The Divine Names are here to bring out the sound of the various capacities which you carry in you,so that you may know them and fill the space you have been given with your capacity, with your ability.
Fawzia Al-Rawi
All Divine Names (or Divine Attributes) reflect the various aspects of the One, the one all-encompassing Love, Allāh. Through the Divine Names we try to taste the presence of the infinite in the finite. They describe how to come closer to God and give us the possibility to know Him through them. Still, this knowledge will always be according to human assessment. The only way to approach Him is to 'take on' the colours of His attributes, namely to set out to our own perfection and use His attributes on ourselves until such time as the Divine Light out of which we were formed shines through our earthly shell and we become that which we were before we came to earth - and still are.
According to the words of the Sufis, repeating the Divine Names is to clad the nafs - ego, impulse soul - with the Divine Attributes. In doing so, we aid the eternal holy part in us to blossom and for that, the nafs - the complacent, selfish part in us - must first relinquish or transform its weaknesses, prejudices and negative habits. Opening the heart, awakening the heart, leads to an expansion which enables us to feel connected, thus touching and bringing unity into the Creation.
When the world came into existence, its longing to return to the original state of Unity was born too. Any bear is stronger than a human being, any leopard can run faster, any fish swims better and any bird flies higher - yet only human beings have the capacity to lead the world to Unity and to bring heaven and earth into harmony.
We human beings are searchers, whether we admit it or not. We want to understand, we want to know, we want to be known. Our quest may take many forms, yet ultimately it ends in nothing but pure praising of God, even if this comes after our last breath. In the end, all that remains is present in all levels of existence. Praising God, knowing the Divine, is the true meaning of Creation.
Nothing in this world is alien to us human beings. All the creatures in this world are interwoven in our being and permeate our spirit. When we recognise that we are the soul of Creation, the gates of life open to us and our deeds, words and thoughts can reflect the Divine truth embedded in Creation.
Repeating the Divine Names - dhikr - is an outer ritual which should have an inner meaning; conversely, an inner attitude receives its ultimate value when it reflects in our deeds.
The outside always furthers the inside because the task and the meaning of life is always about reuniting and connecting everything on the outside to its inner truth. It is the knowledge of the heart which is always capable of uniting. Such is the path of the Sufis.