. These include their claim that the word ism (‘name’), spelled alif–sīn–mīm, means the very essence and self of a thing; and that actual names, such as Zayd and ‘Amr, are acts of naming, not names of the things named. Both claims are false, contrary to what all people of every nation know and to what they say.

For people say that Zayd, ‘Amr, and the like are people’s names, and naming