wa-bi-asmāʾikallatī malaʾat arkāna kulli shayʾ
[I beseech you] by your names, which pervade the bases of all things.
When Janāb-e Amīr says “your names,” he’s not talking about words comprising letters of the alphabet. He’s talking about the realities to which these names refer. It’s the reality of mercy, grace, knowledge, justice, and power that pervades all things.
In the supplication known as Duʿāʾ al-Simāt, we say:
I beseech you, God, by your great name, the greatest, the mightiest, the most sublime, and the noblest. The name which, were you to be called by it to open the locked gates of heaven, they would open mercifully. And were you to be called by it to open closed doors on earth, they would open wide. And were you to be called by it to relieve hardships, they would become easy. And were you to be called by it to raise the dead, they would rise. And were you to be called by it to remove that which distresses us and [any] adversity, it would be removed.
And Imam al-Ṣādiq is reported to have said:
God the blessed and sublime created the names with letters that cannot be spelled, words that cannot be spoken, a form that cannot be embodied, a likeness that cannot be described, and hue that has no color. [They] had no location or limit, [and they were] imperceptible to the senses, veiled but not concealed.
Then he made [the names] into a well-formed [set of] words in four parts altogether, such that no one was before the other. Thereafter he made three names manifest due to creatures' need for them and he concealed one, which is the secret, hidden name. These three names [are the ones that] manifest [in the cosmos] and the one who manifests them is God the blessed and sublime. God, may he be exalted, placed four supports in service of each of these names, making twelve supports. For each [of these twelve] supports, he created thirty names [to indicate] an action associated with those names.
Thus he is the most beneficent, the most merciful, the king, the most holy, the creator, the maker, the fashioner, the living, the sustainer whom neither sleep nor drowsiness overtakes, the all-knowing, the one who is aware of all things, he who hears all, he who sees all, the most wise, the mightiest, he who compels, he who is rightfully proud, the most high, the most grand, he who has the power to decree, the fully capable, the one who confers well-being, the one who provides sanctuary, the guardian, the maker, the one who initiates, the one who originates, the most lofty, the most glorious, the most noble, the one who provides, the giver of life, the destroyer, the one who raises the dead, and the one who inherits all.
These names and the other beautiful names (amounting to 360 names in all) are all associated with those three [original] names. Those three names are cornerstones and they conceal the one secret, hidden name. That is the meaning of “Say: Call on God or the Lord of Mercy—whatever names you call him, the best names belong to him” (Q 17:110).
Based on this hadith, other hadith like it, and well-known supplications, we know that some names are created whereas others are ʿayniyya. The latter means that, after creating the universe and bringing things into being, God, in his infinite wisdom, made some things from others, he chose to make certain things affect others, and he created a system of causes and effects—that is how he made the world.
There are reliable narrations in which the Imams say “We are the beautiful names [of God]” or “The Imam is the great name [of God].” One narration in Mashāriq anwār al-yaqīn states:
Imam Ali was walking along and a man from Khaybar was walking with him. They came to a flooded valley and the man from Khaybar used his cloak to cross the valley. Then Ali called out, “If you only knew what I know, you would do as I do. Stand up.” Then he signaled to the water, it became solid, and he walked over it. When the man from Khaybar saw that, he threw himself at Ali’s feet and said, “What did you say to turn the water into stone?” Ali said, “What did you say to cross over the water?” He said, “I called on God by his great name.” So Ali said, “[And] what is it?” He said, “I asked God by the name of Muhammad’s executor (waṣī). So Ali said, “I am Muhammad’s executor.” The man from Khaybar said, “It is the truth,” and he accepted Islam.
In another narration in Mashāriq anwār al-yaqīn, ʿAmmār ibn Yāsir says:
One day I came to my master [Ali] and he noticed that I was distressed. He said, “What’s wrong?” I said, “I’m in debt and the creditor has demanded payment from me.” He pointed to a discarded stone and said, “Take this and use it to pay your debt.” I said, “[But] it’s [just] a stone.” He said, “Ask God through me (ʿudullāha bī) to transform it into gold.
ʿAmmār said he prayed to God in the name of Ali and the stone turned into gold. Ali said, “Take what you need.” ʿAmmār said, “How do I melt it?” So Ali said, “Oh you who have so little faith, ask God through me to melt it for it was through my name that God softened steel for David.” So ʿAmmār prayed to God in the name of Ali and it melted. He took what he needed and Ali said, “Pray to God in my name so that the rest turns into stone again.”
The Shia believe that the Prophet and his House are the most sublime of God’s creation, which includes God’s great name. In his commentary on the Quran, ʿAllāma Ṭabāṭabāʾī says, “The Prophets and their executors are names that refer to God and they are intermediaries between God and his creation. Since their worship of God is completely uncontaminated by anything else, they manifest God’s names and his attributes.”
There are several reasons why the Shia believe the Prophet and his House are the great name of God or even better than it, including:
First, if someone were to invoke God by his great name, his prayer would be answered. We have been taught to begin our supplications by mentioning the House of the Prophet for if someone were to pray to God in their name, his supplication would be answered. This suggests they are God’s great name.
Second, the great name is one of God’s beautiful names, and since the House of the Prophet are God’s beautiful names, they must be the great name too.
Third, the great name is closer to God than any of his other names, and, of course, it too is God’s creation. There is nothing closer to God than Muhammad and his family.
Fourth, the great name is created and the most sublime of God’s creation is Muhammad and his family so Muhammad and his family are more sublime than the great name.
And fifth, the great name is one of the intermediaries between God and his creation. The best of these intermediaries and conduits is Muhammad and his House. Thus they are superior to the great name.
Additionally, one of the supplications of the month of Ramadan says that the Prophet is “the closest veil” and “the closest creature.” There are two reasons for that:
First, all contingent things are either luminous veils or dark veils. The luminous veils are closer than the dark veils. Furthermore, there are degrees of luminous veils and the closest of them is God’s throne. Then comes the veils that are veiled by the throne: all contingent luminous beings including Gabriel. The ascending order of luminous beings culminates in the closest veil, which is Muhammad, who is believed to have said “The first thing God created is my light” and “Ali and I were created from one light.”
Second, in the Asfār, Mullā Ṣadrā discusses a principle known as qāʿidat imkān al-ashraf, which means the procession of being flows from the most sublime to the most vile, and therefore the existence of that which is vile presumes the existence of that which is sublime. Furthermore, Mulla Ṣadrā says, God’s essence is the most complete and fully actualized being such that it is totally uncontaminated by non-existence and deficiency. So whatever issues forth from God first must be the most sublime of beings… This sanctified being, which is the intermediary between God and the world, is the conduit for all that is good.
Finally, one narration cited in al-Wāfī states that Ali is “touched” by the essence of God, not in some corporeal way, but rather in the same sense that is mentioned in the narration “The light of Ali is from/part of the light of God.”
The reader should note that ulema do not consider Mashāriq anwār al-yaqīn a reliable source of hadith. In this case, I did not add anything to al-Qaṭīfī’s commentary other than a few suggestions for further reading.
فَمَن شَآءَ فَلْيُؤْمِن وَمَن شَآءَ فَلْيَكْفُرْ