The advantage of reciting these phrases [the ninety-nine names, or attributes, of God in Arabic] in a language which is foreign to most of us is that there is an opportunity for them to convey higher forms of meaning that lie out of range of our familiar langugage. Indeed, it is a great mistake to try to understand the exact translation of a particular name of God, as it reduces it to a linguistic construct.
— Pir Vilayat Inayat Khan, Awakening