Ramadan Day Seventeen
The most basic of the Names of Allaah are five: Allaah, ar-Rabb, Ar-Rahmaan, ar-Raheem and Al-Malik.
They point to other Names upon two foundations:
The First Foundation
That the Names of Allaah the Majestic all point to His Perfect Attributes; the Names are derived from the Attributes (by origin). They are regarded as Names the same time as Attributes, it is for these reasons they are regarded as Beautiful Names, because if they were to be regarded as mere voices devoid of meanings they will not sound well, neither will they point to praise and perfection.
From the above, it would have been possible to use the Names in illogical manners like saying:
'O Allaah, I have wronged my soul, forgive me You are the Avenger.' 'O Allaah, grant me provisions, You are the One that Causes Harm.'
Stripping Allaah's Names of meanings is from the vilest forms of il'haad (corruption) of Allaah's Names. It is tantamount to saying they never came from Him, and He is not described with them.
Allaah did tell us that those Names are His, they came from Him, He affirmed them for Himself as did the Messenger - sallallahu alayhi wa sallam.
He is al-Qawiyy, for instance, therefore Power is one of His Attributes.
He is Al-Azeez, Honour is also one of His Attributes.
If He had not possessed those two Attributes, as examples, He wouldn't have been described as al-Qawiyy Al-Azeez.
He also said that He posseses Knowledge.
It has come in a Saheeh report that he - sallallahu alayhi wa sallam - said:
'Allaah does not sleep, it does not befit Him to sleep, He lowers and raises the balance of scale, deeds of the night come to Him before deeds of the day, and vice versa. His Veil is Light, if He were to remove it the rays of Light on His Face will burn wherever His Sight gets to in His creation.' (Saheeh Muslim, 263)
In that hadeeth, he - sallallahu alayhi wa sallam - established for Allaah the origin from which the word al-Basar (Sight) was derived for Allaah, the Mighty.
Click here for the audio version in Yoruba.
