The 99 Names of Allah, also known as The 99 Most Beautiful Names of God , are the names of God which Muslims believe are revealed in the Qur'an and Sunnah. There is, according to hadith, a special group of 99 names but no enumeration of them. Thus the exact list is not agreed upon, and the names of God (as adjectives, word constructs, or otherwise) exceed 99 in the Qur'an and Sunnah. In one Islamic tradition, the Islamic prophet Muhammad used to call God by all His Names:
"O God, I invoke You with all of Your Beautiful Names."
Muhammad is also reported to have said in a famous hadith:
Verily, there are ninety-nine names of God, one hundred minus one. He who enumerates [and believes in them and the one God behind] them would get into Paradise.
Of note is that this hadith does not say that there are only 99 names, but 99 names that are better than the others. This caused people to search them out in the Qur'an and Sunnah, and a list was compiled. Over time it became custom to recite the list in its entirety. While some Muslims believe that this list is mentioned by Muhammad himself, the specialist Muslim scholars argue strongly that the list was just compiled by a Muslim scholar as an addendum to the actual hadith (al-Waleed ibn Muslim). If it was only an attempt of a scholar, they are not necessarily the names proper, and other attempts may still be made. A recent scholar, Dr. Mahmoud Abdel-Razek, made an attempt of this kind and explained in detail why he differs in opinion with al-Waleed about enlisting some of the names.
However, reciting the traditional names has developed into a ritual by some Muslims (a bit like a Catholic litany of Saints) as an attempt to enumerate them, while most other Muslims believe that the "enumeration" is not just the act of recitation, but applying the attributes that the names suggest.
ESMA-ÜL HÜSNA
Allah'ın adları (okunuşları El Esmâ ül Hüsnâ, Al Asmaa al husna, Asma al Husna), Allah'ı anmak için kullanılan isimlere verilen genel addır. Allah, İslâm dinindeki ilâh için kullanılan ana isimdir ve bu ismin Allah'ın tüm sıfatlarını beraberinde bulundurduğuna inanılır.
Allah'ın isimlerinin genel olarak kaynağı Kur'an'dır ve Kur'an'da Allah'ın isimlerine ve O'nun anılışına dâir çeşitli âyetler bulunmaktadır (İsrâ sûresi 110. âyet gibi). Âraf Sûresi 180. âyet şöyledir:
"Wa Lillahi Al-'Asma'u Al-Husná Fad`uhu Biha Wa Dharu Al-Ladhina Yulhiduna Fi 'Asma'ihi Sayujzawna Ma Kanu Ya`maluna"
"En güzel isimler Allah'ındır. O'na o güzel isimleriyle duâ edin. Ve O'nun isimleri hakkında gerçeği çarpıtanları bırakın, onlar yaptıklarının cezâsına çarptırılacaklardır."
Allah'ın, Kur'an'da ayrıca 20 kadar da sıfatı vardır. Ayrıca bunlara ek olarak bu adların ve sıfatların türevleri de vardır.
