Allah
Great and Almighty
This majestic vocal name, Allah, is mentioned in the Holy Qur’an two thousand, six hundred and ninety-seven different places. It is the Supreme Name.
Allah brings the dead to life and shows you His signs. (2:73)
Believers are those who, when God is mentioned, feel a tremor in their hearts. (8:2)
Allah chooses for His mercy whom He wills. And Allah is the owner of Great Bounty. (2:105)
When Jesus became conscious of their disbelief, he cried, “Who will be my helpers in the work of God?” The disciples said, “We will be God’s helpers.” (3:52)
They stand still, and if Allah willed, He could have taken away their faculty of hearing and seeing. Certainly Allah hath power over all things. (2:20)
They think to deceive Allah and those who believe. (2:9)
Those who convey the message of Allah and fear Him, and fear none save Allah. And sufficient is Allah as a Reckoner. (33:39)
All the praises and thanks be to Allah, the Lord of the ‘alamin (mankind, jinn, and all that exists). (1:2)
Eat and drink of that which Allah has provided. (2:60)
The Greatest Name The Name of the Essence of God Bound by the Qualities of Unity and Oneness
The name Allah is the name of the Creator and Sustainer of all the worlds and the heavens. No plural can be derived from it and it has, according to the best authorities, no root and no derivation. The word connotes all attributes of perfection and beauty in their infinitude and denotes none but the One and Unique God, the Supreme, Perfect, and Most Gracious.
The title Allah is the essential name of God. All other titles are considered as attributes of the Divine Being. Then the attributes are called the excellent names. The Holy Qur’an says, “All the most beautiful names belong to Allah, so call on Him by them.” (7:180)
This is the Majestic, Supreme name that is singular to Him, the Truth, most exalted is He. He gave this name to Himself alone, and made it His First Name, and made it completely for Him. This is the name that leads to His essence, glory be to Him; and so we are obligated to unify Him, and worship Him exclusively, and to turn to Him in times of ease and in times of hardship.
There is only one name. This is the real name, the greatest name with the essence of all the secrets. For that reason, you can say Allah ir-Raham, Allah al-Latif, etc. He has ninety-nine qualities, but only one name, a very special name. All the qualities begin and end in Allah. When you look inside any quality, you will find Him. This is He. In the divine breath from the name Allah are all the qualities, and knowledge of the meaning of the qualities leads to Him, the Supreme name, Allah. This is distinguished from everything and also from His attribute Al-llah which means there is no god, but the God and He is One God.
Allah Allah Allah
From: The Meanings of the Names of Our Lord by Shaykh Muhammad Sa’id al-Jamal ar-Rifa’i Head of the Higher Sufi Council in Jerusalem and the Holy Land Teacher at the Dome of the Rock (al-Aqsa)
Allah
Allah is al-ism al-a’zam, the Greatest Name, which contains all the divine and beautiful attributes and is the sign of the Essence and the cause of all existence.
Allah, the cause of all existence, does not resemble in any way any of His creation. Allah is Allah’s name only. Nothing else can in any way assume this name nor share it. As it said in the Qur’an Do you know anyone worthy of the same name as He? (Surah Maryam 65)
The name Allah contains five meanings, qualities that indicate the non-resemblance of Allah to anything else. They are:
Qidam: He is before the before. He did not become: He always was.
Baqa’: He is after the after, eternal. He always will be.
Wahdaniyyah: He is unique, without partner, without resemblance, the cause of all. All is in need of Him, all has become by the order “Be!” and had died in His order.
Mukhalafatun lil-hawadith: He is the Creator, bearing no resemblance to the created.
Qiyam bi-nafsihi: He is self-existent, without any needs.
Allah is perfection. The extent of this perfection is infinite. The Greatest Name, Allah, contains eight essentials indicating the perfection of Allah:
Hayah: Allah is ever-living, eternal in the past and eternal in the future, uninterrupted. He is independent of everything except His own eternal knowledge of being alive. This life independent of anything like flesh and bones or anything material is pure and unlike any other living being.
‘Ilm: Allah is all-knowing of all things, visible and invisible, at all times. He knows “the black ant on a black stone in the darkest of nights;” the vibrations that make an atom; what is in the depths of your heart; and the thoughts of which even you are not aware. He knows the secrets of secrets. He knows every existing thing before it is even created, and He knows it after it is gone.
Sam ‘Basar: Allah is all-hearing and all-seeing. He sees that which is visible and invisible, hears that which is audible and inaudible. Neither does distance prevent Him from hearing, nor does darkness prevent Him from seeing. He does not hear with ears, nor see with eyes. He hears and sees with His eternal Essence and pre-existence all sounds, words, forms, colors, air, wind, motion, silence, thoughts, and memories….
Iradhah: All will is His. Allah decides a thing to be this way and not another, and no one is able to change it. All things that exist do so because He willed them to exist. Everything will be when He decides it to be, and is the way He wishes it to be, and will be gone when He wishes to erase it at the end of its appointed time.
Qudrah: All power is His. There is nothing that Allah cannot do. His power is only conditional upon one thing: His will. The whole of eighteen thousand universes and what is beyond are in His hand of power. His power does not depend on any other means. He is the One who does everything and cannot be asked when, how, or why!
Takwin: All existence and actions depend upon Him. He is the only creator. The whole, the parts, the essence and attributes of everything are created by Him in the most beautiful, perfect and just manner. Men, jinn, the worlds and the heavens; devils, beasts, plants, rocks, and jewels; all that can be perceived, felt, and imagined all are created from nothing. Only He existed before anything existed. Then He created the creation, not because He needed it, but to manifest His love, His will, His wisdom, His power, and His compassion.
Kalam: The word, all that is said and heard, is His. Allah’s commands, ordinances, and judgments that apply to all His creation are in His words, and these are contained in the last divine book, the Holy Qur’an, which includes all the other holy books. The Qur’an is His final word, whose meaning is infinite and forever. Allah’s word is soundless, does not depend on the movement of the tongue and the lips, nor on sound waves, or molecules hitting each other. It does not need ears to be heard, nor does it have letters needing eyes to read.
The servant of Allah can relate to the divine name, Allah, which encompasses all names, is devoid of all faulty attributes, and contains all attributes of perfection by pursuing the wish he may find in himself to become a perfect human being. In the attempt, he will try to eliminate what is faulty in himself, and try to increase what is good in himself.
‘Abdullah is a servant who has received the highest level and honor it is possible to attain in this creation, because the Creator has manifested in him with the secrets of all His attributes. Therefore Allah Most High has called His beloved Prophet by this name. In Surah Jinn (19) Allah identifies His beloved, saying:
… the servant of Allah stood up praying to Him.
In reality, this name belongs only to Hadrat Muhammad (saws) and to the qutbs, the individuals of highest spiritual stature in any given time. These are the true inheritors of His divine wisdom. Since the Name Allah is the Greatest Name, the name of the Essence of God, it is bound by the qualities of the Unity and Oneness of Allah. Therefore, even if a servant has lost his proper identity in unison with Allah, his being called ‘Abdullah is only metaphorical.
From: The Name & the Named by Shaykh Tosun Bayrak al-Jerrahi al-Halveti