The many names of God display qualities: the Compassionate, the Source of Mercy, the Forgiver, the Sustainer, the Knower, the Hearer, the Seer. [Seyyed Hossein] Nasr [says], "These Names which the Qur'an calls the Beautiful Names of Allah, are the means whereby Allah reveals himself to mankind." God is not only transcendent but is also close to us, as the Qur'an puts it, "nearer than the jugular vein." God is at the center of our very being, and the heart of the believer, so Muslims say, is the throne of the Compassionate God. If we glimpse God in this way, there is no reason we cannot stand together, all of us, in prayer.

Diana Eck, God at 2000 by Marcus Borg, Ross Mackenzie