Calling on God with the MOST BEAUTIFUL NAMES is a requirement as per our
Quran. 7:180
Not long ago, we read for a gentleman from San Francisco who expressed
his opinion as; "Obviously and very simply, these MOST BEAUTIFUL names are
the ones that God called Himself in the Quran. How could it be any simpler,
or more truthful?, he continued to say." In doing so he was echoing an idea
that was introduced by the editor of the Journal of Submission without much
thought about it.
A simple analysis of that opinion can easily be done as follows;
FIRST: If calling upon God can ONLY be done by using the names
mentioned in the Quran only, then we must conclude that before the revelation
of the Quran (1400 years ago) it was not possible for believers to call upon
God by any names !!
SECOND: It is expected that someone may claim that the specific
command to magnify or extol God is a Quranic command and must be executed
using Quranic words and names from the Quran. That is wrong. The command
to magnify God has appeared in the older scripture dating back to the Torah
and before. One of the Prayer books that appeared at the time of Jacob or
before show that the reader in the morning service takes the scroll of the
Law and says:
"Magnify the Lord with me, and let us exalt His name together"
The command of God to the people of Israel to magnify His name is obviously
pre-Quranic.
The Jews had no Quran to extract God’s names from, however they were
still obeying God and magnifying His name without having to wait for the
names that would appear in the Quran centuries later.!
THIRD: Verse 7:180 commands us to call God by the beautiful names.
It DOES NOT say that these beautiful names are ONLY in the Quran. To insist
on that is but a corruption of the meaning of the verse, as this would add
the word ONLY to 7:180. To add or subtract one word to the meaning of any
Quranic verse is a corruption.
A well known example of the corruption of the meaning of the Quran by
adding one words, is what we witnessed in 39:45 in the Sunni’s
interpretation. They added the word (gods) to make it (other gods) instead
if using the word others by itself as per the original Quran.
The attempt to add the word (ONLY) to 7:180 is very similar to the example
given above. It corrupts the meaning of the verse and the message of the
Quran. It is a man-made innovation .
Surely if God wants to indicate that ONLY the beautiful names of the Quran
are the ones to be used, He would have specifically said so.
FOURTH: The Student of the Quran will be able to witness the difference
between the commandment in 87:1 and 56:74 on one hand and the commandment in 74:3, 17:111, 2:185 and 22:37 on the other.
Command #1
"Glorify the name of your LORD, THE MOST HIGH" 87:1
"You shall glorify the name of your Lord, THE GREAT" 56:74
Command #2
"Extol (magnify) your Lord"
In command one, God commands us to use SPECIFIC NAMES (The Most High
and the Great).
However, in command two, NO SPECIFIC name is indicated. For anyone to
claim that he/she got the correct name and everyone else is wrong or committing
idol-worship is only a reflection of his/her misunderstanding of the Quran
and the message.
In brief, the order in the Quran to magnify or extol God is older than
the revelation of the Quran itself. Those who want to limit the words that
praise the Almighty to the words of any one scripture or one word of their
choice, have not grasped the spirit of the Quran or Islam (Submission) and
failed to understand God’s plan which may be summarized in God’s
call on all the Human and Jinns to worship him ALONE.
To God belongs all the beautiful names in all languages, all scriptures
and at all the time.
God be praised
Ashraf Salmawy.
info@submission.org
