In the Name of Allaah…

Regarding the book Exemplary Principles Concerning the Names and Attributes of Allaah, in the evidences section for Allaah’s Names, there may be names with ‘al’ before them, but in the evidence used for those names there is no ‘al’. For example, on page 246, Name #22,  it gives the name Al-Haleem but in the Aayah below that it says Haleemun (not al-Haleem). So is this something allowed, or is it that the name al-Haleem is established in another place in the Qur’aan or Sunnah ? Should I just trust the names of Allaah with ‘al’ at the beginning shown in the book, although the evidences used for those names dont always come with ‘al’? This is an important issue for me as I am worried about affirming a Name for Allaah that is not His Name.

Having “Al-” or not is not the only one consideration the scholars use for establishing a Name for Allaah. If it was only this then we would not be able to complete a list of 99 names, and our list would include other names like “At-Tabeeb” (the Doctor) and “Ad-Dahr” (The Time), which are unanimously (or almost unanimously) not considered to be from Allaah’s Beautiful Names.

So the scholars generally consider:

• the meanings and general contexts of the textual evidence
• idhaafah or lack of it (a kind of Arabic construction)
• taqyeed or itlaaq (generality or limited restriction)
• ishtiqaaq (derivitaves)
• the “Al-” prefix

You can review these language issues with an Arabic teacher who has knowledge of the correct beliefs if you are not clear on them.

Specifically, with names like al-Haleem, al-Ilaah, and others are discussed, there is no Qur’aanic text referring to Allaah as Al-Haleem or Al-Ilaah, and I do not know of any hadeeth either.

Shaykh Ibn ‘Uthaymeen affirmed them both and others like them without relying on a text with “Al-”, since the context in both Qur’aanic passages was unrestricted, or ”mutlaq”. So the Verse meaning “Your ilaah (object of worship) is one ilaah, there is no ilaah other than Him…” and Verses like it were used to establish the name “Al-Ilaah”, and the Verse you mentioned for al-Haleem, and so on.

This is known to the scholars, since if you were to stick to only Names that come with only clear explicit Alif-Laam “Al-” prefix, then you would only gather about 40/50 or so names from the texts. And since the Messenger (sallallaahu alayhe wa sallam) encouraged us to seek after the 99 Names, then there must be another way to compile them than just relying only on “Al-”.  And then the scholars differed in their specific methods of deriving Allaah’s Names from the texts.

And Allaah knows best.

Written by: Moosaa Richardson