The author says one God still has many names because the Divine is a personality, not gravity. Qur’an 17:110: call Allah or Ar-Rahman—the best names are His. Psalms 105 and 5 praise “the name.” King, Judge, Merciful describe acts and traits, not extra gods.

English “God” is generic, like El/Elohim/Al-Ilah. The intimate names are YHVH (Jews) and Allah (Muslims), tied to covenant with Moses and Muhammad (and, the piece says, Noah, Abraham, Jesus—Qur’an 33:7). Midrash speaks of 70 names; Islam of 99; many overlap as shared attributes. Biblical “God of Israel” is read as the same One who is God of heaven and earth.

YHVH (6,800 times in the Hebrew Bible) is linked to Ehyeh asher Ehyeh—not static “I am” but “I will be what I need to be.” After the First Temple it was spoken as Adonai, then HaShem / G-d. El Shaddai (“sufficient,” also read as nourishing) came first. Al-Shakur, “the Appreciative,” is praised as denying original sin and weighting mercy over punishment. Interfaith homily, not a lexicon.

If a rose by any other name would still smell the same; would God be any different with a different name? Polytheistic religions have many names for their gods because they have many gods. Yet monotheists who worship the one and only God still have many names for their one God.

Monotheists call the one God by many different names because we believe that the Divine is not an impersonal, universal force or power like gravity: but rather the Divine One is a multifaceted  personality. A unique, disembodied, undying, always creative personality, who cares about the whole created world. We even use a pronoun of gender, although God includes both genders, because we do not wish to refer to the Divine One as ‘it’.

The Qur’an tells us (17:110) “Say, “Call upon Allah or call upon Ar-Rahman-Ha Rakhaman, the Most Merciful. Whichever [name] you call – to Him belong the best names.” 

Prophet David’s Zabur Psalm 105 proclaims: “Give praise to the Lord, proclaim his name; make known among the nations what he has done. Sing to him, sing praise to him; tell of all his wonderful acts. Glory in his holy name; let the hearts of those who seek the Lord rejoice.” (Psalm 105: 1-3) 

And Prophet David says: (Psalm 5::11) “But let all who take refuge in You be glad; let them always sing for joy. Spread your protection over them, that those who love your name may rejoice in You.”

For those religions that trace their prophets back to Prophet Abraham, and his two sons Ishmael and Isaac; the many names or appellations (titles and descriptions) of God simply describe different aspects or attributes of the one God’s multifaceted personality. 

Thus, to say that God is a King or a Judge describes one of many ways God acts. To say that God is Ar-Rahman or Ha Rakhaman, the Merciful-Compassionate One is to describe one of many character or........

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