from what it names—it stands in place of every Name of God, Most High. When someone says, “O Allah,” consider the caller’s state that prompted this call, and consider which divine Name is particular to that state. That particular Name is what this caller calls upon by saying, “O Allah.”
For in its original designation the Name Allah names only the Real’s very essence, in whose hand is “the dominion of everything” [al-Mu’minun 23:88; Ya Sin 36:83]. For this reason the Name that particularly indicates it stands in place of every divine Name. Then, since the entire affair returns to this Named One, He has the name of every named thing toward which need is directed: mineral, plant, animal, human being, sphere, angel, and the like, to which the name created or originated applies.
He, Most High, is therefore named by every name of a named thing in the world that has an effect within the cosmos, and there is nothing but what has an effect within the cosmos. As for its inclusion of the Names of transcendence, the way to understand that is very near, although every divine Name has this standing insofar as it indicates the Real’s essence—majestic is His majesty, mighty His sovereignty.
Yet because every Name other than Allah, while indicating the Real’s essence, also indicates another meaning,
