The Beautiful Names

[Bhaskar]

In HInduism we often have namavalis to the different forms of god - strings of beautiful names to be chanted and contemplated upon. In Indian Buddhism also, the Bodhisattvas have such namavalis. It was interesting \, therefore to find this list of the 99 beautiful names of Allah. The whole practice laid out on this site is quite beautiful and in keeping with the spiritual teachings of many masters from many religions.

http://wahiduddin.net/words/99_pages/wazifa_a.htm

[BlackBillBlake]

Have you heard of the Pure Land Buddhist schoool of Japan?
They make repitition of the name of Amitabha Buddha the centre of their spiritual practice.
The form used is 'Namu Amida Bhutsu'.
Repitition is said to bring the grace of Buddha Amitabha and re-birth in His pure land, where the further stages of realization can be easily accomplished.

http://www.cloudwater.org/pureland.html#Key%20Concepts

[RELAYER]

Many of the names are not in the Qu'ran so the meditation on them is not common practice. I believe it's a Sufi method? Which is very true, many of the Sufi writings remind me of the religions that sing the praises of Creation. The Qu'ran does this as well, and quite often, but in a different way than most.

[Bhaskar]

The pure land is one such school and there are others I have come across as well. I think the use of sacred names is something very universal and powerful.

Relayer, while it is true that some of them are not Quranic names, the practice of the names is very common in a lot of Muslim sects. There are very many different sets of 99 names and the practice has explicit sanction in the Quran. This is of course a sufi thing, but I dont think it is limited to that sect.

[RELAYER]

Oh ok! Although I've read several translations of the Quran I do not recall the sanctioning or even the mention of the use of misbaha so I assumed that Muhammad never used them and therefor was an aftermath, a non traditional approach to connecting to Allah. Of course I may have just not remembered reading anything regarding misbaha or I simply missed it, and I sort of just thought it wasnt included in any Hadith. I do realize that the 99 names has sanction, I recall a certain Hadith mentioning them, but Im not sure about the misbaha.
Sorry I just realized that you never even mentioned the prayer beads in your post, I am picking apart something not even mentioned!