How do we distinguish between the names of Allah and His attributes, and is the chapter on attributes broader?
Machine translationRead the Arabic original
Question:
Honorable Shaykh, may Allah grant you success, this questioner says: How can a Muslim distinguish between the names of Allah and His attributes? And is the chapter on attributes broader than the chapter on names?
Answer:
Every one of the names of Allah includes one of His attributes, so the attribute is a branch of the name. There are no names that are merely words; rather, they include the great attributes of Allah (Mighty and Majestic). Thus, Al-‘Alim (The All-Knowing) includes knowledge, Al-Hakim (The Wise) includes wisdom, Al-Sami‘ (The All-Hearing) includes hearing, and so on with the rest of the names and attributes of Allah (Glorified and Exalted is He). They are not merely synonymous words; every name derives from an attribute. Therefore, His names are good.
Honorable Shaykh, may Allah grant you success, this questioner says: How can a Muslim distinguish between the names of Allah and His attributes? And is the chapter on attributes broader than the chapter on names?
Answer:
Every one of the names of Allah includes one of His attributes, so the attribute is a branch of the name. There are no names that are merely words; rather, they include the great attributes of Allah (Mighty and Majestic). Thus, Al-‘Alim (The All-Knowing) includes knowledge, Al-Hakim (The Wise) includes wisdom, Al-Sami‘ (The All-Hearing) includes hearing, and so on with the rest of the names and attributes of Allah (Glorified and Exalted is He). They are not merely synonymous words; every name derives from an attribute. Therefore, His names are good.
Source
قناة «العلامة الدكتور صالح الفوزان»، 313- كيف نفرّق بين أسماء الله وصفاته، وهل باب الصفات أوسع؟ - صالح الفوزان — youtube.com
The Arabic text is a machine transcription of the audio recording.