that the ruling applies exclusively to it. For departing from the requirement of general inclusion in favor of singling something out—unless this is intended to restrict the ruling to it—would mean disregarding the grounds for general inclusion without any countervailing consideration, which is impossible.

Thus, in his statement,

“Allah has ninety-nine,”

giving this number may serve purposes other than restricting the total to it. (Among these) is his mention that enumerating them leads to Paradise. Had he stated the first sentence independently and followed it with the second as a separate sentence, that would have been perfectly sound. How much more so when speech is presumed to be connected rather than disconnected, making the conditional sentence a qualifying clause rather than an independent sentence. This is the preferable grammatical interpretation in Arabic, alongside the evidence already mentioned.

For this reason, he said:

“He is One and loves what is odd-numbered.”

His love for this indicates that it relates to enumeration: that is, He loves for this number of His names to be enumerated. If Allah’s names exceed ninety-nine, it is possible that enumerating any ninety-nine names leads to Paradise, without restriction to a particular set. This provides a basis for their view, although many people understand these to be specific names.

Among the latter, some say that there are only ninety-nine names in all. This is the view of Ibn Hazm and a group of others. Most of them, however, say: Even if Allah has more names, those for whose enumeration Paradise has been promised are a specific set.

In any event, identifying these names individually is not part of the Prophet’s own words, may Allah bless him and grant him peace, as those knowledgeable about his hadith agree. Rather, various lists have been transmitted from the early generations, including the one mentioned by al-Tirmidhī and others besides it.

With this understood, regarding his inclusion of “the Light, the Guide” among His Most Beautiful Names, if someone were to challenge him