The Holy Quran: “His are the Most Beautiful Names!”

Written and collected by Zia H Shah MD, Chief Editor of the Muslim Times

The title of this article is part of the last verse of Surah Hashr ( لَهُ الْأَسْمَاءُ الْحُسْنَىٰ ) of the holy Quran. It means that Allah is the Highest Good that we as humans can imagine in any quality. He is the Most Beautiful, Al Nur, the Most Truthful, Al Haq, the Most Just, Al Aadil, the Most Gracious, Al Rehman and the Most Merciful, Al Raheem. He is free of all errors and limitations and is not dependent on any thing, Al Samad, All Knowing, Al Khabeer, All Powerful, Al Qadir and the Creator of every known thing, Al Khaliq, Al Baree and Al Musawir. This is how the Muslims understand the God of Abraham, Ishmael, Isaac, Jacob, Yusuf, Moses, Jesus and Muhammad, may peace be on all of them.

The official Christian belief about Jesus is that he is a perfect man and fully Divine. The Muslims easily argue with them based on the above and other verses of the Quran that how could he be God, when he had all the human weaknesses of dependence on food, call of nature, weakness, tiredness and need for sleep, to name a few. Any Muslim understands this easily but the two billion Christians have a hard time grabbing this simple logic because of their indoctrination.

It would seem from what I wrote that the Muslims have better appreciation of the attributes of Allah.

But, not so fast.

We are equally vulnerable in areas of our weaknesses. The Muslim masses are easily fooled by their leaders at times that God will help even when they are being less than fully just, for one reason or the other. But, how is that possible, as He is the Perfect Being, the Just, Al Aadil, who according to the Quran, does not even cheat any one, even the worth of the cleavage of a date seed.

Likewise, the Muslims easily fall for the half truths and yet believe that they haven’t offended God of Islam. How could it be when Allah is the Perfect Truth, Al Haq?

Many continue to believe and espouse contradictory ideas to the naïve and uninitiated and yet hope for God’s exclusive favor. How could it be when God claims that He is All Knowing, Al Khabeer, and therefore free of contradiction?

Sometimes Muslim sects try to monopolize Allah for themselves. But how could it be when the very first Surah, Surah Fatihah states that He is the Provider and the Sustainer of all the worlds?

Last but not the least, many continue to espouse unscientific ideas and have the audacity to attribute those to the Quran as well, not realizing that He is the Creator of every known thing, Al Khaliq, Al Baree and Al Musawir. The universe is His work and the Quran is His word. The two cannot contradict each other because, “His are the Most Beautiful Names!” He cannot contradict Himself as He is the Most Honest, the Most Truthful and All Knowing.

Genuine science can never be opposed to true understanding of the Quran!