180وَلِلَّهِ الأَسماءُ الحُسنىٰ فَادعوهُ بِها ۖ وَذَرُوا الَّذينَ يُلحِدونَ في أَسمائِهِ ۚ سَيُجزَونَ ما كانوا يَعمَلونَMuhammad AsadAND GOD'S [alone] are the attributes of perfection;1 invoke Him, then, by these, and stand aloof from all who distort the meaning of His attributes:2 they shall be requited for all that they were wont to do!This passage connects with the mention, at the end of the preceding verse, of "the heedless ones" who do not use their faculty of discernment in the way intended for it by God, and remain heedless of Him who comprises within Himself all the attributes of perfection and represents, therefore, the Ultimate Reality. As regards the expression al-asma' al-husna (lit., "the most perfect [or "most goodly"] names"), which occurs in the Qur'an four times - i.e., in the above verse as well as in 17:110, 20:8 and 59:24 - it is to be borne in mind that the term ism is, primarily, a word applied to denote the substance or the intrinsic attributes of an object under consideration, while the term al-husna is the plural form of al-ahsan ("that which is best" or "most goodly"). Thus, the combination al-asma' al-husna may be appropriately rendered as "the attributes of perfection" - a term reserved in the Qur'an for God alone.I.e., by applying them to other beings or objects or, alternatively, by trying to "define" God in anthropomorphic terms and relationships, like "father" or "son" (Razi).