Basmala or Bismillah

Basmala calligraphy

Basmala (Arabic بسملة) is an Arabic language noun which is used as the collective name of the whole of the recurring Islamic phrase bismi-llāhi ar-raḥmāni ar-raḥīmi. Islamic calligraphy, equally known as Arabic calligraphy, is the art of writing and by extension of bookmaking Arabic (ar الْعَرَبيّة (informally ar عَرَبيْ) in terms of the number of speakers is the largest living member of the Semitic language For other meanings including people named 'Islam' see Islam (disambiguation. This phrase constitutes the first verse of every "sura" (or chapter) of the Qur'an (but one), and is used in a number of contexts by Muslims. The Qur’an ( القرآن, literally "the recitation" also sometimes transliterated as Qur’ān, Koran, Alcoran It is recited several times as part of Muslim daily prayers, and it is usually the first phrase in the preamble of the constitutions of Islamic countries. A preamble is an introductory statement in a document that explains the document's purpose and underlying philosophy A constitution is a system for government often Codified as a written document that establishes the rules and principles of an autonomous political entity

بسم الله الرحمن الرحيم

bismi-llāhi ar-raḥmāni ar-raḥīmi

"In the name of God, Most Gracious, Most Merciful"

The Basmala is encoded as a ligature at Unicode codepoint U+FDFD ﷽

Name

The Basmala artistically rendered in the shape of a pear

The word "bismillah" itself was derived by a slightly-unusual procedure in which the first four pronounced consonants of the phrase bismi-llāhi. Surat ar-Rahman ( Arabic: ar سورة الرحمن is the 55th sura of the Qur'an with 78 Ayat. Rahim may refer to Esther Rahim, a Pakistani painter Radio Raheem, a character in the film Do The Right Thing Ar-Rahim In Computing, Unicode is an Industry standard allowing Computers to consistently represent and manipulate text expressed in most of the world's . . were taken as a quadriliteral consonantal root b-s-m-l (ب س م ل). In the terminology used to discuss the grammar of the Semitic languages, a quadriliteral is a consonantal root containing a sequence of four consonants (instead of three This abstract consonantal root was used to derive the noun basmala, as well as related verb forms which mean "to recite the basmala". The practice of giving often-repeated phrases special names is paralleled by the phrase Allahu Akbar, which is referred to as the "Takbir" (also Ta'awwudh etc. The takbīr or takbeer (ar تَكْبِير is the act of saying the phrase, ar الله أكبر Ta`awwudh (Arabic تعوذ is an Arabic term used as the name for the phrase A`ūdhu billāhi min ash-shaitāni r-rajīmi (أعوذ بالله من الشيطان ); and the method of coining a quadriliteral name from the consonants of such a phrase is paralleled by the name "Hamdala" for Alhamdulillah. Alhamdulillah ( الحمد لله) is an Arabic phrase meaning "Praise to God" or "All praise belongs to God" similar to the Hebrew phrase

Occurrence

In the Qur'an, the phrase 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. Sura Al-Fatiha ( سورة الفاتحة, Sūratu al-Fātihah, "The Opening" is the first chapter of the Muslim holy Abu Ja'far Muhammad ibn Jarir al-Tabari (838-923 أبو جعفر محمد بن جرير الطبري was one of the earliest most prominent and famous Persian Historians It occurs at the beginning of each subsequent sura of the Qur'an, except for the ninth sura (see, however, the discussion of the 8th and 9th chapters of the Qur'an at eighth sura), but is not numbered as a verse except, in the currently most common system, in the first sura (chapter). Sura At-Tawba ( Arabic: سورة التوبة, Sūratu at-Tawbah, "The Repentance" also known as al-Bara'ah "the Ultimatum" Sura (sometimes spelt "Surah" ar سورة, plural "Suwar" ar سور is an Arabic term literally meaning "something enclosed or surrounded The Qur’an ( القرآن, literally "the recitation" also sometimes transliterated as Qur’ān, Koran, Alcoran Sura Al-Anfal ( Arabic: سورة الأنفال, Sūratu al-Anfāl, "The Spoils of War" is the eighth chapter of the Sura (sometimes spelt "Surah" ar سورة, plural "Suwar" ar سور is an Arabic term literally meaning "something enclosed or surrounded

The Basmala occurs twice in the twenty-seventh sura, at the beginning and in verse 30 (where it prefaces a letter from Sulayman to the Queen of Sheba, Bilqis). Surah Al-Naml (سورة النمل (The Ant The Ants is the 27th sura of the Qur'an with 93 Ayat. The Queen of Sheba (ንግሥተ ሳባ, 'מלכת שבא, ملكة سبأ) was the woman who ruled the ancient kingdom of Sheba and is referred to in Habeshan The Queen of Sheba (ንግሥተ ሳባ, 'מלכת שבא, ملكة سبأ) was the woman who ruled the ancient kingdom of Sheba and is referred to in Habeshan

Significance

The Basmala has a special significance for Muslims, who are to begin each task after reciting the verse. Often, Bismillah is preceded by Ta'awwudh. Ta`awwudh (Arabic تعوذ is an Arabic term used as the name for the phrase A`ūdhu billāhi min ash-shaitāni r-rajīmi (أعوذ بالله من الشيطان In Arabic calligraphy, it is the most prevalent motif, more so even than the Shahadah. Islamic calligraphy, equally known as Arabic calligraphy, is the art of writing and by extension of bookmaking The Shahada ( Arabic: ar الشهادة, from the verb ar شهد "to testify" is the Islamic Creed. 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. Allah ( Arabic: الله, ʔalˤːɑːh) is the standard Arabic word for ' Surat ar-Rahman ( Arabic: ar سورة الرحمن is the 55th sura of the Qur'an with 78 Ayat. The 99 Names of Allah, also known as The 99 Most Beautiful Names of God () are the Names of God (specifically attributes by which Muslims regard God The 99 Names of Allah, also known as The 99 Most Beautiful Names of God () are the Names of God (specifically attributes by which Muslims regard God Both ar-Rahman and ar-Rahim are from the same triliteral root, R-Ḥ-M "to feel sympathy or pity". In the terminology used to discuss the grammar of the Semitic languages and some other Afro-Asiatic languages, a triliteral ( Arabic: جذر ثلاثي (ر ح م Hebrew רחם is the Triconsonantal root of many Arabic and Hebrew words and many of those words are used as names According to Lane, ar-raḥmān is more intensive, including in its objects the believer and the unbeliever, and may be rendered as "The Compassionate", while ar-raḥīm has for its peculiar object the believer, considered as expressive of a constant attribute, and may be rendered as "The Merciful". The Arabic-English Lexicon is an 19th-century Arabic dictionary compiled by the British Orientalist Edward William Lane. A Muslim (مسلم pronounced Muslim, not Muzlim) is an adherent of the Religion

Alternative Christian meaning

Arabic-speaking Christians sometimes use the word Basmala (Arabic: بسملة‎) to refer to the Christian liturgical formula "In the name of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit" (باسم الآب والابن والروح القدس, bismi-l-’abi wa-l-ibni wa-r-rūḥi l-qudusi), from Matthew 28:19. Arabic (ar الْعَرَبيّة (informally ar عَرَبيْ) in terms of the number of speakers is the largest living member of the Semitic language The trinitarian formula is the phrase " in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit " (original Greek εις το ονομα Ab means " Father " in most Semitic languages, sometimes extended to Abba or Aba.

Numerology

The total value of the letters of "Bismillah al-Rahman al-Rahim" according to one Arabic system of numerology is 786. Isopsephy (ˈaɪsəsɛfi iso meaning "equal" and psephos meaning "pebble" is the Greek word for the practice of adding up the There are two methods of arranging the letters of the Arabic alphabet. One method is the most common alphabetical order (used for most ordinary purposes), beginning with the letters Alif ا, ba ب, ta ت, tha ث etc. The other method is known as the Abjad numerals' method or ordinal method. The Abjad numerals are a decimal Numeral system in which the 28 letters of the Arabic alphabet are assigned numerical values In this method the letters are arranged in the following order: Abjad, Hawwaz, Hutti, Kalaman, Sa'fas, Qarshat, Sakhaz, Zazagh; and each letter has an arithmetic value assigned to it from one to one thousand. The Arabic alphabet is the script used for writing several languages of Asia and Africa such as Arabic, Persian, and Urdu. (This arrangement was done, most probably in the 3rd century of Hijrah during the 'Abbasid period, following the practices of speakers of other Semitic languages such as Aramaic, Hebrew, Syriac, Chaldean etc. )

If you take the numeric values of all the letters of the Basmala, according to the Abjad order, the total will be 786. In the Indian subcontinent the Abjad numerals have become quite popular. The Abjad numerals are a decimal Numeral system in which the 28 letters of the Arabic alphabet are assigned numerical values Some people, mostly in India and Pakistan, use 786 as a substitute for Bismillah ("In the name of Allah" or "In the name of God"). 786 is the integer coming after 785 and before 787 In mathematics 786 is a Sphenic number. They write this number to avoid writing the name of God, or Qur'anic verses on ordinary papers, which can be subject to dirt or come in contact with 'unclean' materials. This practice does not date from the time of Muhammad and is not universally accepted by Muslims.

Cultural references

The Iranian authorities permitted an album of songs by the popular music band Queen to be released in Iran in August 2004, partly because the song "Bohemian Rhapsody" contains several exclamations of the word "Bismillah". For a topic outline on this subject see List of basic Iran topics. Queen were an English rock band formed in 1970 in London by guitarist is a Song written by Freddie Mercury and originally recorded by the band Queen for their 1975 album ''A Night at the Opera''. ^[1]

See also

• Kalima
• Shahada
• List of Islamic terms in Arabic
• List of Christian terms in Arabic

External links

• Saying Bismillah - Virtues and Ocassions - Collection of Sayings from Authentic Hadiths
• Bismallah as in Tadabbur-i-Qur'an
• Meaning of Bismillah

References