The Attributes and the Great Name of God

The Quran tells us: “God has the most excellent names.” (7:180). This has been mentioned at three other places in the scriptures. “His are the finest names” (17:110). “His are the most excellent names” (20:8). “His are the most excellent names” (59:24). Here, “names” have the extended meaning of attributes, that is, all the best attributes inhere specifically in God.

How many divine attributes are there? We learn from a hadith that they number 99. Some scholars say there is a greater number, i.e., about one thousand (Tafsir Ibn Kathir, vol. 2, p. 269). But the issue of number here is relative to the limitations of the human vocabulary. The words in human language are finite, while the being of God is infinite. God’s attributes are, therefore, in reality unlimited. The ninety nine best names are, as it were, a major sampling of God’s infinity of attributes.