Allahs Beautiful Names #16 What is the Greatest Name of Allah

Allah is the most oft repeated name in

the Quran and Sunnah, appearing in the Quran

some 2,724

times. It is pronounced a double l, exhale

with love,

Allah.

It's the name that's made up of all

light letters. So that it can be pronounced

easily

by a child or a person who's foreign

to the Arabic tongue. Allah. Allah is the

Lord that is loved by our hearts and

whose solace is found in remembering

him and the one who people long for.

He's the grandiose in his essence, in his

attributes.

He's unimaginable. He's incomparable,

uncomprehendable.

He is the first and the last. Allah

is the lord that is worshiped, who the

believers give their hearts to and who they

worship. Allah is the name that is the

default. Every other name is a description of

Allah. So you say is one of the

names of Allah. You don't say that Allah

is one of the names of Al Rahman.

You say that Allah has 99 names. You

say

to Allah belong the most beautiful names. It's

a name also that's not shared with anyone.

He's the only one who ever had that

name. So Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala

says, do you know anyone else who has

that name? So what does the name Allah

mean? You know, the scholars discuss whether it's

derived or not derived, whether it's mushtaq or.

And what derived means is that, you know,

sometimes you'll meet somebody

and you'll say, what does your name mean?

And if it's non derived, they'll say, it

doesn't mean anything. It's just my name.

But sometimes a person will tell you, no.

My name means this or my name means

that. It's derived from another meaning. And so

the names of Allah are derived. Rahman comes

from Rahim, the womb as Allah subhanahu wa

ta'ala says. But the name Allah, is it

derived from anything? So you have 2 camps.

One says that it is derived and some

say that it's not derived. So those who

say that it's not derived, they say that

Allah

it's his name. It's just like that. And

they have a number of evidences. Of the

evidences that they use is that in other

Semitic languages, a similar name is used. Elohim,

Ilaha, Aloha, indicating that this is a name

that's not derived from an Arabic word. It

is his name. And there are other evidences

that they use that the aliflam is not

something that's additional to the name. It is

part of the name. So for example, you

say you Rahman, you remove the aliflam. You

say, you kadr, you remove the aliflam. You

don't say al kadr. But when you say,

you Allah, it is like it is. It

doesn't move, it doesn't change. Right? It's indicating

that it's not derived. And there is of

course the other position that Allah is derived.

What is it derived from? Is it derived

from? Is it derived from

the idea of being worshiped? Is it derived

from which

means the one who is loved or the

one who is bewildering. People are bewildered by

Allah

No one can comprehend

Allah

perfectly, completely.

In any case,

every other name comes from Allah and so

if Allah is the one who is worshiped,

then he is the lord of perfect attributes.

This means that every other name is an

extension of the name Allah. Every other name

follows the name Allah. Because for him to

be the one who is worshiped, it must

mean that he is the one he is

the lord of perfect attributes. And so every

other name follows this name. Sheikh Saadi

says, Allah is the god that is worshiped.

He is the deity that has all of

the attributes that make him deserving of being

worshiped. He is the one whose hearts do

not acquire tranquility

except with him, and minds are not illuminated

except by knowing him. And he is the

one that people don't flee to in despair

and fear except to him. He's the one

who people don't find solace except in and

who people never tire of worshiping. And Imam

Al Portibi says, and this name is the

most grandiose of his names and the most

comprehensive of them. So much so that scholars

consider it to be the greatest name. And

that brings up another discussion, which is what

is the greatest name of Allah? Is there

a greatest name of Allah? Where do we

find this concept in the first place that

Allah

has a name that is the greatest name

that a is referring to comes in 4

hadith of the prophet

The first one is the hadith of Abu

Umama, the prophet

he said that

Allah greatest name is

It's in 3 chapters of the Quran. Al

Baqarah and Adi Imran and Taha. And this

hadith is reported by Ibn Maja and others.

And so this hadith

is the first. And the second one is

the hadith of Anas. He says that the

prophet sallallahu alaihi wasallam saw a man who

was making dua after his salah and he

said,

So this man is making du'a with all

of these names. And the prophet

said that you have made du'a by Allah's

greatest name, the one by which if he

is asked, he grants, and the one by

he if he is requested,

he responds. What this statement of the prophet

does is it tells us the function of

the greatest name of Allah, and that is

that if

you invoke Allah by this great name, if

you ask him by, he will grant you,

and if he is requested by, he will

respond. So you want Allah to respond, and

you want Allah

to grant. And so invoking the greatest name

of Allah. And the 3rd hadith, Rasulullah Sallallahu

Alaihi Wasallam saw a man praying and he

said,

the

prophet

said, this man

has asked the by his great name that

if he asked by, he responds and if

he's requested by, he grants. And Ibn Hajjar

mentions that that's the that's the best hadith

on this topic as far as it is

not. And then then the 4th one is

the hadith of Asma who said that

Rasulullah said,

and the fact to have Surat Alaihi Imran.

The beginning of Surat Alaihi Imran. And that's

also reported by Trmidin Abu Dawood and others.

Now when you actually look

at the 4 hadith that I just mentioned,

you're gonna be able to come up with

11 names. And I'm not gonna be able

to list them now, but I'm sure that

some legend is going to write them in

the comments for everybody to be able to

benefit. So then the question becomes, what is

the greatest name of Allah? You know, obviously,

you've noticed that is

hearing a lot of different names. He's referring

to a lot of different names in these

hadith. And so one position is

actually that there is no greatest name, that

all of them are the greatest. And so

when the Rasulullah salallahu alaihi wasallam is saying,

ismullahal A'avam, ismullahal the great, he's actually indicating

that it is

the great name of Allah. Prophet

is simply praising. That's number 1. The second

position is to simply say we don't know.

Allah

left it unknown for us. And I think

by now we've realized that whenever

the deen tells us about the incredible value

of something, but it doesn't tell us when,

where, how exactly.

The goal becomes about the journey. So we

know that there are 99 names of Allah

that if you encompass them, you'll enter into

paradise, but we're not told what those 99

names are. We gotta seek it out. We're

told that there's a night in Ramadan

that in the last 10 nights, that if

you enliven it, all of your previous sins

will be forgiven, and you'll be given the

worship of a 1000 months. But we're not

told what night that is, so we have

to seek them out in all of the

10 nights. We are told that there's an

hour on Friday that if you make dua,

your dua will be accepted, but we're not

told what that hour is. Similarly, we're told

that there is a great name of Allah

subhanahu wa ta'ala that if you invoke Allah

by this name, you're gonna get your request,

but we're not told what that name is,

so we gotta seek it out. So the

second says we don't know. The third position

is to actually choose a name. And you

can refer back to Ibn Hajj's commentary on

this in Fatih al Bari, he mentions 14

views on what the greatest name of Allah.

But some of the most popular positions as

you can imagine is Allah

of course because that is the name that's

shared throughout all of the hadith that are

described. But ibn Hajar, he concludes by saying,

it was said that what is meant by

the greatest name is any of the names

of Allah may he be exalted by which

a person calls upon him with complete submission

and focus of mind. In the sense that

at that moment, he has nothing on his

mind except Allah

Whoever is like that will receive a response.

And he says that something similar to this

was narrated from Jafar as Sadiq and Junaid

and others. So Ibn Hajid is saying that,

you know what, the most important aspect is

the presence of your heart. And so what

I would say is the opposite understanding of

that is that it doesn't matter if you

list all 99 names. If your heart is

not present, then you're not experiencing the greatest

name of Allah. So what we can learn

from this is that the greatest name of

Allah can be situational for a person. That

if you're asking Allah for shifa, you're asking

for healing, the greatest name of Allah that

you can access is a shafi. What will

bring presence to your mind and heart. That

if a person is is seeking risk, that

the greatest name of Allah becomes a razak

for them. If a person is seeking children,

that the greatest name could be

That you call Allah Subhanahu Wa Ta'ala by

the names that make you most present because

the most important ingredient

is the presence of your heart. The fruit

of this name of Allah is to worship

him that you love Allah Subhanahu Wa Ta'ala

that you call upon him and that you

don't worship anyone other than him. May Allah

Subhanahu Wa Ta'ala accept from us our actions

of those who are his true servants.

of those who are his true servants.