Al-Ghazali on the Ninety-nine Beautiful Names of God Quotes

“ومن لم يفرق بين ما أحاله العقل وما لا يناله، فهو أخس من أن يخاطب، فليترك وجهله.”
― أبو حامد الغزالي, المقصد الأسنى في شرح أسماء الله الحسنى

“Similarly, whoever worships God-great and glorious-for the sake of paradise has made God-may He be praised and exalted-a means to seeking it rather than making Him the goal of his quest. The sign that something is a means is that no one seeks it if its benefit can be attained without it, so that if one's intentions could be achieved without gold, gold would neither be loved nor sought, for what is really loved is the benefit sought and not the gold. So if paradise were attainable to one worshipping God for its sake, without worshipping God-great and glorious, he would not worship God. Therefore, what he is seeking and what he loves is paradise, and nothing else. Whoever has no love but God-great and glorious-and seeks nothing except Him, and whose gain lies in delight at meeting God most high, being near to Him, and in accompanying the heavenly host who are close to His presence; he is the one who can be said to worship God-great and glorious-for the sake of God; not in the sense that he is not seeking gain, but in the sense that God-great and glorious-is Himself his gain, and there is no gain beyond Him.”
― أبو حامد الغزالي, Al-Ghazali on the Ninety-nine Beautiful Names of God

“Were it conceivable that a person see only the sun and its light spreading over the horizon, it would be right for him to say: I see only the sun, for the light radiating from it is part of the whole and not extrinsic to it. So everything in existence is a light from the lights of the eternal power, and a trace from its traces. And as the sun is the source of light radiating to every illuminated thing, so in a similar fashion the meaning which words fall short of expressing-though it was necessarily expressed as 'the eternal power'-is the source of existence radiating to every existing thing.”
― أبو حامد الغزالي, Al-Ghazali on the Ninety-nine Beautiful Names of God

“Every creature who is moved to attain and perceive Him will be cast back by the splendour of His majesty, nor is there anyone who cranes his neck to see Him whose glance is not turned aside in amazement.”
― أبو حامد الغزالي, Al-Ghazali on the Ninety-nine Beautiful Names of God

“If you were to show a piece of intelligible writing to a reasonable person and say to him: 'do you know its writer?' and he said 'no', he would be speaking truly. But if he said 'yes: its writer is a man living and powerful, hearing and seeing, sound of hand and knowledgeable in the practise of writing, and if I know all this from [the sample] how can I not know him?-he too would be speaking truly. Yet the saying of the one who said 'I do not know him' is more correct and true, for in reality he has not known him. Rather he only knows that intelligible writing requires a living writer, knowing, powerful, hearing, and seeing; yet he does not know the writer himself. Similarly, every creature knows only that this ordered and precisely disposed world requires an arranging, living, knowing, and powerful maker.”
― أبو حامد الغزالي, Al-Ghazali on the Ninety-nine Beautiful Names of God

“إعلم أن من لم يكن حظه من معاني أسماء الله تعالى إلا بأن يسمع لفظه، ويفهم في اللغة تفسيره ووصفه ويعتقد بالقلب وجود معناه في الله تعالى /فهو مبخوس الحظ/ نازل الدرجة، ليس يحسن به أن يتبجح بما ناله.
فإن سماع اللفظ لا يستدعي إلا سلامة حاسة السمع التي بها يدرك الأصوات وهذه رتبة يشارك البهيمة فيها.
وأما فهم وضعه في اللغة، فلا يستدعي إلا معرفته العربية وهذه رتبة يشارك فيها الأديب اللغوي، بل الغبي البدوي.
وأما اعتقاد ثبوت معناه لله تعالى من غير كشف، فلا يستدعي إلا فهم معاني هذه الألفاظ والتصديق بها. وهذه رتبة يشارك فيها العامي، بل الصبي...فإنه بعد فهم الكلام إذا ألقى إليه هذه المعاني تلقاها، ولقنها، واعتقدها بقلبه، وصمم عليها[...] ولكنه نقص ظاهر إلى ذروة الكمال؛ فإن حسنات الأبرار سيئات المقربين.”
― أبو حامد الغزالي, Al-Ghazali on the Ninety-nine Beautiful Names of God

“Yet whoever believes in something to which he has not attained believes in what he cannot see [al-ghayb], and that is the key to happiness.”
― أبو حامد الغزالي, Al-Ghazali on the Ninety-nine Beautiful Names of God

“Counsel: Man should yearn to reach a point where the locks to the divine mysteries are opened by his speech, and where he might facilitate by his knowledge what creatures find difficult in religious and worldly affairs, for him to gain a share in the name of opener.”
― أبو حامد الغزالي, Al-Ghazali on the Ninety-nine Beautiful Names of God

“The Infinitely Good is He who loves men, first by creating them; second, by guiding them to faith and to the means of salvation; third, by making them happy in the next world; and fourth, by granting them the contemplation of his noble face.”
― أبو حامد الغزالي, Al-Ghazali on the Ninety-nine Beautiful Names of God

“Counsel: The truth of the resurrection refers to bringing the dead to life by creating them once more. Ignorance is the greatest death and knowledge the noblest life. God-may He be praised and exalted-mentioned knowledge and ignorance in his Holy book, and called them life and death, Whoever lifts another out of ignorance to knowledge has already created him anew and revivified him to a blessed life. And should a man have a way of conveying knowledge to people and calling them to the Most High that would be a kind of revivification, and such would be the level of prophets and the scholars who are their heirs.”
― أبو حامد الغزالي, Al-Ghazali on the Ninety-nine Beautiful Names of God

“Now, concerning their opinion that the resurrection is not a second creation but is like the first coming-to-be, that is not sound, for the resurrection is another sort of creation [insha'] quite unrelated to the first. Indeed, there are many comings-to-be proper to man, and not simply two of them. And for that reason the most high said: That we may transfigure you and make you what you know not (LVI:61). And in the same way He said after creating the little lump, the clot, and the rest: then [We] produced it as another creation. So blessed be God, the Best of Creators! (XXIII:14) Indeed, sperm originates from the earth, the clot from sperm, the lump from the clot, [135] and the spirit from the lump. It was in response to the exalted origin of the spirit, to its glory, and to its being a divine thing, that He said: 'then [We] produced it as another creation. So blessed be God the best of creators!' (XXIII:14) And the most high said: They will ask thee concerning the Spirit. Say: the Spirit is by command of my Lord (XVII:85). So the creation of sensory perceptions after creating the spiritual foundation is another creation, while the creation of discernment which appears after seven years is yet another creation, and the creation of reason after fifteen years (or thereabouts) is a further creation. So each origination is a stage, so he created you by [diverse] stages (LXXI:14). Furthermore, the appearance of the characteristic of holiness [wilaya] in the ones endowed with with this quality is another creation, while the appearance of prophethood after that is yet another, indeed it is a kind of resurrection. So God-may He be praised and exalted-is the one who raises [ba ith] up the messengers, as He is the one who will raise us all up on the day of resurrection.”
― أبو حامد الغزالي, Al-Ghazali on the Ninety-nine Beautiful Names of God

“An example of the way he is benevolent towards His servants is His giving them more than they need and His demanding of them less than they are capable of. It also pertains to His being benevolent to facilitate their attaining the happiness of eternity with little effort in a short time, that is, a lifetime; for there is no way of comparing that with eternity. The production of pure milk out of digested food and blood, as well as the production of precious gems from hard stone, of honey from the bee, silk from the worm, and pearls from the oyster-are all part of His benevolence. But even more amazing than that is His creating from impure semen one who is a vessel for His knowledge, bears His trust and witnesses to His heavenly kingdoms-this too is impossible to reckon.

Counsel: A man's share in this attribute is gentleness with regard to the servants of God-great and glorious, and a predilection for them in petitioning God the most high; as well as guiding them to the happiness of the world to come in a manner free from rebuke or harshness, fanaticism or disputation. The best way of being benevolent open to man lies in attracting others to accept the truth by one's good qualities, pleasing comportment, and exemplary actions, for they are more effective and more benign than eloquent exhortation.”
― أبو حامد الغزالي, Al-Ghazali on the Ninety-nine Beautiful Names of God

“Counsel: It is hardly a secret that man has a share in the attribute of 'knower', yet man's knowledge is different from that of God the most high in three specific ways. First, regarding the multitude of things known: although the things man knows are wide-ranging, they are limited to his heart, and how could they correspond to what is infinite? Secondly, that man's disclosure, while clear, does not reach the goal beyond which no goal is possible; rather his seeing of things is like seeing them behind a thin veil. You should not deny degrees of disclosure, because inward vision is like outward sight, so there is a difference between what is clear at the time of departure and what becomes clear in morning light. Thirdly, that the knowledge which God-may He be praised and exalted-has of things is not derived from things but things are derived from it, while man's knowledge of things is contingent upon things and results from them.

Now if it is difficult for you to understand the difference, compare the knowledge of one who learns chess to the knowledge of the person who devised it. For the knowledge of the person who devised it is itself the cause of the existence of chess, while the fact that chess exists is the cause of the knowledge of one who learns it. The knowledge of the one who devised it precedes chess, while the knowledge of the learner follows upon it and comes afterwards. Similarly, the knowledge which God-great and glorious-has of things precedes them and causes them, while our knowledge is not like that.

Man's distinction is due to knowledge, inasmuch as it is one of the attributes of God-great and glorious; yet that knowledge is more distinguished whose objects are more distinguished, and the most distinguished object of knowledge is God the most high. Likewise, knowing God the most high is the most beneficial knowledge of all, while knowledge of the rest of things is only distinguished because it is knowledge of the actions of God-great and glorious, or knowledge of the way which brings man closer to God-great and glorious, or the thing which facilitates attaining to knowledge of God the most high and closeness to Him. All knowledge other than that cannot claim much distinction.”
― أبو حامد الغزالي, Al-Ghazali on the Ninety-nine Beautiful Names of God

“Counsel: The holiness of the servant lies in his freeing his knowledge and his will. He should free his knowledge from fanciful, tangible, and imagined things, and from all perceptions which he shares with animals. His continuing study and his ranging learning should rather be concerned with eternal divine things that are quite free from having to come closer to be perceived by the senses, or move farther away so as to be hidden from them. So he will become free himself from all tangible and imagined things, appropriating from the sciences what would remain were one deprived of sensory organs and imagination, and so be refreshed by forms of knowledge that are noble, universal, and divine, concerned with eternal and everlasting objects of knowledge and not with changeable and imaginable individuals.

As for his will, he should free it from revolving around human participations that stem from pleasure of desire or from anger, the enjoyment of food, sex, clothing, what can be touched or seen, or whatever pleasures come to him only by way of his senses and his body. In this way he will desire nothing but God-great and glorious; he well have no share except in God, no longing except to meet Him, no happiness except being near to Him. Even if paradise with all of its happiness were offered to him he would not turn his aspiration towards it, nor would the worlds [of heaven and earth] satisfy him, but only the Lord of these worlds.

In sum, sensory and imaginary perceptions are shared with animals, and one should rise above them in favour of what is properly human. Animals also vie with man in human sensuous pleasures, so one should free oneself from them. The aspirant is as exalted as the object to which he aspires, as one who is intent on what enters his stomach is as valuable as what comes out of it, but whoever is intent on nothing except God-great and glorious-finds the level commensurate with his intent. And whoever elevates his mind above the level of imagined and tangible things, and frees his will from the dictates of passion, will lodge in the abundance of the garden of holiness.”
― أبو حامد الغزالي, Al-Ghazali on the Ninety-nine Beautiful Names of God

“One of the 'knowers' [arifun] was right to respond to a prince who said to him: 'Ask me for what you need', by saying: 'Is that the way you speak to me when I have two servants who are your masters?' When he said: 'Who are these two?' the knower answered: 'Greed and desire: for I have conquered them yet they have conquered you; I rule over them while they rule you'. And one of them said to a certain shaykh: 'Advise me', and he said to him: 'Be a king in this world and you will be a king in the next'. When he said: 'How might I do that?' the shaykh answered: 'Renounce this world and you will be a king in the next'. He meant: detach your needs and your passions from this world, for kingship lies in being free and able to dispense with everything.”
― أبو حامد الغزالي, Al-Ghazali on the Ninety-nine Beautiful Names of God

“For a king among people is one whom no-one rules but God the most high, and who does not need anything except God-great and glorious. And with that he rules his kingdom insofar as his soldiers and his subjects obey him. Yet the kingdom proper to him is his own heart and soul, where his soldiers are his appetites, his anger, and his affections; while his subjects are his tongue, his eyes, his hands, and the rest of his organs. If he rules them and they do not rule him, and if they obey him and he does not obey them, he will attain the level of a king in this world. And if that be coupled with the fact that he is independent of all people, yet all people are in need of him for their life now and in the future, he will be an earthly king.

This is the level of the prophets-may God's blessings be upon all of them. For they have no need of direction to the next life from anyone except God-great and glorious-while everyone needs it from them. They are followed in this kingship by religious scholars, who 'inherit the legacy of the prophets', Their kingship, however, is proportional to their ability to guide the people, and to their lack of need for asking for guidance.

By means of these attributes man comes close to the angels in qualities, and by means of them approaches God the most high. This kingship is a gift to man from the true king whose sovereignty has no competitor.”
― أبو حامد الغزالي, Al-Ghazali on the Ninety-nine Beautiful Names of God

“Counsel: Man's share in the name al-Rahman lies in his showing mercy to the negligent, dissuading them from the path of negligence towards God-great and glorious-by exhortation and counselling, by way of gentleness not violence, regarding the disobedient with eyes of mercy and not contempt; letting every insubordination perpetrated in the world be as his own misfortune, so sparing no effort to eliminate it to the extent that he can-all out of mercy to the disobedient lest they be exposed to God's wrath and so deserve to be removed from proximity to Him.

His share in the name al-Rahim lies in not turning away from any needy persons without meeting their needs to the extent of his ability, nor turning from any poor in his neighborhood or town without committing himself to them and ridding them of their poverty-either from his own wealth or reputation, or by interceding on their behalf with another. And if he be unable to do all that, he should assist them by prayer or by showing grief on account of their need, in sympathy and love towards them, as though he were thereby sharing in their misfortune and their need.”
― أبو حامد الغزالي, Al-Ghazali on the Ninety-nine Beautiful Names of God

“Implications. Mercy is not without a painful empathy which affects the merciful, and moves him to satisfy the needs of the one receiving mercy. Yet the Lord-praise be to Him most high-transcends that, so you may think that this diminishes the meaning of mercy. But you should know that this is a perfection and does not diminish the meaning of mercy. It is not diminished inasmuch as the perfection of mercy depends on the perfection of its fruits. So long as the needs of those in need are perfectly fulfilled, the one who receives mercy has no need of suffering or distress in the merciful one; rather the suffering of the merciful only stems from a weakness and defect in himself. Moreover, this weakness adds nothing to the goal of those in need once their needs have been perfectly fulfilled. So far as God's mercy perfectly fulfilling the meaning of mercy is concerned, we should recall that one who is merciful out of empathy and suffering comes close to intending to alleviate his own suffering and sensitivity by his actions, thereby looking after himself and seeking his own goals, and that would take away from the perfection of the meaning of mercy. Rather, the perfection of mercy consists in looking after the one receiving mercy for the sake of the one receiving mercy, and not for the sake of being relieved from one's own suffering and sensitivity.”
― أبو حامد الغزالي, Al-Ghazali on the Ninety-nine Beautiful Names of God

“Perfect mercy is pouring out benefaction to those in need, and directing it to them, for their care; and inclusive mercy is when it embraces deserving and undeserving alike. The mercy of God-great and glorious-is both perfect and inclusive [tamma wa-amma]: perfect inasmuch as it wants to fulfil the needs of those in need and does meet them; and inclusive inasmuch as it embraces both deserving and undeserving, encompassing this world and the next, and includes the bare necessities and needs, and special gifts over and above them. So He is utterly and truly merciful.”
― أبو حامد الغزالي, Al-Ghazali on the Ninety-nine Beautiful Names of God

“Let us pull back the reins of discourse right here, for we have plunged into the depth of a shoreless sea, and secrets like these ought not be abused by putting them down in books; and since this was not intended but has happened by accident, let us refrain from it, and return to explaining in detail the meanings of the beautiful names of God.”
― أبو حامد الغزالي, Al-Ghazali on the Ninety-nine Beautiful Names of God

“If you say: what is the ultimate point of knowledge attained by the 'knowers' of God the most high? We would say: the ultimate knowledge of the 'knowers' lies in their inability to know, in their realizing in fact that they do not know Him and that it is utterly impossible for them to know Him; indeed, that it is impossible for anyone except God to know God with an authentic knowledge comprehending the true nature of the divine attributes. If that is disclosed to them by proof, as we have mentioned, they will know it-that is, they will have attained the utmost to which creatures can possibly attain in knowing Him.”
― أبو حامد الغزالي, Al-Ghazali on the Ninety-nine Beautiful Names of God

“If you say: what is the way to knowing Him? I would say: were a small boy or an impotent person to say to us: what is the way to know the pleasure of sexual intercourse, and to perceive its essential reality? we would say: there are two ways here: one of them is for us to describe it to you, so that you can know it; the other is to wait patiently until you experience the natural instinct of passion in yourself, and then for you to engage in intercourse so that you experience the pleasure of intercourse yourself, and so come to know it. This second way is the authentic way, leading to the reality of knowledge.”
― أبو حامد الغزالي, Al-Ghazali on the Ninety-nine Beautiful Names of God

“So far as man is concerned, his level is midway between the other two, as though he were composed of bestial and angelic natures. At the beginning of his life, his bestial nature predominates, since the only perception he has at first is through the senses, perception which requires that he seek proximity to the thing sensed through pursuit and movement. Eventually the light of reason dawns upon him, which disposes itself through the realms of heaven and earth, with no need for bodily motion nor for seeking proximity or contact with what it perceives. Rather, its objects of perception are exempt from proximity or distance in space. Similarly, passion and anger hold sway over him at first, and desires arise in accordance with what they dictate, until the desire to seek perfection appears in him, and he considers consequences and begins to resist the demands of passion and anger. If he conquers passion and anger to the point of controlling them, and they become too weak to move him or pacify him, he then attains a likeness to the angels. Likewise, if he weans himself from the inflexibility of things imagined and perceptible through the senses, and accustoms himself to perceiving things too exalted to be attained by sense or imagination, he will achieve another likeness to the angels. For the specific properties of living things are perception and activity, and both of them are susceptible to deficiency, moderate status, or perfection. The more one emulates the angels in these specific properties, the more is one removed from one's bestial nature and comes close to the angelic. For the angels are close to God-great and glorious-and whoever is close to the one who is close is himself close.”
― أبو حامد الغزالي, Al-Ghazali on the Ninety-nine Beautiful Names of God

“The third share follows upon the effort to acquire whatever is possible of those attributes, to imitate them and be adorned with their good qualities, for in this way man becomes 'lordly'-that is, close to the Lord most high, and so becomes a companion to the heavenly host [al-mala' al-a'la] of angels, for they are on the carpet of proximity [to God]. Indeed, whoever aims at a likeness to their qualities will attain something of their closeness to the extent that he acquires some of their attributes which bring them closer to the Truth most high.”
― أبو حامد الغزالي, Al-Ghazali on the Ninety-nine Beautiful Names of God

“A second way of sharing in these meanings belongs to those who so highly esteem what is disclosed to them of the attributes of majesty that their high regard releases a longing to possess this attribute in every way possible to them, so that they may grow closer to the Truth-in quality not in place; and with the possession of such characteristics they become similar to the angels, who have been brought near to God-great and glorious. Moreover, it is inconceivable that a heart be filled with high regard for such an attribute and be illuminated by it without a longing for this attribute following upon it, as well as a passionate love for that perfection and majesty, intent upon being adorned with that attribute in its totality-inasmuch as that is possible to one who so esteems it. And if not in its totality, the esteem for this attribute will necessarily provoke in him the longing for as much of it as he can assimilate.

No-one will lack this longing except for one of two reasons: either from inadequate knowledge and certainty that the attribute in question is one of the attributes of majesty and perfection, or from the fact that one's heart is filled with another longing and absorbed by it. For when a disciple observes the perfection of his master in knowledge, longing will be triggered in him to be like him and to follow his example-unless he be filled with hunger, for example, so that the preoccupation of his innards for food could prevent the longing for knowledge from arising in him. So it is necessary for the one who would contemplate the attributes of God most high to have emptied his heart of desiring anything except God- great and glorious. For knowledge is the seed of longing, but only to the extent that it encounters a heart freed from the thorns of the passions, for unless the heart be empty the seed will not bear fruit.”
― أبو حامد الغزالي, Al-Ghazali on the Ninety-nine Beautiful Names of God

“We have already shown that things have three degrees of existence. The first is in individuals, and this existence is qualified by eternity with regard to whatever applies to the essence and the attributes of God-great and glorious. The second degree is in minds, and this is created since minds are created, while the third is in speech and comprises names. This degree is also created in the creation of speech. Indeed, we intend 'the knowledges' by the thing established in minds, and when related to the essence of God-great and glorious-these are eternal, because God-great and glorious-is existent and knowing in eternity, and knows Himself to be existent and knowing. And His existence was affirmed in Himself and also in His knowledge. And the names which He will inspire in His servants and which He creates in their minds and their speech were also known by Him. From this interpretation, it becomes possible to say: there are names in eternity.”
― أبو حامد الغزالي, Al-Ghazali on the Ninety-nine Beautiful Names of God

“فقوله :"الاسم قد يكون ذات المسمى" فيه خللان، ويحتاج فيه إلى إصلاحين : أحدهما : أن يبدل الاسم بمفهوم الاسم. والآخر : أن يبدل الذات بماهية الذات؛ فيقال مفهوم الاسم قد يكون حقيقة الذات و ماهيتها، وقد يكون غير الحقيقة.”
― أبو حامد الغزالي, Al-Ghazali on the Ninety-nine Beautiful Names of God