The Ninety-Nine Names · the 78th name
الْمُتَعَالِي
Al-Muta'ali
The Most Exalted
- The rootع ل و
- From the rootthe same root as Al-'Ali: height, in a form that intensifies it
The essay
The Qur'anic form is al-Muta'al, without the final letter the enumeration usually gives it, and it appears once, at the end of a verse about knowing the unseen and the witnessed. He is above being reached, above being compared, above the descriptions we build out of created parts and then apply to Him. Every theology that got into trouble did so by forgetting this line, in one direction or the other.
In the Qur'an
عَٰلِمُ ٱلۡغَيۡبِ وَٱلشَّهَٰدَةِ ٱلۡكَبِيرُ ٱلۡمُتَعَالِ
Knower of the unseen and the seen, the Most Great, the Most Exalted.
this Name is in the Qur’an
What it asks of you
When you find yourself picturing Him, stop. The picture is made of things He made.
Read beside it