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Introduction

It is no surprise that a simple name given to an individual or entity won’t attract much criticism or analysis, but a complicated one would. That is the nature of things. The more attributes attached to an individual or entity may give rise to more analyses and comparisons of those attributes. In Islam, its divine entity Allah has ninety-nine names, each carrying an attribute possessed by Him. So, those varied attributes of Allah calls for comparison and analysis for consistency. In this article, I will show that such attributes pose difficult problems for Muslim believers on the theological level. I will also show that Allah’s name in Islam has at least a hundred names and not just ninety nine.

 

List of Allah’s names

Allah's 99 names

 

Analysis of some of Allah’s attributes

Here are some of the associated problems with such a complicated concept:

 

Allah’s 100th name

Allah has only 99 names according to traditional Islam. In fact, this is false. Muslims need to be aware that Allah has at least 100 names. The Qur’an also gives Allah the attribute of the “Best Deceiver” (Kheir-ul-Makireen), which is not included in those 99 names:

allah-deceiver-verse

The verse came down showing that Christians lied about Jesus being crucified when he was not. The word “Makir”, in Arabic, speaks about a trickery person who tries to deceive innocent people. It is an evil verse indeed that gives to the Islamic deity a characteristic that is assigned, in our human morality, to bad people like liars and thieves. How can Allah be the best of deceivers when He is The Noble, and The Truth? Muslims have huge conceptual dilemma here with regard to the concept of Allah as a logically consistent concept.

 

Conclusive Summary

There are multiplicity of issues – sometimes contradictions, sometimes very problematic – that arise from the attributes Islam has imparted to “Allah” by His 99 names. I mentioned some of them here, which is far from exhaustive. Muslims will have to show us that the concept of “Allah” makes sense, if any at all.