The Fifth & Sixth Principles

The Fifth Principle: Affirming perfection for Allah necessarily entails negating its opposite.

Everything that has been affirmed for Allah from the Most Beautiful Names & the Attributes of perfection implies the negation of its opposite and whatever contradicts it.

Examples:

1. Affirming life for Allah necessitates the negation of death.

2. Affirming knowledge necessitates the negation of ignorance.

The Sixth Principle: The category of informing about Allah is broader than the category of His Names & Attributes.

What is attributed to Allah falls into three types:

• a Name,

• an Attribute,

• or a statement informing about Him.

The broadest of these categories is informing about Him, then attributes, then names. Although the category of informing about Allah is broader than the category of names & attributes, it is not unrestricted. It is permissible to inform about Allah with terms that are not among His names or attributes under two conditions:

First: There must be a need for doing so. The basic principle is that Allah is described only with what He named or described Himself with in His Book or through the tongue of His Messenger ﷺ. However, if it becomes necessary to explain the intended meaning to others - such as translating His names into another language or expressing them with a word that conveys a correct meaning - then this is permitted.

Second: The expression used in informing about Him must be good or at least not bad. Shaykh al-Islam (Ibn Taymiyyah) said:

“A distinction must be made between calling upon Allah and informing about Him. Allah is only invoked by His Most Beautiful Names.

As for informing about Him, it should not be with a bad name; however, it may be with a good name or with a name that is not bad even if its goodness is not specifically established, such as: thing, essence, or existent.”

Example: We may inform about Allah by saying “Allah exists,” without establishing “Existing” as one of His Names. Allah says:

“Say: What thing is greatest in testimony? Say: Allah is Witness between me and you.” (6:19)

Thus, describing Allah as “a thing” (شيء) occurs in the context of informing, not as one of His Names. If a person refers to Allah using the word “thing” in this sense of informing, there is no harm. For example, one may say:

“From Allah’s facilitation it was made possible to build this mosque in the best manner.”

“Praise be to Allah who has given us cars.”

These are simply statements informing about Allah’s actions or blessings.

The Second Section: Principles Concerning the Names of Allah

The First Principle: All of Allah’s Names are Most Beautiful (ḥusna).

All of Allah’s Names are husna, meaning they possess the utmost beauty, perfection, and excellence. Therefore, there is no deficiency in them, nor in the attributes and meanings they contain. None of them includes anything that combines praise and blame; rather, they are purely praise.

Example:

The Name “Ar-Rahmaan” (The Most Merciful) contains the attribute of vast and perfect mercy, a mercy in which there is no deficiency in any respect.

Allah the Exalted said:

“And My mercy encompasses all things.”

Allah, Glorified be He, said:

“And to Allah belong the Most Beautiful Names.”

The Second Principle: The Names of Allah are not limited to a specific number.

The Names of Allah, the Exalted, are many. Some of them we know, and some Allah has kept exclusively in the knowledge of the unseen with Him.

The meaning of the Prophet’s statement:

“Indeed Allah has ninety-nine names, one hundred minus one. Whoever enumerates them will enter Paradise.” (Agreed upon)

Whoever enumerates ninety-nine of His names will enter Paradise.

The meaning of enumerating them (أحصاها) includes:

• knowing them,

• understanding their meanings,

• and supplicating Allah by them.

Ibn al-Qayyim (may Allah have mercy on him) said:

“The levels of enumerating His names - through which one enters Paradise - are three:”

1: Memorizing and counting their words.

2: Understanding their meanings and implications.

3: Calling upon Allah with them.

There is no authentic hadith that lists all the Names of Allah explicitly. Al-Ṣanʿaani (d. 1182 AH) said:

“The scholars of hadith unanimously agree that the listing of them was an addition inserted by some narrators.”

The Prophet ﷺ said:

“I ask You by every name belonging to You: which You have named Yourself with, or taught to any of Your creation, or revealed in Your Book, or kept to Yourself in the knowledge of the unseen with You.” (Reported by Ahmad)

Meaning: You alone have exclusive knowledge of some of them, which indicates that His Names are not limited to a specific number.

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