Does the 'Greatest Name' mean that some divine names are intrinsically greater?
2026-09-21
T73 · Ibn Taymiyyah
Shaykh al-Islām Ibn Taymiyyah
شيخ الإسلام أحمد بن تيمية
Selected explanation · Selected continuous excerpt — fully translated
A continuous paragraph stating Ibn Taymiyyah's own conclusion in his discussion of excellence among Allah's names and attributes. The source explicitly rejects the inference that what is less excellent must be defective. This is the whole selected paragraph, not the whole treatise.
النص العربي
المقتطف
وقول القائل: «صفات الله كلها فاضلة في غاية التمام والكمال ليس فيها نقص» كلام صحيح، لكن توهمه أنه إذا كان بعضها أفضل من بعض كان المفضول معيبا منقوصا خطأ منه؛ فإن النصوص تدل على أن بعض أسمائه أفضل من بعض، ولهذا يقال: دعا الله باسمه الأعظم.
English translation
English translation prepared for SalafAlSalih.com from the cited Arabic source. It is not an official translation.
Selected explanation
The statement, 'All of Allah's attributes are excellent, at the utmost of completeness and perfection, with no deficiency in them,' is correct. But the assumption that, if some are more excellent than others, the less excellent must be defective or deficient is mistaken. The revealed texts indicate that some of His names are more excellent than others. For this reason it is said: he called upon Allah by His greatest name.
Source and editorial notes
Majmūʿ al-Fatāwā 17/89–90
مجموع الفتاوى
Majmūʿ al-Fatāwā
Selected Arabic passage and attribution checked in the cited source; English translates the whole displayed passage. Arabic diacritics omitted for display.