The Ninety Nine Names of God

The Ninety Nine Names of God T here is a tradition which has been recorded in different books of Hadith. According to Sahih alBukhari: “Abu Hurayra has recorded that the Prophet of Islam observed—God has ninety nine names, one less than a hundred. Those who have counted these words will enter Paradise.” (Sahih al-Bukhari, Hadith No. 2736) In this tradition of the Prophet, reference is made to the enumeration of the best names of God. This realization must be at a conscious level rather than at the level of counting the beads on the rosary. These names of God are, in actual fact, different aspects of the attributes of God. When a person reflects on the existence of God and His creations, various aspects of God appear to him and he is able to understand these different aspects of God. Conscious realization of these aspects is what is meant by enumeration of God’s names. Those who attain the realization of God in this way will undoubtedly go to Paradise, because Paradise is, in actual fact, the reward for the realization of God. The term ninety nine in the tradition is purely symbolic. In reality, it means that there are countless names or attributes of God. Imam Razi in his commentary has quoted the opinions of certain religious scholars—“God’s names amount to five thousand.”