Huzoor (rh): It is said there are 99, but in my belief there are innumerable. Only Allah’s attributes are revealed in relation to the capability of mankind to understand those attributes. So the man is built with limited capabilities and with a certain design. Allah knows best how far man can establish relationship with God in how many ways. And all that is necessary for man to know in this regard is revealed to man through attributes of God. But to limit God in this relation and to conceive of a God having no other relationship anywhere in the universe, that would be in fact a denial of God’s limitless powers. So what you should have asked should have been how many attributes of God are known to us. That I have already answered, that so far as I know, 99 attributes are known to us through Islam. And through other religions, the number would vary. In some religions there are few, in some religions a few more, but the maximum that I have come across is in Islam.
