We need to start living with Allah’s names. At every point in our life, there is a certain name that will seem especially needed for us, or that will have a certain appeal, based on your spiritual, physical, or emotional states; or maybe based on whatever challenges you face in life. My cousin has been living with Allah’s name al-Qahhar for months now, and he keeps giving me beautiful insights about this name and its manifestations in our lives, it is truly amazing. These days, I’m trying to live with the name al-Mu’min, by simply repeating Ya Mu’min whenever I remember to. I’m not really putting that much of an effort into it, just doing it whenever I remember, and I know that such a small step alone makes a big difference. Here’s why I have chosen the name. We begin with a quote from Hazrat Inayat Khan:

We are able to do anything if we choose to make the effort. The difficulty is that often we do not choose to do so. And why not? Because we do not believe: what is generally lacking in man is belief…. What we obtain is what our belief allows us to obtain, whether of wealth or virtue, power or rank or spirituality. What our belief does not allow us to attain to we do not attain to; we cannot attain it….

How can one get belief? This is the most difficult question anyone can ask, for it cannot be learned, it cannot be taught; it is a grace of God. Belief is essentially the same thing as faith, but only when belief has become a conviction does it turn into faith. I remember my murshid (spiritual teacher) giving me, in blessing me, this wish: “May your faith be strengthened.” Being a young man, I thought, “Is that all he is saying to me, not, ‘May you be inspired,’ or ‘illuminated,’ or ‘prosperous,’ or something else?” But when I think of it now, I know that in that blessing there was all. When belief is strengthened, then there is everything: what we lack in life is mostly due to our lack of belief. But again, this is not something that one can learn or teach or that one can give to anybody; it comes from the grace of God. (pg 43-44).

These are just snippets from Spiritual Dimensions of Psychology that I hope will give you an idea of the importance of having true, strong iman. I do not mean the simple level of iman that we all have, or even the level of certainty that many of us have, but an ever deeper and stronger level of iman; the iman that completely changes us and makes us constantly aware of Allah (swt)

This made me think of the Divine Name al-Mu’min, which Allah calls Himself in the Qur’an. The word comes from the root word a-m-n, which has the following meanings,

to be secure, safe, free from fear
to be quiet, tranquil
to grant protection, safeguard
to be trusted, trustworthy
to believe in

And it is from this root that we have the word iman, which we translate as faith or belief. By calling Himself al-Mu’min, Allah is calling himself:

The Remover of Fear, The Giver of Tranquility, The Source of Faith
The One who faithfully bestows the gifts of peace, safety and security.The One who grants freedom from fear.The One who illuminates the heart with faith. The One who is most trustworthy. (Meanings of the Divine Names)

I read that he who constantly repeats this name is granted security and protection, but I hope that by repeating it I can keep increasing in iman.

For “by the repetition of certain words a definite result can be produced in one’s character” so much so that one’s character can be entirely changed by some words (Spiritual Dimensions, 45)

“And the mechanism of one’s inner being is such that every word that one repeats so many times becomes each time more living, and then this mechanism goes on repeating the same word automatically. Thus if a person has repeated a sacred word for fifteen minutes, throughout the day and night this word goes on, as the spirit repeats it continually.” (pg 48)

With every repetition of a word, the idea it suggests is engraved deeper and deeper in the mind, and so not a single repetition is wasted, as it would have deepened this carving in the mind (pg 68). In fact the name of the Naqshbandi tariqa means carving (naqsh) into the heart (band) the name of Allah. I’m hoping to carve into my heart God’s name al-Mu’min, so that my iman may continue to grow and become alive, and reach beyond the level of certainty to a level of complete transformation.