Bible and Qur’an 99 Divine Names: Past and Future |
Rabbi Abraham ben Samuel Abulafia, founder of the school of “Prophetic Kabbalah”, was born in Zaragoza, in Aragon Spain, in 1240. In his book Sefer Mafeah HaShemot, Abulafia states that “all 3 (Abrahamic) religions will know the supreme Name; as (Prophet Zefaniah 3:9) said, ‘For then I will turn to the (3 Abrahamic) people, a pure language that they may all call upon the (same) Name of the Lord.’ which might be Hagar’s new name for the One God.
In the days of Abraham, the religions of the Near East and India had hundreds of different gods, with hundreds of names for their different gods, but for those religions that trace their prophets back to Prophet Abraham, and his two sons Prophets Ishmael and Isaac, the many names of God simply describe different appellations, aspects and attributes of the one God’s multifaceted personality.
But just one of these One God’s ‘names’ is a very special, unique, personal name for each of the three Abrahamic religions; all the other ‘names’ are appellations or titles that refer to one of One God’s many attributes (creator, ruler, redeemer etc.) or God’s character traits (merciful, just, forgiving etc.). Muslims know that the Qur’an states: “To Allah belong the best names, so invoke Him by them” (7:180)
Thus to say that God is a King, a Judge, or a Savior describes one of many ways God acts and relates. To say that God is a Creator, a Lover or the Compassionate One is to describe one of many character or personality traits of the one and only God.
Ibn Al-Qayyim writes: The attribute of generosity is an attribute of God who gives and does not take, feeds and is not fed. The most beloved creatures to Allah are those who take on his characteristics. Indeed, Allah is noble and loves nobility from his servants, he is knowledgeable and loves the scholars, he is powerful and loves courage, and he is beautiful and loves beauty. (al-Wābil al-Ṣayyib 1/34)
Thus only one of the many appellations of the One universal creator of space and time are special to Christianity, Islam and Judaism as its Divine personal name that is always in the believer’s heart and soul.
In English the word God is not the name of the one and only God. It is the generic term for any and every deity, similar to the West Semitic root word EL as it is found in Sumerian and Akkadian, Ellil-Enlil, in Hittite and Hurrian as Ellel, in Hebrew El-Elohim in Arabic as Al-Ilahi, the God or Allat, a pre Islamic Goddess, one of three daughters of Al-Ilah worshiped in Palmyra as Allat and referred to by Herodotus as Alilat, and worshiped as Allatu by North African Carthaginians.
This name Jesus for Christians, Allah for Muslims and YHVH for Jews, differs from all the other names that are just philosophical terms for various universal aspects or roles of God. This Divine name has a very intimate special meaning for each of the three religious communities of believers that is lacking in all the other names.
This personal name is connected to the covenant the One God YHVH made with Moses (Exodus 3:13-15) with Jesus (Matthew 3:16-17), and with Muhammad (Qur’an 33:7)
Yet, because all the many names of God, call upon the same One God, it is not surprising that some of the 99 beautiful names of God in Muslim tradition, also appear in Jewish tradition, which sometimes refers to the 70 names of God (Midrash Shir HaShirim and Midrash Otiot Rabbi Akiba).
Although in every generation there have been many individuals who worshipped the One God, who was indeed the God of all humans; yet for more than 40 generations only one group of people maintained an ongoing monotheistic community.
This is why all the Biblical prophets connect the generic name of God Elohim to the only religious community in Biblical days who worshipped the One God: Elohei Yisrael- the God of Israel, or Elohei-God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. So Ezra, the most narrowly focused of prophets, uses both Elah Yisrael-God of Israel (Ezra 5:1) and Elah Sh’maya V’Arah- God of Heaven and Earth (Ezra 5:11).
Christians personalized the name of God by connecting it with the name of a very special person, whose message and passion inspired them to transform their lives. The Qur’an, true to its universalizing perspective uses the........