your Lord, the Most High,” he said: “Include this in your prostration.” So they said, “Glory be to my Lord, the Most High.” Likewise, the Prophet, may Allah bless him and grant him peace, did not say, “Glory be to the Name of my Lord, the Most High.” Rather, his saying, “Glory be to my Lord, the Most High,” glorifies His name with the intention of glorifying the One named, not merely the name itself. This is like His words:

“Say, ‘Call upon Allah or call upon the Most Merciful. Whichever name you call upon, to Him belong the Most Beautiful Names.’”

The supplicant says, “O Allah,” or “O Most Merciful,” intending the One named. His words “Whichever” mean whichever of the two names you invoke; invoking the name is invoking the One it names.

This is what those among Ahl al-Sunnah who said, “The name is the One named,” intended. They meant that when a name is invoked or mentioned, it is the One named who is intended. When someone praying says, “Allah is the Greatest,” he has mentioned his Lord’s name, intending the One named. They did not mean that the utterance itself is the actual entity existing outside the mind. The absurdity of this is obvious to anyone who understands it: if that were so, anyone who said “fire” would have his tongue burned. A fuller discussion of this belongs elsewhere.

The point is that majesty and honor are like sovereignty and praise, and like love and veneration. This applies to both affirmative and negative attributes, for every negation entails