Explanation to the Beautiful and Perfect Names of Allah by Shaykh Abu `Abdu-r-Rahman Nasir as-Sa`di (d.1376H)

Extracted from Taysir al-Karim al-Rahman

by Shaykh Abu `Abdu-r-Rahman Nasir as-Sa`di (1307- d1376H)

From the most noble and lofty stations of cognisance is to know the Lord, the

Glorious, through His beauty. This is the knowledge possessed by the elite of this

creation. All of them know Him through an Attribute from amongst His Attributes

but those amongst them who have the most complete cognisance are those who know

Him through His perfection, magnificence and beauty. There is nothing comparable

to Him in any of His Attributes, if you were to assume that the whole of creation was

in its most exquisite form, and you were to try and compare their collective outward

and inward beauty to the beauty of the Lord, the Glorious, the comparison would be

more ineffectual than a faint torch being held against the blazing disk of the sun.

This treatise has been extracted from the opening words of Shaykh Nasir as-Sa`di,

may Allah have mercy upon him, to his tafsir of the Qur’an, Taysir al-Karim al-

Rahman, in which he succinctly and beautifully explains those Names of Allah that

occur in the Qur’an. After each explanation the translator has added some verses of

the Qur’an showing the usage of the particular Name in question. It should also be

noted that the author, may Allah have mercy upon him, has only mentioned those

Names that occur in the Qur’an and these come to a total of eighty-nine in his view.

Additional Names mentioned in the Qur’an have been added from the work of ibn

`Uthaymin, Qawa’idu-l-Muthla fi Sifati-Allahi wa Asma’hi-l-Husna, bringing the total to one

hundred and three.

Before proceeding to the treatise some general principles with regards the Names of

Allah, the Mighty and Magnificent are presented