Characteristics of the Divine Names and Attributes in Nahj al-Balagha

The obedience of God, the growth and ascension toward him is depended on knowing him, his names and attributes. It can be said that the perfection of knowledge is complete knowledge about God. The principle of the existence of God is acceptable to most human beings, but what has caused a fundamental divergence between theists is their difference in their perception of God which has led to the emergence of diverse schools and religions. More than the proof of God's existence, the system of divine names and attributes has been discussed in Nahj al-Balagha which has raised various opinions among Muslim scholars. This system has characteristics that are based on monotheistic knowledge at all three levels of the essence, attributes and verbs that, if properly understood, would help theists to achieve monotheism. The characteristics of this system are: negation of traits from the essence, unmatched proof of attributes, the possibility of recognition and its ways. The methodology of this paper is descriptive-analytical.