Commentary on Surah Al-A'raf, Session 220
I seek refuge with God from the accursed Satan.
In the name of God, the Most Gracious, the Most Merciful.
(180) And to Allah belong the best names, so invoke Him by them. And leave those who deviate in [the matter of] His names. They will be recompensed for what they used to do. (181) And among those We created is a community which guides by truth and thereby establishes justice.
The Quran, it came for teaching names. That was its main work. The divine names. And prayers, they are the same. A man could learn a piece of the knowledge of names from them. A good piece.
The second thing. Some traditions, they say God has ninety-nine names. But these traditions, they disagree. Some count ninety-nine and some of those are in the Quran but not in other traditions. And some, they count up to one hundred and ten. So, the traditions that say ninety-nine, they do not mean to limit it. That is clear.
The third thing. In the Du'a Jawshan Kabeer, a thousand names for God are mentioned. These are good names, the best names. So the ninety-nine, they have a special place. Maybe they are the root for these thousand names. For under each of those, there are ten more names. The general ones, perhaps ninety-nine or one hundred.
Then, these names. From the Quran and the prayers, it is clear they are external realities. Not just words. Not just ideas. They are real. Perhaps the realities we see. Or perhaps higher realities, and what we see are just their manifestations. "He is the Truth." Words, they are names, yes. But word-names. Meanings, they are names too, but conceptual. They do no work. They have their own reward, yes. But to make a man answered in prayer, or to heal sickness, or bring other effects? No. Not from words.
External realities. Each is a name. A mark. A sign of God. They are His verses. Every verse, a name. And God's determined existence, that which is a name, it appears in these external realities. These are the manifestations of His beautiful names. That is the fourth stage. They are the true names. The others, they are just manifestations.
When it said, "To Allah belong the best names," it spoke of those external realities. In Du'a Kumayl, it says, "And by Your names that have filled the pillars of all things." I swear to You by those names that fill everything. In the daily prayer of Rajab, it said, "By them You filled Your heavens and Your earth until 'There is no god but You' became manifest." And in the prayer that begins, "O Allah, I ask You by the meanings of all that Your trustworthy guardians of Your secret invoke You by."
So, Kumayl says, "By Your names that have filled the pillars of all things." And the daily Rajab prayer explains this. Two deep points. First, the real names that fill the world are the Wilayah of the Household (peace be upon them). "By them You filled Your heavens and Your earth." Second, they are names because every name shows the named. Every verse shows the one it refers to. Nothing shows oneness better than them. So, it said, "By them You filled Your heavens and your earth until 'There is no god but You' became manifest." In Tawhid, they appeared.
The best name to show the named is the Household. When a man sees them, he knows God's knowledge. He sees their power, how Ali "did not pull out the gate of Khaybar with bodily strength." He knows their justice. They are the manifestation of God's justice. He sees their perfect attributes. They are the verses of God's perfection. All they have, it comes from God. If a man sees them, he sees knowledge and power. He sees modesty and justice and humility. He sees sacrifice and goodness. And all of it from God. God gave it to them. So they are the great verses of God.
Amir al-Mu'minin said, "There is no greater sign of Allah than me." Nothing shows God better than him. We want to know the essence of God. That God exists. We see Ali, we know God exists. For he is created. He has a creator. We want to know God is knowing. We see Ali's knowledge, we know God is knowing. For He had knowledge and gave it to him. All perfections in the Household, each is a great verse. It shows clearly that God possesses that attribute. He said, "There is no greater sign of Allah than me."
So, if Du'a Kumayl says, "By Your names that have filled the pillars of all things," and the Rajab prayer says, "By them You filled Your heavens and Your earth," it means the good names that fill the world are this universal guardianship, the vicegerency of God.
And that prayer, it is fine and delicate. It stops all exaggeration. It says they are His slaves. His servants. Through them, we came to know oneness. They showed Him so much that wherever you look, you know it is only Him. "Until 'There is no god but You' became manifest." For they have a poor essence. A poor knowledge. A poor power. He who said, "Ask me before you lose me," he had poor knowledge. So he shows a rich one. He who said, "I know the paths of heaven better than the paths of the earth," then he said, "It is enough glory for me that You are my Lord, and enough honor that I am Your servant." He is showing God.
If we see good generosity, good justice, and that justice was poor, that poor justice shows the rich justice. If we see good forgiveness, and that forgiveness was poor, then it shows Your rich, independent forgiveness. All these are signs of Your attributes. So through them, oneness became manifest. "By them You filled Your heavens and Your earth until 'There is no god but You' became manifest." No oneness is better than this. This prayer, it combines the perfection of the Household's guardianship and their being subject to God.
So names are external realities. Saying them as words, yes, that has reward. Like prayer. Like other acts of worship. In the measure of verbal worship, it has verbal reward. Understanding their meanings, that is another discussion. It has conceptual reward, but little. If a man wants to do something, he must become a manifestation. A manifestation of a name of God. Then he can do something. For the name, it fills the whole world. From here, we come to the matter of the Greatest Name.
So the name is an external reality. And this external reality has external effects. But when the Imams said, "We are the best names," it does not mean we are the best names and others are our manifestations. No. We are the best names, and others are the best names too. But we are the best names who are manifestations of the Greatest Name and the general names. Others are manifestations of the particular names. For example, in the Du'a Jawshan Kabeer, there are a thousand names. Each ten are under a comprehensive name. And all nine hundred and ninety-nine are under one Greatest Name. Others are manifestations of the particular divine names. We are manifestations of the general divine names. So they gain this manifestation through us. But not that we are the best names and others are our manifestations. External beings are manifestations of particular names. They are manifestations of general names. Of course, their students can be their manifestations. But every external being in the world, rocks and walls, can they be manifestations of the Household? No. They do not have that capacity.
Question: ...
Answer: Now, in the matter of Noah (peace be upon him), there was no talk of companionship. He did something in the name of God. To do something in the name of God is different from God being in companionship with a man. Perhaps in the discussion of the Greatest Name, that will become clear.
Question: ...
Answer: Yes. And their servitude appears through their Lordship. Meaning, because they are servants, they must also have the perfections of that connection to the Lord. In the matter of the Greatest Name, there are many traditions that say the Greatest Name has seventy-three letters. And God kept one letter for Himself. The rest He divided among the prophets (peace be upon them). To some more, to some less.
Because, for example, a student of Solomon (peace be upon him) had some of the Greatest Name, some of its letters. He said, "I will bring it to you before your glance returns to you." He did that traversing of the earth. He brought the throne eighty parasangs or more from Yemen to Palestine. These things are in the traditions about the Greatest Name. And there are many of them. These show that the Greatest Name is not a word. For if it were a word, then it is one. And if it has seventy-three letters, and you divide the letters, what effect would that have? Or how could it be meaningful? If a name is made of four letters, and you cut it to pieces, the letters lose their meaning. So if the Greatest Name has seventy-three letters, how could it be cut and lose its meaning? It shows that it is not about words or concepts. It is an external reality.
This internal evidence, that the traditions themselves show that the Greatest Name is not of the nature of words or concepts, is clear. But there is also rational evidence, a continuous intrinsic argument that goes with these traditions. For it is very clear. If it were complicated, they would say it is a discontinuous intrinsic argument. But when it is clear, it is continuous. That continuous intrinsic argument and witness is this: the world is governed by the system of cause and effect.
The illuminated statement of Amir al-Mu'minin in Nahj al-Balaghah, sometimes recited, said: "Every existing thing is in need of another." Meaning, every being whose existence is not its essence is caused. It needs a cause. This same statement, Saduq (may God be pleased with him) narrated in his book Tawhid from Imam Reza (peace be upon him). As Sayyid Radhi (may God be pleased with him) narrated from Amir al-Mu'minin, and Saduq from Imam Reza, the system is a causal system.
So, if the system is cause and effect, the cause must be stronger than the effect. It must exist externally. How can a word remove a sickness that has external existence? Sickness is an external existence. How can a mental concept, which itself has no external existence and is at its weakest, make a dried tree green? If the system is causal, as it is, the cause must exist externally, first. Be stronger than the effect, second. To affect it, third.
Based on this intrinsic witness, and based on the internal witness in the tradition itself, these two witnesses testify that the Greatest Name is not a word, or a letter, or a concept. The Greatest Name is a station. If a man reaches that station and says "Ya Allah," it has an effect. If it is not the finger of Prophet Solomon (peace and blessings be upon him), what power has a design or engraving? It is not that a man can do Solomon's work with a design. So the Greatest Name is a station. And this station has degrees. It has seventy-three manifestations. Seventy-three degrees, and higher. Its comprehensive form is with the Household. Others have less of it.
If it is about Noah's ark or other miraculous deeds, the traditions say these were also through the Household. The perfect man is always present, always manifest, by God's permission. Mufid (may God be pleased with him) narrated in his book Amali that in the world of pre-existence, where the covenant was taken, the first to commit to God's Lordship after the Prophet was Amir al-Mu'minin. Then the other prophets. If it speaks of their luminosity, their luminous station, then it makes sense to say the complete stage of the Greatest Name is with them. Others have the middle stage. Therefore, the Greatest Name is not a word.
So you see here it says, "To Allah belong the best names, so invoke Him by them." But in another part, it says, "Say: 'Invoke Allah or invoke the Most Gracious.'" Not "invoke by Allah" or "invoke by the Most Gracious." Here it says, "To Allah belong the best names, so invoke Him by them." It means they are intermediaries. Where it says, "Say: 'Invoke Allah or invoke the Most Gracious,'" you call Allah. If you are Arab, you say Allah. If you are Persian, you say Khoda. If you are Jewish, you say Yahweh. You call Allah. Not the letters Alif, Lam, Shad. "Say: 'Invoke Allah or invoke the Most Gracious.'" The verse in question is "To Allah belong the best names, so invoke Him by them." You call Allah with these beautiful names. But in this verse, it said, "No, call Allah or call the Most Gracious." Now, by whatever word you wish to call. When it said, "Say: 'Invoke Allah or invoke the Most Gracious,'" if a man was Persian and said Khoda, did he call Allah or not? He called Allah. Yes.
Question: ...
Answer: Words are one thing. Meaning is another. The important thing is faith and belief. That has great effect. Sometimes, if a man is sincere, and his faith is high, he gets results faster. If not, perhaps not. It depends on faith. Faith is an external reality. Faith is not a mental concept. Its place is the soul. That is the station of the believer. They even said, "The heart of the believer is the throne of the Most Gracious." Now, if a non-believer calls, how is it? This is not like penicillin, where believer and unbeliever are equal. Will an unbeliever get an effect? A wicked person? A non-believer who does not believe these words? He is a Muslim, but does not believe these words. He says, "Well, you said it, so I call." That has no effect. It is faith. Faith is an external reality. Its place is the soul. Faith is not a mental existence. A concept is a mental thing, but knowledge is an external existence. Mental existence is mental existence. Between knowledge and mental existence, there are thousands of miles. That is why in books of transcendent philosophy, they discuss mental existence in one place and knowledge in another. Because knowledge is an external existence, but its place is the soul. Mental existence is mental in its existence and has no effect. What is knowledge? What is mental existence? That is the work of transcendent philosophy. That is why discussions have one stage for mental existence and another for knowledge. For example, piety is an external reality, but its place is the soul. Justice is not a mental existence; it is an external existence, but its place is the soul. But that mental existence which has no effect, its place is the mind. Faith has an external existence, but its place is the soul. This faith is a jewel. It is a belief. And this belief has an effect. Sometimes a man calls as a test. Sometimes a man calls out of belief. The one who gets results is the believer, not the tester.
Question: ...
Answer: Yes. So the word is ineffective. "Many a reciter of the Quran, and the Quran curses him." And the Imam (peace be upon him) said, "Woe to him who rolls it between his jaws and does not reflect upon it." Woe to him who says "There is no god but Allah" between his jaws and does not reflect on its meaning. Sometimes, remembrances are against the rememberer. The remembrance is for God, but the rememberer is heedless. If he said, "Woe to him who rolls it between his jaws and does not reflect upon it," that is it. If "Many a reciter of the Quran, and the Quran curses him," well, he is reciting the Quran. How is he cursed? It means mere words are not enough. Concepts are not enough. Belief, faith. They have external existence. Someone who is truly a believer is turning to God. Turning to the source of power.
Question: ...
Answer: Related to what?
Question: ...
Answer: Yes. Those things, like the properties other beings have, they are also external realities for them. But these are part of the general. Sometimes truth, sometimes falsehood. Sometimes sin, sometimes obedience. But the measure of miracles, which are in the path of guardianship, are nothing but truth and righteousness. They are school knowledge. Sometimes it comes out false, sometimes true. Sometimes there is a wicked person, sometimes a believer. But this matter of answered prayer only comes from the sanctity of the soul, which is an external reality.
Question: ...
Answer: No, the word, as a word, is conventional. Now you see these words, for example, the word "ain" (eye), we give it great respect because it has seventy meanings. And we say so-and-so wrote a qasida with seventy verses, and each verse ends with "ain," and each "ain" has its own meaning. These seventy meanings are in seventy verses. Two steps further, and you see the word "ain," meaning ain, ya, nun, is meaningless to them. It has no meaning at all. What is seventy meanings to us, and very dear and respected, is meaningless to speakers of other languages. And vice versa. The system does not change with this convention. Literature is convention. Language and usage are convention. What is used by us is meaningless to others. A part of it must return to creation, to reality, so that reality can have an effect.
Question: ...
Answer: Why? Because you should call Allah, not by Allah.
Question: ...
Answer: Yes, "so invoke Him by them" is not there. They were saying...
Question: ...
Answer: No, here it says, and it also says, "Call Allah by the beautiful names." There it says, "Call Allah or the Most Gracious."
Question: ...
Answer: Yes, call them themselves. The point is, you call Allah directly. You don't call by Allah. Why? Because...
Question: ...
Answer: No, this "Him" refers to "which," which was the point before. The polytheists were saying, "Finally, you forbid us from polytheism, and you yourselves act polytheistically. Sometimes in your supplications you say Allah, sometimes you say Al-Rahman. This has become dualistic, two gods." Then the verse came down, "No, whether we say Allah or Al-Rahman, say: 'Invoke Allah or invoke the Most Gracious. Whichever you invoke.'" Whichever you call, "for Him" means for "which of the beautiful names." If you say Allah, everything is there. If you say Al-Rahman, everything is there. Because these are perfect stations, comprehensive. Or, in other words, the Greatest Name. They fully possess those great names and their sub-categories. Not that "for Him" means for that essence which possesses the beautiful names. These, because they are the Greatest Name, possess the other names. "Whichever you invoke, for Him" means for "which," not for "the one being invoked."
Well, whether you call Allah or Al-Rahman, this Allah possesses the beautiful names. But you are calling Allah. The one who cannot speak, according to the tradition we read yesterday, just turns from side to side and says "Ah." Imam Sadiq said "Ah" is a name of God. Because from this broken-hearted patient, if you ask whom do you want, he says God. He doesn't speak. He who doesn't speak, is calling God. The one who speaks is by primary predication a rememberer and by secondary predication heedless. If "Many a reciter of the Quran, and the Quran curses him," then many a rememberer, and the remembrance curses him. But the one who does not speak, he is calling God. The main thing is the supplication and inner inclination of a man. Otherwise, what effect do words have?
Question: ...
Answer: "So invoke Him by them" is extra, added recently.
All praise belongs to God, the Lord of the worlds.
References:
[1] - Mafatih al-Jinan, Du'a Kumayl.
[2] - Mafatih al-Jinan, Du'a of the days of Rajab.
[3] - Bihar al-Anwar, Vol. 40, p. 318.
[4] - Bihar al-Anwar, Vol. 23, p. 203.
[5] - Mafatih al-Jinan, Du'a Kumayl.
[6] - Wasai'l al-Shi'ah, Vol. 25, p. 128.
[7] - Bihar al-Anwar, Vol. 74, p. 402.
[8] - Mafatih al-Jinan, Du'a of the days of Rajab.
[9] - Bihar al-Anwar, Vol. 25, p. 4.
[10] - Surah An-Naml, Verse 40.
[11] - Nahj al-Balaghah, Sermon 186.
[12] - Surah Al-A'raf, Verse 180.
[13] - Surah Al-Isra, Verse 110.
[14] - Bihar al-Anwar, Vol. 55, p. 39.
[15] - Bihar al-Anwar, Vol. 89, p. 184.
[16] - Majma' al-Bahrain, Vol. 4, p. 154.
[17] - Surah Al-Isra, Verse 110.
[18] - Bihar al-Anwar, Vol. 89, p. 184.
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