Praise be to Allah, and may peace and blessings be upon the Messenger of Allah.
Not all of the Beautiful Names of Allah are known to His creation, nor can they encompass them all. Some of them Allah has made known to His servants, while others He has kept exclusively to Himself.
This is what Ibn al-Qayyim meant by his classification. As for the praises that the Prophet ﷺ will be inspired to utter on the Day of Resurrection, they may be new forms of praise using names that are already known, or they may include something that Allah had not previously disclosed to him. Neither possibility can be definitively established.
Allah Almighty says:
“Unto Allah belong the Most Beautiful Names, so call upon Him by them.”
[Al-A‘raf: 180]
The fatwa cited the hadith of Abdullah ibn Mas‘ud رضي الله عنه, in which the Prophet ﷺ taught a person afflicted by worry or grief to say:
“O Allah, I am Your servant, the son of Your servant, the son of Your female servant. My forelock is in Your Hand. Your command concerning me is carried out, and Your decree concerning me is just. I ask You by every Name that belongs to You, by which You have named Yourself, or taught it to one of Your creation, or revealed it in Your Book, or kept it exclusively with Yourself in the knowledge of the unseen, to make the Qur’an the spring of my heart, the light of my chest, the removal of my sorrow, and the departure of my anxiety.”
Narrated by Ahmad (3712). The scholars differed regarding its authenticity. Ibn Hibban, al-Hakim, al-Albani, and Ahmad Shakir authenticated it; Ibn Hajar considered it hasan (good), while Shu‘ayb al-Arna’ut weakened it in his verification of the Musnad.
The relevant point is the phrase: “or kept it exclusively with Yourself in the knowledge of the unseen,” which indicates that there are Names that Allah has not disclosed to any of His creation. Therefore, His Names are not limited to those that we know.
Ibn al-Qayyim explained that, with regard to how much of Allah’s Names He has disclosed to His creation, they fall into three categories:
First: Names that Allah has disclosed to some of His creation without revealing them in His Book. Allah may teach some of them to whomever He wills among His angels or others, and they do not necessarily have to be known to all people.
Second: Names that Allah revealed in His Book and thereby made known to His servants. Examples include: Al-Hayy (The Ever-Living), Al-Qayyum (The Self-Sustaining), As-Sami‘ (The All-Hearing), and Al-Basir (The All-Seeing).
Third: Names that Allah has kept exclusively within His knowledge of the unseen. He has not disclosed them to any of His creation, and neither a near angel nor a sent prophet knows them.
This is the classification explained by Ibn al-Qayyim in Bada’i‘ al-Fawa’id (1/293), edition of ‘Ata’at al-‘Ilm. The purpose is to explain the varying degrees to which creation has knowledge of Allah’s Names, and that their knowledge does not encompass all of them.
Ibn al-Qayyim explained the meaning of exclusive possession of knowledge here by saying: “Meaning, You alone know it.”
Thus, the meaning is that Allah knows those Names and has not disclosed them to anyone.
It does not simply mean that the Name is exclusive to Allah and cannot be used for anyone else, because a Name may also be exclusive to Allah among those Names that He revealed in His Book and made known to His servants.
For example, the Name “Allah” is known to us, while it is exclusively His. As for a Name whose knowledge Allah has kept exclusively to Himself, we do not know it in the first place. This is the distinction intended by the statement.
Likewise, some known Names may also be used for created beings, such as ‘Ali, Hakim, Sami‘, and ‘Alim, unlike Names that are exclusive to Allah.
It is mentioned in the hadith of intercession that Allah will inspire His Prophet ﷺ with praises that he had not known how to express at that time. In the narration of Muslim (194):
“And He will inspire me with praises of Him and beautiful forms of praise that He had not opened for anyone before me.”
It is not necessary that all of these praises consist of Names whose knowledge Allah had kept exclusively to Himself. They may be expressed using known Names, while the Prophet ﷺ is inspired with forms of praise and ways of using those Names that had not previously been opened to him.
It is also possible that Allah will teach him at that time some of His Names that He had not previously disclosed to him, and he will praise Him using them. Thus, the fatwa mentions both possibilities and does not assert that the hadith must necessarily refer to the third category.
One indication that creation cannot encompass all praise of Allah is the statement of the Prophet ﷺ:
“I cannot enumerate praise of You; You are as You have praised Yourself.”
Narrated by Muslim.
Ibn al-Qayyim’s classification concerns what Allah has disclosed of His Names and what He has concealed from His creation.
“Keeping exclusively” means being alone in knowing the Name, not merely that Allah alone may be called by it.
The praises mentioned in the hadith of intercession may be new forms of praise using known Names, and they may also include Names that Allah teaches His Prophet ﷺ at that time.
And Allah knows best.