اسمِ اعظم

Anas (may Allah be pleased with him) narrated: One day I was present with the Messenger of Allah ﷺ in the mosque, and a man was praying there. In his supplication he said: "O Allah, I ask You for my need by virtue of the fact that all praise and glorification is due to You alone; there is no god but You, the Most Merciful, the great Benefactor, the Originator of the heavens and the earth. Of You alone I ask, O Possessor of Majesty and Honour, O Ever-Living, O Sustainer!" The Messenger of Allah ﷺ said: "This man has supplicated by means of Allah's Greatest Name (Ism-e-A'zam), through which, when Allah is called upon, He surely answers." (Tirmidhi, Abu Dawud, Nasa'i and Ibn Majah)

The ahadith show that among Allah's Beautiful Names there are some which have a special greatness and importance in this respect: that when one supplicates by means of them, acceptance is more to be hoped for. In the hadith these Names are called the "Greatest Name" (Ism-e-A'zam), but they have not been specified plainly and explicitly; rather they have been left somewhat ambiguous, just as Laylat al-Qadr and the special hour of acceptance on Friday have been left ambiguous. This hadith also shows that Allah does not have only one single blessed Name that is the "Greatest Name," as many people think; rather several of the Beautiful Names have been called the "Greatest Name." Therefore this hadith also makes it clear that the notion of the Ism-e-A'zam current among the common people, and the things famous about it, are all baseless; the real truth is only what has been stated in the ahadith.