All praise is due to Allah Almighty, and may Allah’s peace and blessings be upon His Prophet Muhammad.
I here present this second edition to my dear readers after the first edition, with its 6000 copies has been sold out over a short period of time, praise be to Allah. After the content of the book has been revised and subjected to some additions and omissions, hopefully the book will be more adequate for its readers, tackles the topic at hand, and achieves its desired objective.
I intend to spread useful knowledge in pursuit of reward from my Lord, hence, I permit printing of the book with conditions:
There should be no omission or addition; and it should be printed in a fine manner that befits its content. Moreover, correspondence should take place via the mobile number 00966564570117 or the e-mail [email protected]
so as to make sure the book has not experienced any modification or addition. Indeed, no book whatsoever is perfect save the Book of the Almighty Lord.
I would also like to give thanks to Dar Ibn Al-Jawzi and Al-Mutanabbi Bookshop for their past efforts. I ask Allah Almighty for guidance, success, and acceptance,
and all praise is due to Allah, Lord of the worlds.
Author
All praise is due to Allah, and may Allah’s peace and blessings be upon Prophet Muhammad, his family, and Companions.
One of the best means of increasing faith is to know Allah Almighty through His names, attributes, and actions. Each name of Allah is like a door through which we can approach Him. {And to Allah belong the best names, so invoke Him by them...} [Surat al-A‘rāf: 180]. If that is the case, then how about those who memorize them all! The Prophet (may Allah’s peace and blessings be upon him) is authentically reported to have said: “Verily, Allah has ninety-nine names, one-hundred minus one. Whoever memorizes them all will enter Paradise.” [Narrated by Al-Bukhāri and Muslim]
I used to implore Allah Almighty to grant me the honor of memorizing them. In 1430 AH, I began to recite them in a brief form. Thereupon, I perceived the eagerness of the listeners to know the names and attributes of Allah Almighty.
How could any believer not be eager to know them while his love for Allah and longing to meet Him grows upon knowing each name?!
How could a believer not long to know the names and attributes of his Lord when he knows that they are the lifeline for those who are distressed, wronged, sick, imprisoned, confused, or in debt?!
How could a believer not long to know the names and attributes of his Lord when he knows that they are the keys to relief, happiness, and opulence?! Indeed, those who know them well will always be in happiness.
Hence, I implored Allah Almighty to enable me to write down a book that will be a legacy for me and a spring from which good things are taken. So, I embarked upon my endeavor, adopting the approach of compiling and phrasing only, as I know that I am not a good author and my skills in this area are modest.
I compiled all what I laid my eyes on and recorded everything I felt comfortable about, hoping that I made the right choices, in which I was keen to stick to the beliefs of the righteous predecessors with regard to the names and attributes of Allah.
Then, I put it in beautiful and eloquent phrases, taking into consideration the different levels and types of learners and learned people and keeping away from the purely academic style.
I only cited Sahīh (authentic) and Hasan (sound) Hadīths and did not explore traditions and biographies.
My intent is to make the reading easy and interesting and let the reader get the message through the easiest and shortest way.
I hope my book will bring happiness, relieve distress, comfort hearts, boost faith, increase knowledge, fill hearts with faith, and feed minds with knowledge.
All grace and praise are due to Allah Almighty alone, then the credit goes to the virtuous scholars from whom I collected these good fruits. Whatever I did right belongs to Allah and to Him I give thanks for it; and whatever I did wrong is from myself and from the devil. I intended nothing but good, and I ask for Allah’s forgiveness and repent to Him.
Finally, I am humbled to offer you the product of my modest efforts and skills, praising Allah Almighty for helping me accomplish it and imploring Him to accept it. I hereby declare to Allah Almighty that I love and trust Him.
I implore Allah Almighty to give abundant rewards to me, to those from whom I collected the material, and to those who took part in revising, correcting, arranging, copying, and printing this book or shared with their advice or opinion.
I also ask Allah Almighty to render the content of this book right and to accept it as purely done for His sake; and I implore Him to make it a means for winning His love and drawing closer to Him and to forgive me, my parents, my teachers, my family, and all Muslims; indeed, He is All-Hearing, Responsive.
Yours,
‘Abdullah ibn Mushabbib al-Qahtāni
Mobile phone (for WhatsApp correspondence):
966564570117