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The multiplicity which is indicated by these names is related to attributes and
not to the Being or Essence of God, for He is unique in every respect.
God’s Attribute are of two kinds: True and additional.
True attributes are those applied to Him if we consider the very essence
of God as the Living, the Eternal, and the Everlasting.
However, additional attributes are those applied to God if we take others
into consideration as the Creator Which is against the created and Merciful
which is against one who receives mercy.
Therefore the multiplicity of God’s names is not related to His Essence
or Being but related to the affairs outside it.
Ali
Ibne Ra-ab has reported on the authority of Imam Sadeq (AS):
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*
834-
“Whoever worships God in his own illusion is an unbeliever.
Whoever worships name without meaning, he is an unbeliever too.
Whoever worships both the name and the meaning, he is polytheist.
Whoever worships the meaning and the applies names to it, that too,
through attributes by which God has described Himself, ties his heart to it and
makes his tongue expressive of it in secret and public, such men are the
companions of Amiralmomenin (AS).”
In a Hadith, we read that they are true believers.
In
another Hadith, the Imam said to Hesham Ibne Hakam:
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*
835- “There
are 99 names for God.
If the name is the same as meaning, then every name is a god but to say
it correctly Allah is a unique meaning and these names are its attributes.”
Amr Ibne shoaib has polyquoted his father and the Holy Prophet of Islam (SAW) as
saying:
*
*
836- “While
being happy and having a smile on his lips, Gabriel come down from heaven to the
Holy Prophet (SAW) bringing the following Dua saying: God has sent a gift for
you. The
Holy Prophet said: What is the gift O Gabriel! Gabriel said: Words along with
treasures of heaven by which God has honoured you.
The Holy Prophet said: What are those words O Gabriel?! Gabriel said:
Say:
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*
“O You who reveal beauty and conceal ugly things! O You who do not
take a wrongdoer to task and not tear the veil! O You who are Great Forever! O
You who have the great forbearance! O You who have pardon abounding! O You who
have opened Your hands for mercy! O Hearer of all whisperings! O You to whom all
complaints are made! O Noble face! O Possessor of great favor! O You who give
blessings to Your servants when they do not deserve it! O our Master! O our
Lord! O our Guardian! O the Goal of our desires! I beseech You O God! not to
make my being ugly with Fire.”
*
*
“Here the Holy Prophet (SAW) said to Gabriel: What is the virtue of
these words? Gabriel
said: Far away! Far away! It is something impossible, for if the angels of seven
heavens and seven earths gather to describe its virtues till the Day of
Judgment, they are not able to describe a single part of it.”
*
*
“Therefore when a man says: O You who reveal the beauty and conceal
the ugly, God covers up his defects and has mercy on him and makes him look
beautiful on the Day of Judgment and covers his defects with a thousand veils in
the world and the hereafter.”
*
*
“And when he says: O You who do not take the wrongdoer to task and
do not tear the veil, God will not take him to task on the Day of Judgment and
on the day all veils are torn, God will not tear his veil.”
*
*
“And when he says: O You who are Great Forgiver, God will forgive
his sins even if they are as much as the sea foam.”
*
*
“And when he says: O You are of great forbearance, God will forgive
him such sins as theft, drinking wine, and other sins.”
*
*
“And when he says: O You who have pardon abounding, God will open
seventy gates of Mercy to him in a way that he will be overwhelmed by God’s
Mercy till he dies.”
*
*
“And when he says: O You who have opened Your hands for mercy, God
opens His hands of Mercy to him.”
*
*
“And when he says: O Hearer of all whisperings, O You to whom all
complaints are made, God will give him rewards as many as given to every
afflicted and unaffiliated, every losing and sick as well as destitute and every
one affected by calamity till the Day of Judgment.”
*
*
“And when he says:
O Possessor of great favor, God will make him noble as prophets.”
*
*
“And when he says: O You who give blessings to Your servants when
they do not deserve it, God will grant him rewards as many as the number of
those who have thanked His blessings.”
*
*
“And when he says: O our Master, O our Lord, God will say: My
angels! Be witness that I forgave him and I will give him rewards as many as
those being in paradise and Hell, the seven heavens and the earths, the sun, the
moon, the stars, drops of rain, sands mountains, dews and throne.”
*
*
“And when he says: O our Guardian, God will make his heart replete
with faith.”
*
*
“And when he says: O the Goal of our desires, God will give him the
love of all creatures on the Day of Judgment.”
*
*
“And when he says: I beseech You O God not to make my being ugly
with Fire, God will say: My servant has asked Me to free him from Fire.
O My angels! Be witness that I set him, his parents, his brothers, his
household, his children and his neighbors free from the Fire and accepted his
intercession for a thousand others who deserved the punishment by fire and saved
them from it.”
*
*
_ “O Muhammad! Teach this Dua only to men of piety.
Do not even teach it to hypocrites, for it is a Dua which God will
answer. This
is the Dua recited by the men of Beite Ma’moor (an edifice in the fourth or
seventh heaven as sacred as Ka’aba) when they circumambulate it.”
This treatise comes to an end with this Hadith.
We beseech God to Place us among the first persons who benefit from and
follow it by being qualified as the ones described in it, to make us a partner
of every brother in faith who has knowledge of it, has found his way, is walking
on the path of the righteous ones, and has added to his worthy provision, to
place it as an asset and weapon to attain our goal and to save us from any
hardship, for He is the cause of every benevolence and every thing becomes
perfect only with His blessing.
Greetings of Allah be on Muhammad who is the noblest of pure souls and
his household who are benefactors and of noble birth until day and night, dark
and light follow each other.
Praise is due to the Lord of the worlds and greetings to our master,
Muhammad and his pure household!
This dissertation was completed by Ahmad Ibne Fahd, the one who is needy
of Allah, the Most High on Monday night, the 16th of Jamadiul Awwal of the year
801 AH.
Praise
is due to Allah,
the One and His greetings
and peace on Muhammad
and his progeny.