Description of God’s Beautiful Names (the bright signs of explaining the God’s Names and Attributes)

Another one of the Imam Fakhr Razi’s book is “Explaining God’s Beautiful Names” that has been written in Arabic. Imam Fakhr Razi is one of the writers who is skillful in composing and writing the various books in different sciences. His books are very coherence and order so that the Ibn Khallikan writes: He is the first person who uses this “order” (arrangement) in his books and relates whatever the others have not related before him.

The author’s brief biography:
####Imam Fakhr Al-Din Abu Abdullah … Muhammad the son of Omar the son of Hussein the son of Hassan the son of Ali Tay-mi Tabarestani, known as an Ibn Khatib Razi and also Imam Al-Mushakekin, is one of the greatest “theologians” (kalam specialist), orators and well-known philosopher of the sixth century A.H, who was born in 1149/2/4 or 1150/1/24A.D. (543 or 544A.H.) in "Ray". Muhammad the son of Omar Fakhr Razi is considered as one of the Islamic scientific and literary celebrities, and in his time, has been considered as one of the greatest scholars and sages of Islam. In rational and transmitted sciences (Maghol and Manghol sciences) such as: philosophy, “theology” (kalam), mathematics, “jurisprudence and methodology” (fegh and usul), Quranic commentary and literature, has been considered master, authority and a source for scholars of his time. At first, he studied under the supervision of his father who was a celebrated orator, then the preliminary sciences under Kamal Semani (Semnani), “theology” (science of kalam) and philosophy under Majdoldin Jabali and the other sciences under Ziyaul Din Omar and Mahmud the son of Hassan Hamasi. For learning the Avicenna and Farabi’s philosophy, he went to the khorasan and completely benefited, and after that, traveled to “Transoxiana” (Mavaronnahr). In "branches of the religion" he was "Shafi’ism" follower and in the “theologian” (kalami) "principles of faith", was the Ash’arism follower, but he always was in controversy and polemic with his fellow (co-religionist) scholars. He also has composed sparse poems in Persian and Arabic that contains instructive subjects. Imam Fakhr’s life, despite the difficulty and poverty in youth age, improved after going to the khwarazm, “Transoxiana” (Mavaronnahr) and perennial living in court of khwaraz kings. One of the painful events of Imam Fakhr, during his final years, was about his young son’s death by the name of Muhammad that had occurred in the middle of 1205A.D. (601A.H.) in “Harat”. He had three sons by the name of Muhammad, Ziyaoldin and Shamsuldin and two daughters. In final years of his life, he lived in “Harat”. Early in the year of 1210A.D.(606A.H.) he got a serious illness and finally at the age of sixty two of that year, in the Eyd-e Fetr day, passed away in “Harat”. The text of Imam Fakhr’s “will” has mentioned in the books such as “Tabaghate Al-Shäfeiyeh Sabki” and “Tabaghäte Al-Atebä”. About eight month before his death, means in 1209/1/26 A.D(606/1/21A.H.), he has written this “will”, addressing to his student “Abubakr Ibrahim the son of Abibakr the son of Ali Isfahani”. His “will” involves the gist of his ideas about religion, philosophy and Quran with concise words. In the end, with the addressing to his executor and student, he has written a subject about looking after of his children.

The book structure:
At the beginning of this book has been related an explanation about author’s biography. Then studying the reality of Name, “named”(mosamä) and naming, mention difference between Names and Attributes, retelling the thought of scholars’ schools about the Names and Attributes, divide the Divine Names and starts from “There is no God but Allah”, studying the Names one by one (that is near to one hundred) and explain them. Fakhr Razi in explaining each one of the Names, at first explains if these names are in Quran or not, also mention the existent verse and following it, quote the great men and scholars’ point of views.

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