The hundredth Name, withheld

The tradition holds that there is a Name beyond the ninety-nine — the greatest Name, al-ism al-aʿẓam — hidden, and known to God or to a very few. On the rope, the tall imam bead stands for it.

Both traditions count their Names and keep one back. The Tree has the 72-letter Name, the 42-letter Name, and behind them four letters that are never pronounced. Two neighbours, each ending their enumeration in a silence — and the silence is doing the same work in both: the Infinite meets the world as an array of Names, and the last Name is not one of them.