EXPLANATION TO THE BEAUTIFUL AND PERFECT NAMES OF ALLAH

Extracted from Taysir al-Karim al-Rahmanby Shaykh Abu `Abdu-r-Rahman Nasir as-Sa`di (1307- d1376H)From the most noble and lofty stations of cognisance is to know the Lord, theGlorious, through His beauty. This is the knowledge possessed by the elite of thiscreation. All of them know Him through an Attribute from amongst His Attributesbut those amongst them who have the most complete cognizance are those who knowHim through His perfection, magnificence and beauty. There is nothing comparableto Him in any of His Attributes, if you were to assume that the whole of creation wasin its most exquisite form, and you were to try and compare their collective outwardand inward beauty to the beauty of the Lord, the Glorious, the comparison would bemore ineffectual than a faint torch being held against the blazing disk of the sun.This treatise has been extracted from the opening words of Shaykh Nasir as-Sa`di,may Allah have mercy upon him, to his tafsir of the Qur’an, Taysir al-Karim al-Rahman, in