Bismillah! Al Hamdulillah!
Wa Salatu Wa Salamu A’la Rasulillah!
:|: Learn Deen On-the-GO :|:
What did Allah want us to do by His names?
You have heard it many times from many scholars.
“The best knowledge comes from the study of the ‘Names of Allah’, ‘Asma Ul Husna’
Then, what’s the knowledge in those names?
How would you get that knowledge?
By memorising them?
By contemplating those names?
By studying those names?
Living by those names?
You hear all those acts and purposes of learning those names.
But where do you start from?
Most importantly, what did Allah Subhanahu Himself say about His names?
What He wanted and instructed us to do by His names?
It is specifically instructing us to, “Make Dua, call Allah by those names!”
“And to Allah belong the best names, so invoke Him by them.” (Al Quran Al-Hakeem 7:180)
How do you call Allah by His Names?
Did you ever come to know how you call Allah by those names?
Did you find any books or any scholarly work about that?
You won’t.
I don’t understand this. I can’t figure this out.
How come Allah Subhanahu has a clear instruction to “Call Allah by those names,” but sadly, you won’t find any guidelines about that in our thousand years of time in thousands of Ulema’s greatest works? At least I failed in my search. (If any of you find that, please let me know and I will ask Allah to reward you abundantly, InShaa Allah)
There are hundreds of books written about the Names of Allah. Numerous lectures you can get about it. But what those commonly lacking is a comprehensive guideline as to how to call Allah by using these names, except only a few names such as ‘Ya Haiyyu, Ya Qaiyyumu’, ‘Al-Ahadu Samad’, etc, from authentic Dua in Hadiths.
The unauthentic/Bida’h practices
But there are two groups. I found a few comprehensive works on how to use those names, but to my utter surprise, they lack any references to their work to any authentic original sources.
Such works are,
(1) They will prescribe you, making Tasbeah by Allah’s names a thousand times, even there is a prescription to make Tasbeah 125,000 times, SubhanAllah!
But where did they get this prescription from?
Allah knows!
Who has the RIGHT to prescribe an act of worship?
Who has the AUTHORITY to prescribe how to worship Allah, Ajja Wa Jalla?
Only Allah, the ONLY ILAHA, through His Rasul Muhammad Salla Allahu Aalaihi wa sallam.
Any other prescription is just an innovation and thus be rejected.
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(2) Reciting some specific Allah’s names for some specific physical cure.
I don’t find this as an ebadah but rather a scientific use of Allah’s words.
Allahu Akbar! Mind-blowing! But I won’t dare to do it, nor would I prescribe anyone to do it.
I fear Allah and fear His punishment.
I restrict myself only to the prescription from authentic sources from Rasulullah Salla Allahu Alaihi sallam. Allah Subhanahu wa Ta’ala clearly instructed us to leave any deviation about His names.
“And leave [the company of] those who practice deviation concerning His names. They will be recompensed for what they have been doing.”(Al Quran Al-Hakeem 7:180)
But they have no authentic references nor any links to indicate these were used by Rasulullah salla Allahu Alaihi sallam or Sahaba. So, you can simply discard them as Bidah, innovation into the deen.
Anybody could fall into Bida’
(3) Then I was shocked by one of the most knowledgeable scholars who practised something about Allah’s Names some number of times, which he mentioned were dreamt by most righteous scholars of the past, and he gave the logic that the sahaba made Dua which later became even a part of the Salah, such as “Rabbana Lakal Hamdu Hamdan Katheeran Taiyyeban (when you stand after Ruku’a in the Salah) and also another Dua made by a Sahabi calling Allah’s names of Al-Ahad As-Samad. (Tirmidhi 3475) and of course, Adhan was dreamt by many Sahaba, etc.
But the point is, Rasulullah Sallallahu Alaihi wa sallam heard it and he was there to approve it. After Rasulullah Salla Allahu Alaihi wa sallam has passed away, who is there to approve something which He didn’t teach?
Most alarmingly, when He, Sallallahu Alaihi wa Sallam said,
“I didn’t leave anything to inform you that will bring you one step closer to Jannah, nor did I leave anything to inform you that will take you further one step away from Jahannam”
(Sunan Ibn Majah (No. 5)
(Musnad Ahmad (No. 16519)
(Al-Mu’jam Al-Awsat (No. 7844)
(Al-Bayhaqi’s Shu’ab al-Iman (No. 164)
(Disclaimer: All references derived from internet, please check for yourself for correct references)
This Hadith stops anything new in the Deen. You don’t need to do any other worship except what is prescribed by Rasulullah.
The book is finished writing and printed out. End of story.
Any new things, even from a most righteous Ulema’s dream, are simply Bida’a. Period.
My Approach to Bida’h
My approach is, why do I have to go for an optional Ebadah that has a doubt of innovation in it while there are hundreds of Ebadah from the authentic narrations yet left to do? Doesn’t make sense to me!
But then, you are in the same situation again. You want to call your Rabb using those names, but you need a guideline that can be safely referred to anything that is void of innovation. I don’t know, I am looking for guidance about that.
The First Step
So, while we will look for that guidance, there are steps that we can do to equip us with whatever we have for now.
The first question is, Do you know all those names and attributes of Allah?
I mean, do you have a minimum knowledge about what they mean?
I am not asking whether you memorised it and whether you know just the translated literal meaning of it.
I am asking whether you have got a brief knowledge about those names?
For sure, you know many names, and surely you also don’t know many names.
If you don’t, then that’s the first step you can take towards understanding and calling Allah by those names in Shaa Allah.
My failed experience
So, how do you do it? Here is the method.
But before I tell you the method, let me tell you a personal account.
I tried many lectures and reading books to learn those names.
The thing is, you start with a lot of enthusiasm, but after 4/5/10 sitting, you get distracted. I don’t know about you, but it happened to me in several attempts; I failed. I couldn’t finish all of them once in the last 4 years. SubhanAllah, finally, this easy method gave me what I was looking for.
And you can try it. En Shaa Allah!
The Method of Study
There are digital posters (images) of Allah’s Names.
Please download those from here.
Store the files in a folder in your data file.
(1) Set the folder as your desktop Screen.
\’Personalise\’ your desktop
Set those to appear SERIALLY, one poster (one name) every day.
So whenever you start the PC, the poster will appear on the screen.
(2) Then, also set the folder as SLIDESHOW in the Background.
Make the posters appear as slideshows when your PC turns into idle mode.
So, you now have multiple interactions with Allah\’s Names En Shaa Allah.
HOLD yourself for ONE minute before you jump into your work.
Just spend ONE minute only.
Read the meaning described.
Read it 2/3 times.
Even if you already know the meaning of these names, STILL read it. Read it AGAIN.
Then move on to whatever you intended the PC for.
So, do it EVERY TIME you start the PC, even if you start the PC in the morning once, or in the evening once. Thus, within the Day, you are repeating the same name.
SubhanAllah! You will see that in 3 months\’ time, you will have a rough idea about ALL the names of Allah. Then after three months, you set the repetition of appearing the poster (names) on the PC screen to ‘whenever you start the PC’.
Now, if you start PC twice a day, you will read two names a day.
You will refresh and get a better understanding.
Leave it for another 3 months. You will see what happens. InShaaAllah.
How do you express your Love?
By the way, I didn’t discuss anything about the importance of knowing Allah’s names!
I took you as someone who already has the common knowledge as to why you need to learn it.
If I have to put it simply, that is to establish your connection with your Rabb, Allah!
And how do we do it?
Here is that equation, the simple math:
We need Allah’s guidance to go to Jannah. (Saheeh Muslim 6466/2577/6572)
Allah guides those who are Muttaqeen. (Quran Sura Baqarah 2:2)
Muttaqeen are those who FEAR Allah the most.
And then, the ones who fear Allah most are the ones who have knowledge. (Sura AL-Fatir 35:28)
And the best knowledge comes from learning Allah’s names and attributes.
And why do we want to learn Allah’s names and attributes?
Simply, the more you know someone, the more you develop your love and passion for him, isn’t it?.
SubhanAllah, when you love your child, how many ways do you call him/her? What can I say!
Merely your intention of knowing Allah’s name would be enough for Allah to turn to you and make it easy for you En Shaa Allah because He wants you to call Him by those names! Because He is Al-Khabeer, He knows your heart! SubhanAllah!
And He, Al-Aleem, knows best.
May Allah make it easy for us to learn Deen and get closer to Allah Ta’ala.
Ameen.