Call upon Allah or call upon the Most Merciful; whichever you call, to Him belong the best names.
“Call upon Allah or call upon the Most Merciful; whichever you call, to Him belong the best names.”
Say, O Messenger, to those who criticise you for supplicating by saying, ‘O Allah, O Merciful’: Allah and the Merciful are names of His, so supplicate Him with any of them or other names of His. For Him are all beautiful names, and these two are amongst them, so supplicate Him through these two or other beautiful names of His.
The plain meaning, from Al-Mukhtasar fi at-Tafsir
قُلِ ٱدْعُوا۟ ٱللَّهَ أَوِ ٱدْعُوا۟ ٱلرَّحْمَٰنَ ۖ أَيًّا مَّا تَدْعُوا۟ فَلَهُ ٱلْأَسْمَآءُ ٱلْحُسْنَىٰ ۚ وَلَا تَجْهَرْ بِصَلَاتِكَ وَلَا تُخَافِتْ بِهَا وَٱبْتَغِ بَيْنَ ذَٰلِكَ سَبِيلًا
Say, "Call upon Allah or call upon the Most Merciful ar-Raḥmān. Whichever name you call - to Him belong the best names." And do not recite too loudly in your prayer or too quietly but seek between that an intermediate way.
What does Quran 17:110 mean?
The verse answers a specific objection: some of the idolaters had heard the Prophet (peace be upon him) calling on Allah as ar-Rahman and taken the two names to be two different lords. The reply is that both are His, and neither is more His than the other. The rest of the verse settles a related matter of manner — recite neither loudly nor silently, but somewhere in between.
Written from Al-Mukhtasar fi at-Tafsir