Mudih al-Tariq The Divine Names Manuscript of al-Buni

Al-Buni on the 99 Names of God

Mudih al-Tariq (مضيح الطريق وأصل التحقيق) is the divine names manuscript of the Al-Buni Manuscripts Collection. Its full title is Mudih al-Tariq wa-Asl al-Tahqiq, and the cover of this edition describes it as a work “on the divine names, their meanings, and the stations of spiritual wayfaring.” One of the Ahmad al-Buni manuscripts translated for the series, it is attributed to Ahmad ibn Ali al-Buni and translated here in full.

Eighty Chapters, from Allah to al-Ghani

After an opening Counsel to the Seeking Wayfarers, the book moves through 80 chapters, each devoted to a single name or a pair of names. It begins with the name Allah, then the One, al-Samad, al-Hayy, and al-Qayyum, and closes with al-Ghani and a final chapter on the names “He begets not, and He is not begotten.” Paired chapters include al-Qabid and al-Basit, al-Zahir and al-Batin, and al-Awwal and al-Akhir.

“One Hundred Less One”: The Hadith of the Names

Early on, the book cites the Prophetic saying that “God has ninety-nine names, one hundred less one; whoever enumerates them enters the Garden.” This is the list known as the 99 names of Allah, also called Allah ke 100 naam in Hindi and Urdu. For how al-Buni's chapters compare with that familiar list, read The 99 Names of God: What Al-Buni Actually Wrote.

Individual chapters go deep on single names. Chapter Twenty-Eight presents al-Wahhab as “the subtle giver who is beyond compensations.” Chapter Forty-Eight pairs al-Qabid and al-Basit, the Contractor and the Expander, teaching that from contraction fear is born, and from expansion hope and intimacy.

Ayat al-Kursi and the Throne

Al-Hayy and al-Qayyum, the two names in the opening line of Ayat al-Kursi (the Throne Verse), each receive a chapter of their own, and the book quotes the verse's line “His Footstool encompasses the heavens and the earth” in its discussion of the Throne and the Footstool. For a chapter on the properties of the Throne Verse itself, see Chapter Eighteen of Shams al-Ma'arif al-Kubra.