Allah’s Name I begin, the Beneficent, the Merciful

THE NOBLE NAMES OF THE PROPHET [ Sallal Laahu Alayhi Wa Sallam ]

A seventeenth-century Suhrawardi mystic of Ucch (Pakistan) composed a work called Jawahir al-auliya (Jewels of the Saints), that contains an interesting chapter on the virtues and blessing powers of Muhammad’s ninety-nine names. The author recounts various traditions connected with their use. The Great saint Shaykh Abdul Qadir Gilani is reported to have said that a person who recites them once every day and every night will be preserved from all kinds of affliction, and his faith will always remain undisturbed.

According to the author’s ancestor, Makhdum Jahaniyan of Ucch, the recitation of these names after the dawn prayer will cause all sins, great and small, open and secret, to be forgiven, and Sultan Sayyid Mahmud Nasiruddin Bukhari is reported to have said that whoever recites them seven times after the noon prayer will never be harassed by birds or beasts. Another Sufi ascribed to their elevenfold recitation after the evening prayer an increase in knowledge, mildness, and gnosis.

But the greatest reward, for someone who recites Muhammad’s ninety-nine names twelve times after the night prayer, was revealed to Makhdum Jahaniyan by the Prophet himself during that Sufi’s visit to Medina: Muhammad promised that he would definitely bring that person to Paradise, and would not enter it without him.

Many modern printed copies of the Qu’ran enumerate the ninety-nine Divine Names at the beginning and list the ninety-nine names of the Prophet on the final two pages. An annotated list Appendix is on the next page.