the name contains.

Thus, the All-Knowing denotes the Essence and knowledge; the All-Powerful denotes the Essence and power; and the Most Merciful denotes the Essence and mercy. Whoever denies that His names signify His attributes, while claiming to uphold the apparent meaning, speaks in a manner akin to the extremist Qarmatian esotericists, who say: “One must say neither that He is living nor that He is not living.” Rather, they deny both contradictory alternatives concerning Him. These Qarmatian esotericists do not reject a name that merely identifies, as pronouns do; they reject the positive attributes contained in His Most Beautiful Names. Whoever agrees with their objective thus agrees with the extremist esotericists in this respect, despite claiming strict adherence to the apparent meaning. This is not the place to elaborate on that. The point is simply that each of His names denotes His Essence and the attributes it contains.

It also denotes, by necessary implication, the attribute contained in another name. The same applies to the names of the Prophet, may Allah bless him and grant him peace, such as Muhammad, Ahmad, al-Māhī, al-Hāshir, and al-ʿĀqib; and likewise to the names of the Quran, such as the Quran, the Criterion, the Guidance, the Healing, the Clear Exposition, the Book, and others of this kind.

If the questioner’s purpose is to identify what is named, we may refer to it by any name, provided that the referent of that name is known. The name may be a proper name or a description. For example, someone might ask about His words:

“And whoever turns away from My remembrance”

“What is meant by His remembrance?” He may be told, for example: “It is the Quran,” or: “It is the Books He has revealed.” For “remembrance” is a verbal noun, and a verbal noun is sometimes grammatically linked to the one performing the action and sometimes to its object.