Basmala

The basmala on the oldest surviving Quran. Rasm: "ٮسم الله الرحمں الرحىم"

Basmala calligraphy

Calligraphic rendition of the Bismillah — A calligraphic rendition of the *Bismllah*

The Basmala (Arabic: بَسْمَلَة, basmala; also known by its opening words Bi-smi llāh; بِسْمِ ٱللَّٰهِ, "In the name of God") is the titular name of the Islamic phrase “In the name of God, the Most Gracious, the Most Merciful” (Arabic: بِسْمِ ٱللَّٰهِ ٱلرَّحْمَٰنِ ٱلرَّحِيمِ, bi-smi llāhi r-raḥmāni r-raḥīmⁱ).[bis.mi‿l.laː.hi‿r.raħ.maː.ni‿r.ra.ħiː.m] It is one of the most important phrases in Islam and frequently recited by Muslims before performing daily activities and religious practices, including prayer.The Basmalah should not be confused with the Tasmiyah (Arabic: تَسْمِيَّة), which refers specifically to saying Bi-smi llāh (بِسْمِ ٱللَّٰهِ) alone. The Basmala is usually used at the start of the recitation of verses or surahs from the Qur'an, while the Tasmiyah is commonly used at the beginning of daily activities, such as eating, traveling, or slaughtering animals.

It (The Basmala) is used in over half of the constitutions of countries where Islam is the state religion or more than half of the population follows Islam, usually the first phrase in the preamble, including those of Afghanistan, Bahrain, Bangladesh, Brunei, Egypt, Iran, Iraq, Kuwait, Libya, Maldives, Pakistan, Saudi Arabia, Tunisia, and the United Arab Emirates.

In the Quran, it is recited before each chapter (surah), except for the ninth chapter At-Tawbah. Scholarly debates regarding its inclusion in the Qur'anic text reached consensus with the 1924 Cairo Edition, where it was included as the first verse (āyah) of Al-Fatiha and remained an unnumbered line preceding each of the 112 other chapters.

Historically, the Islamic Basmala appears to be related to earlier variants of the phrase appearing in Arabian inscriptions dating back to the 5th and 6th centuries.

Name

The traditional name for the phrase in Classical Arabic was Tasmiyah. Other common phrases in Islam were also given their own names based on verb form 2 verbal nouns, including Tasbih.
The word basmala was derived from a slightly unusual procedure, in which the first four pronounced consonants of the phrase bismi-llāhi... were used to create a new quadriliteral root: b-s-m-l (ب-س-م-ل). This quadriliteral root was used to derive the noun basmala and its related verb forms, meaning "to recite the basmala". The method of coining a quadriliteral name from the consonants of multiple words in a phrase is also used to create the name '"Hamdala" for Alhamdulillah, instead of the traditional name of Tahmid. The same procedure is also used to create the term Hawqala.

Use and significance

Thuluth simple script

According to Lane, ar-raḥmān has the more intensive meaning, taken to include as objects of "sympathy" both the believer and the unbeliever, and may therefore be rendered as "the Compassionate"; ar-raḥīm, on the other hand, is taken to include as objects the believer in particular, may be rendered as "the Merciful" (considered as expressive of a constant attribute).

In the Qur'an, the Basmala, is usually numbered as the first verse of the first sura, but, according to the view adopted by Al-Tabari, it precedes the first verse. Apart from the ninth sura ("At-Tawba"), Al-Qurtubi reported that the correct view is that the Basmala ignored at the beginning of At-Tawba because Gabriel did not refer to the Basmala in this surah. Another view says that Muhammad died before giving a clarification if At-Tawba is part of Quran 8 (al-ʾanfāl) or not. It occurs at the beginning of each subsequent sura of the Qur'an and is usually not numbered as a verse except at its first appearance at the start of the first sura. The Basmala occurs as part of a sura's text in verse 30 of the 27th sura ("An-Naml"), where it prefaces a letter from Sulayman to Bilqis, the Queen of Sheba.

The Basmala is used extensively in everyday Muslim life, said as the opening of each action in order to receive blessing from God. Reciting the Basmala is a necessary requirement in the preparation of halal food.

In the Indian subcontinent, a Bismillah ceremony is held for a child's initiation into Islam.

The three definite nouns of the Basmala—Allah, ar-Rahman and ar-Rahim—correspond to the first three of the traditional 99 names of God in Islam. Both ar-Rahman and ar-Rahim are from the same triliteral root R-Ḥ-M, "to feel sympathy, or pity".

Around 1980, IRIB used it before starting their newscasts.

Hadith

There are several ahadith encouraging Muslims to recite it before eating and drinking. For example:

A tradition ascribed to Muhammad states:

A tradition ascribed to Imam Ali states:

Tafsir

In a commentary on the Basmala in his Tafsir al-Tabari, al-Tabari writes:

"The Messenger of Allah (the peace and blessings of Allah be upon him) said that Jesus was handed by his mother Mary over to a school in order that he might be taught. [The teacher] said to him: 'Write "Bism (In the name of)".' And Jesus said to him: 'What is "Bism"?' The teacher said: 'I do not know.' Jesus said: 'The "Ba" is Baha’u'llah (the glory of Allah), the "Sin" is His Sana’ (radiance), and the "Mim" is His Mamlakah (sovereignty)."

Numerology

*Bismillah al-Rahman al-Rahim "In the name of God, the Most Gracious, the Most Merciful"*.

Gematria

According to the standard Abjadi system of numerology, the total value of the letters of the Islamic Basmala, i.e. the phrase — is 786. This number has therefore acquired a significance in folk Islam and Near Eastern folk magic and also appears in many instances of pop-culture, such as its appearance in the 2006 song '786 All is War' by the band Fun-Da-Mental. A recommendation of reciting the basmala 786 times in sequence is recorded in Al-Buni. Sündermann (2006) reports that a contemporary "spiritual healer" from Syria recommends the recitation of the basmala 786 times over a cup of water, which is then to be ingested as medicine. 786 as a number, however, does not appear in Quran or Hadith.

It has also become common to abbreviate the phrase by typing "786", especially in online communication, and especially among South Asian Muslims. License plates, phone numbers, and serial numbers on currency containing 786 have garnered a particularly high price in South Asia and Dubai. Businesses in Myanmar have displayed 786 to indicate that they are owned by Muslims.

Unicode

In Unicode, the Basmala is encoded as one ligature at code point U+FDFD ﷽ in the Arabic Presentation Forms-A block.

Notes

References

External links

Bismillah Samples, a collection of bismillah art-forms.
Bismallah in Tadabbur-i-Qur'an (archived).
Meaning of Bismillah
Beyond Probability, God's Message in Mathematics. Series 1: The Opening Statement of the Quran (The Basmalah).
The Blessed Basmala – Seeking a healing cure by means of Basmala, the pure