The Touchstones of Greatness of God's Ism-e-A zam in Islamic Mysticism

Research on God’s Ism-e-A´zam (The Exalted Name) is considered one of the most argued issues in Islamic narrations and, consequently, in Islamic Mysticism, both theoretically and practically. One concern regarding Ism-e- A´zam is the criteria for the Greatness of Ism-e-A´zam on which there are pertinent studies in narrative and mystical sources. This article is an attempt to examine the touchstones of Greatness of Ism-e- A´zam in Islamic Mysticism. After gathering the findings, it comes to the following eight possibilities: 1) Greatness of all the names of God, 2) Whichever name that reflects most the Greatness of God, 3) Whichever name that augments the rewarding of prayer through using it, 4) Whichever name in calling God, by which thorough absorption in the remembrance of God is resulted, 5) Impossibility of awareness of Ism-e-Azam, 6) Whichever name that results in answering the prayer, 7) whichever name that causes the external realization of genetical affairs, and 8) the most comprehensive name. The eighth option has the highest probability and, as a result, the significance of the Greatness of Ism-e-Azam is that its existential range, genetically considered, is more inclusive than all the objective names of God. Therefore, all of the existential phenomena and the manifestations of beings have rooted in it and are issued through it.