Al-Qawl al-Mufid ala Kitab al-Tawhid — Volume 2 (القول المفيد على كتاب التوحيد) — Page 294

Line-by-line translation · المعاني

الْمَبْحَثُ الثَّالِثُ:

The Third Topic:

أَسْمَاءُ اللَّهِ لَيْسَتْ مَحْصُورَةً بِعَدَدٍ مُعَيَّنٍ وَالدَّلِيلُ عَلَى ذَلِكَ قَوْلُهُ ﷺ فِي حَدِيثِ ابْنِ مَسْعُودٍ الْحَدِيثِ الصَّحِيحِ الْمَشْهُورِ: «اللَّهُمَّ إِنِّي عَبْدُكَ ابْنُ عَبْدِكَ وَابْنُ أَمَتِكَ - إِلَى أَنْ قَالَ - أَسْأَلُكَ بِكُلِّ اسْمٍ هُوَ لَكَ سَمَّيْتَ بِهِ نَفْسَكَ أَوْ أَنْزَلْتَهُ فِي كِتَابِكَ، أَوْ عَلَّمْتَهُ أَحَدًا مِنْ خَلْقِكَ أَوِ اسْتَأْثَرْتَ بِهِ فِي عِلْمِ الْغَيْبِ عِنْدَكَ»(١)، وَمِمَّا اسْتَأْثَرَ اللَّهُ بِهِ فِي عِلْمِ الْغَيْبِ لَا يُمْكِنُ أَنْ يُعْلَمَ بِهِ، وَمَا لَيْسَ بِمَعْلُومٍ لَيْسَ بِمَحْصُورٍ.

The names of Allah are not limited to a specific number, and the evidence for this is his saying (peace be upon him) in the authentic and famous hadith of Ibn Mas'ud: 'O Allah, I am Your servant, the son of Your servant, and the son of Your maidservant'—until he said—'I ask You by every name that is Yours, by which You have named Yourself, or revealed in Your Book, or taught to any of Your creation, or kept exclusively to Yourself in the knowledge of the unseen with You' (1); and that which Allah has kept exclusively to Himself in the knowledge of the unseen cannot be known, and that which is not known is not limited.

وَأَمَّا قَوْلُهُ ﷺ: «إِنَّ لِلَّهِ تِسْعَةً وَتِسْعِينَ اسْمًا مَنْ أَحْصَاهَا دَخَلَ الْجَنَّةَ»(٢)، فَلَيْسَ مَعْنَاهُ أَنَّهُ لَيْسَ لَهُ إِلَّا هَذِهِ الْأَسْمَاءُ، لَكِنْ مَعْنَاهُ أَنَّ مَنْ أَحْصَى مِنْ أَسْمَائِهِ هَذِهِ التِّسْعَةَ وَالتِّسْعِينَ فَإِنَّهُ يَدْخُلُ الْجَنَّةَ فَقَوْلُهُ: «مَنْ أَحْصَاهَا» تَكْمِيلٌ لِلْجُمْلَةِ الْأُولَى، وَلَيْسَتِ اسْتِئْنَافِيَّةً مُنْفَصِلَةً، وَنَظِيرُ هَذَا قَوْلُ الْقَائِلِ: عِنْدِي مِائَةُ فَرَسٍ أَعْدَدْتُهَا لِلْجِهَادِ فِي سَبِيلِ اللَّهِ، فَلَيْسَ مَعْنَاهُ أَنَّهُ لَيْسَ عِنْدَهُ إِلَّا هَذِهِ الْمِائَةُ بَلْ مَعْنَاهُ أَنَّ هَذِهِ الْمِائَةَ مُعَدَّةٌ لِهَذَا الشَّيْءِ.

As for his saying (peace be upon him): 'Indeed, Allah has ninety-nine names; whoever enumerates them will enter Paradise' (2), its meaning is not that He has no names other than these, but rather its meaning is that whoever enumerates these ninety-nine of His names will enter Paradise; so his saying 'whoever enumerates them' is a completion of the first sentence, not a separate, independent clause. An analogy for this is the saying of someone: 'I have one hundred horses that I have prepared for jihad in the way of Allah,' for it does not mean that he has no horses other than these one hundred, but rather it means that these one hundred are prepared for this purpose.

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Vocabulary · المفردات (10 verbs · 37 nouns)

• حَصَرَ — to limit
• قَالَ — to say
• سَأَلَ — to ask
• مَبْحَثٌ — topic
• ثَالِثٌ — third
• اِسْمٌ — name