In the Name of God the name of a thing is that by which it can be known. The Names of God exalted be He are the archetypal forms ṣuwar nawʿiyya whose specificities and ipseities hūwiyya indicate the attributes of God and His essence and which indicate by their very existence His countenance and by their individuation His oneness. For these are the outward manifestations through which He can be known; Allāh is a name for the divine essence qua essence absolutely without taking into consideration that it may be qualified by the attributes or indeed taking into consideration that it may not be so qualified; the Compassionate is the one who causes existence and perfection to flow upon all things in the measure that divine wisdom requires and to the capacity of the receiving entities qawābil from the outset of their creation; the Merciful al-Raḥīm is the one who bestows the spiritual perfection kamāl maʿnawī that has been earmarked for the human species in the end sc. in the Hereafter. It is for this reason that they say O You Who are the Compassionate One of this world and of the Hereafter yā raḥmān al-dunyā wa'l-ākhira but say O Merciful One of the Hereafter raḥīm al-ākhira the meaning then is in the perfect human all-encompassing form general and specific mercy which is the locus of manifestation of the divine essence and the greatest truth with the totality of attributes I commence and I recite. It Allāh is the Greatest Name of God. It is to this meaning that the Prophet's ṣlʿm alluded when he said 'I have been given the sum of all excellent speech sc. The QurÌān and have been sent to complete the noble character traits makārim al-akhlāq. For words constitute the realities ḥaqāÌiq of existents mawjūdāt and their concrete substances aʿyān just as Jesus peace be upon him was called a Word from God cf. 33945. The noble character traits are the perfections of these existents and represent their specifities constituting the sources of their the existents' actions in their entirety contained as they are in the comprehensive human microcosm kawn insānī. Herein lies a subtlety la?īfa namely that the prophets peace be upon them have made the letters of the alphabet analogous to the ranks of existents marātib al-mawjūdāt.
