Solve Your Problems ... Through The 99 Beautiful Names of Allah?

[Little_Lion]

I recently bought this book to help with an art project I'm working on (a screensaver with artwork for each of the 99 Names of Allah). It's from the Islamic Book Service, no author listed (but the English translation is attributed to Moulana M. Rafeeq Ahmed Hathurani). It does have some good insight into the meaning of the Names, which is what I needed, but it also includes numerous references to things such as if you say a specific Name a certain number of times for a certain number of days, Allah will grant a pregnant woman a boy; or if you say a different Name a certain number of times, thieves will never come near you. There's something to this effect for all of the 99 Names. Almost none of these claims have references to Hadith or the Qur'an, and of those that do, the correlations appear dubious at best and never mention numbers of times to say a name, or what its effect would be other than the pleasure of Allah.

I'm very, very skeptical of the claims of this book . . . it seems to turn Allah into magic words that can be said to do everything from make you attractive to giving you money, Allah forgive me should I be doubting words of His Truth. Is the book just poorly cited, and the claims are truly based on Hadith, or is it, and I feel sad saying this about ANY book of Islam, something that should be avoided?

[Flame of Hope]

One solves problems not through recitation of names for a certain number of days or time, but by remembering Allah by contemplating and reflecting upon His glorious, beautiful names and their meanings, through faith in Allah, putting our trust in Him, fearing Him and by sincerely supplicating to Him for help.