What are the 99 names of Allah?
The Prophet ﷺ said: Allah has 99 names — whoever learns them enters Paradise. The list is drawn from the Qurʾan. The classical scholars treated each name as a door: understand it, embody it, address Allah through it.
4 passages from 4 books in the library
The 99 names of Allah are the beautiful names by which He is known and addressed; the Prophet ﷺ said whoever learns them enters Paradise. The classical scholars treated each name as a door to be understood and embodied, not merely counted. As one passage relates, when the worshippers "recognized His complete attributes and beautiful names, they did not hesitate" in devotion — and a shaykh taught that on the spiritual path "the 99 names become" the very means of drawing near. To know the names is to know how to call upon Him.
Drawn from the classical sources below — in the scholars' own words.
The classical approach.
These passages are drawn from 4 books by Imam al-Ghazali and Ibn Battuta — part of the classical Sunni tradition that carries over a thousand years of reflection on the Qurʾān, the authentic Sunnah, and the consensus of the early community. Nothing below is a paraphrase. The words are the scholars' own, translated from the original Arabic manuscripts.
11th–12th century · Ṭūs, Khurāsān
Reviving the inner life of Islam through the Iḥyāʾ ʿUlūm al-Dīn — one of the most influential works ever written in any religious tradition.
More on Imam al-Ghazali →
· Provenance →
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"beautiful names, or on His actions, His dominion, and all that is in the heavens and the earth"
11th–12th century · Ṭūs, Khurāsān
Reviving the inner life of Islam through the Iḥyāʾ ʿUlūm al-Dīn — one of the most influential works ever written in any religious tradition.
More on Imam al-Ghazali →
· Provenance →
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"A sheikh once said that if you ask the path to God before traversing it, the 99 names become"
14th century · Tangier, Morocco
The Riḥlah — a 30-year, 75,000-mile journey across three continents, and the most important travel account of the pre-modern world.
More on Ibn Battuta →
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"large red roses the size of a palm, rumored to bear inscriptions of the names of God and"
11th–12th century · Ṭūs, Khurāsān
Reviving the inner life of Islam through the Iḥyāʾ ʿUlūm al-Dīn — one of the most influential works ever written in any religious tradition.
More on Imam al-Ghazali →
· Provenance →
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"When they recognized His complete attributes and beautiful names, they did not hesitate"
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