The Existence of God

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.” (Tafsir Ibn Kathir, vol. 1, p. 36). But the truth is that God has innumerable names. In the tradition, the number of God’s attributes (asmae-husna) is put at ninety nine. By studying the Quran, the scholars have discovered these, name by name. But these names do not denote the countless attributes of God. All these names, in fact, relate to human beings. The truth is that when the feeling of servitude awakens within man and God’s consciousness becomes a reality then, naturally, different kinds of spiritual feelings arise within him. Naming the divine attributes, in fact, is an appropriate way of expressing these divine feelings.