The Beautiful Names of Allah

All creation consists of Allah’s own substance. The basic matter of all things is contained within His singular reality. Sufis call this spiritual/material substance the Ninety-Nine Names or the Beautiful Names of Allah. These names are Allah’s diverse attributes, all of which comprise His entire being. Allah’s essence holds all of these qualities as potential energy. In the act of creation, His potential energy becomes kinetic.

Most of Allah’s names are found in the Holy Qur’an, interspersed in its many suras [chapters]. Sufis see them as Allah’s way of describing Himself in the Qur’an, the Word of God revealed to Prophet Muhammad (peace be upon him). For Sufis, Allah’s names are the very stuff of creation, as well as the means by which Allah sustains it. The Beautiful Names, as compiled below, are understood by Sufis as a chart of universal elements, which supersedes the periodic table of chemical elements devised by scientists.

In a sacred tradition Allah told Prophet Muhammad (pbuh), “I was a secret treasure and I wished to be known, so I created creation.” Allah fashioned the universe or universes from His pure light. His energy existed in a formless state, and He willed the energy to take shape over time. In the act of creation Allah activated some of His inherent attributes, such as Al Khaliq, Al Bari, Al Musawwir. Allah began the creation with one word, “Be.” At that moment, the creation of the universe started.

The Big Bang theory of the origin of the universe corroborates the Sufi viewpoint. According to this theory, the universe came into being through a series of explosions. With each explosion a new chemical element was created. In Sufi terms, Allah’s light thus began taking shape in material form, and the interaction of Allah’s attributes produced variety and complexity. Waves, subatomic and atomic particles, molecules, cells, organisms, the development of all that exists began as energy and continues to exist as energy in various states of formation, from wave particles to the human being. For the Sufi, the universe has long been understood as a multilayered totality, light wrapped in sheaths of increasingly more dense matter.