The 99 Names of God — Asmāʾ al-Ḥusnā, “the Most Beautiful Names” — are how the Qur'an teaches us to know and call upon our Lord. Each Name is a window onto who God is: the Most Merciful, the All-Knowing, the Sovereign, the Source of Peace.
The Qur'an invites us directly: “To Allah belong the best names, so call upon Him by them” (Qur'an 7:180). And the Prophet ﷺ said, in a hadith recorded by al-Bukhārī and Muslim, that Allah has ninety-nine names — whoever aḥṣāhā (enumerates them, and lives by their meanings) will enter Paradise.
At a glance
What “99” really means
Scholars are careful here: the hadith does not say God has only ninety-nine names. In another authentic supplication the Prophet ﷺ asked God by “every name that is Yours, which You named Yourself with, or revealed in Your Book, or taught any of Your creation, or kept hidden in the knowledge of the unseen.” The ninety-nine are the Names tied to that beautiful promise — not a ceiling on God's perfection.
A few of the Names, and their meanings
- Ar-Raḥmān — the Most Compassionate
- Ar-Raḥīm — the Most Merciful
- Al-Malik — the Sovereign King
- Al-Quddūs — the Most Holy
- As-Salām — the Source of Peace
- Al-Ghaffār — the Ever-Forgiving
- Al-ʿAlīm — the All-Knowing
- Al-Ḥakīm — the All-Wise
Tip: the Basmala — Bismillāhi r-Raḥmāni r-Raḥīm — opens 113 of the Qur'an's 114 surahs (all but Sūrat at-Tawbah). So two of the Names are already on your tongue every time you begin to recite.
A simple way to learn them
Don't try to memorise all ninety-nine at once. Take a small handful a week, learn each Name's meaning, and use it in your du'a — “Yā Razzāq, provide for me,” “Yā Ghafūr, forgive me.” Knowing what a Name means turns memorisation into worship. That's exactly how the Knowledge game teaches them: a Name, its meaning, and the verse it comes from, one at a time.