The names of God within the Verse of the Throne

أسماء الله في آية الكرسي

Sha'rawi reports a disagreement over how many of God's names the Verse of the Throne contains: sixteen, or seventeen if the hidden pronoun in the verbal noun is counted, or twenty-one if the derived forms are counted. He holds that the verse gathers many of the Beautiful Names, and rules on none of the counts 1 2.

Depth

At a glance

Era
The Prophetic Era
Region
Global / Diaspora
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Worship and the pillars

Summary

Sha'rawi reports that some scholars counted sixteen names of God in the Verse of the Throne, others seventeen, and others twenty-one, and he does not rule between them 1.

Why the counts differ

The clear names are God, the Living, the Self-Subsisting, the Exalted and the Great, along with the pronoun in "He" after "the declaration of divine oneness," and the hidden pronoun in the verbal noun "its keeping." He holds that derived forms such as "the name the Living" have become names 2.

Its merit

He mentions the traditions on the merit of the verse, and holds that the names gathered within it are part of its greatness 3 1.

Not yet checked

The counts are those Sha'rawi reports. They have not been recounted or checked against the books on the names of God. The academic view and any non-Sunni view have not been checked.

People and things also explored

The ruling on one who abandons prayer· Ada' (performance of an obligation within its time)· Adhan (the call to prayer: its ruling, wording, conditions, recommended features and the muezzin)· Bone (adhm): purity, use and retaliation· The adornment of desires and the goods of this world· The people of the bench (ahl al-suffa)· The earth made a place of prayer and purity· Spending in the way of God (infaq)

Sources

  1. Sha'rawi's Khawatir around the Holy Quran, volume one (scan copy) , p.1109
  2. Sha'rawi's Khawatir around the Holy Quran, volume one (scan copy) , p.1110
  3. Sha'rawi's Khawatir around the Holy Quran, volume one (scan copy) , p.1108
Cite this page

islam.museum contributors. “The names of God within the Verse of the Throne”. islam.museum, https://islam.museum/en/concept/names-in-ayat-al-kursi/. CC BY-SA 4.0. Last updated 2026-10-23.

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Related

The ruling on one who abandons prayer

Al-Sallabi quotes Ali: whoever does not pray is an unbeliever. He then reports from al-Nawawi the dispute over one who neglects prayer while believing it obligatory: the majority (Malik, al-Shafi'i) hold him a sinner to be asked to repent, others hold him an unbeliever, a view ascribed to Ali; Abu Hanifa and the Kufans hold him not an unbeliever but to be disciplined.