Basmala - WikiHQ

The  (; also known as Tasmiya by its opening words ; , "In the name of God") is an Islamic phrase meaning "In the name of God, the Most Gracious, the Most Merciful" (, ). It is one of the most important phrases in Islam and is frequently recited by Muslims before performing daily activities and religious practices, including prayer, and at the start of verses (āyah) or chapters (surahs) of the Qur'an. 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.

The Basmala is used in constitutions of over half of the 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.

Etymology

thumb|left|upright|Evolution of writing the basmala (9th - 11th century)

The traditional name for the phrase in Classical Arabic was tasmiyah. Other common phrases in Islam were also given their own names based on form 2 verbal nouns, including the tasbih ("Subhān Allāh").

The word basmala was derived from a slightly unusual procedure, portmanteau: the first four pronounced consonants of the phrase beginning bismi llāhi... were used to create a new quadriliteral root: b-s-m-l (). 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 hamdala for Alhamdulillah, instead of the formal form tahmid. 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

thumb|left|upright|[[tarsh|Block printed basmala 1242-1258]]

thumb|upright|[[Thuluth script]]

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

<blockquote>Jabir reported: I heard Messenger of Allah (saw) saying, "If a person mentions the Name of Allah upon entering his house or eating, Satan says, addressing his followers: 'You will find nowhere to spend the night and no dinner.' But if he enters without mentioning the Name of Allah, Satan says (to his followers); 'You have found (a place) to spend the night in,' and if he does not mention the Name of Allah at the time of eating, Satan says: 'You have found (a place) to spend the night in as well as food.'"

:— From Al Bukhari and Muslim</blockquote>

<blockquote>Aisha reported: "The Prophet said, "When any of you wants to eat, he should mention the Name of God in the beginning (Bismillah). If he forgets to do it in the beginning, he should say Bismillah awwalahu wa akhirahu (I begin with the Name of God at the beginning and at the end)".

:— From At-Tirmidhi and Abu Dawud</blockquote>

<blockquote>Umaiyyah bin Makshi reported: "The Prophet was sitting while a man was eating food. That man did not mention the Name of God till only a morsel of food was left. When he raised it to his mouth, he said, Bismillah awwalahu wa akhirahu. The Prophet smiled at this and said, "Satan had been eating with him but when he mentioned the Name of God, Satan vomited all that was in his stomach".

:— From Abu Dawud and Al-Nasa'i</blockquote>

<blockquote>Wahshi bin Harb reported: "Some of the Sahaba of the Prophet said, 'We eat but are not satisfied.' He said, 'Perhaps you eat separately.' The Sahaba replied in the affirmative. He then said, 'Eat together and mention the Name of God over your food. It will be blessed for you.'

:— From Abu Dawood</blockquote>

A tradition ascribed to Muhammad states:

<blockquote>All that is contained in the revealed books is to be found in the Qur’an and all that is contained in the Qur’an is summed up in the surat al-fatihah ("The opening one") while this is in its turn contained in the formula Bismillahi-r-Rahmani-r-Rahim ("In the name of God, the Compassionate, the Merciful").</blockquote>

A tradition ascribed to Imam Ali states:

Numerology

thumb|left|upright|19th century basmala on a leaf

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. 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.

The 19 Arabic letters of the Basmala's tetrad of words (Bism has 3, Allah has 4, al-Rahman has 6, al-Rahim has 6) also align with the numerical culture of the Báb's revelation, whose Badíʿ calendar outlined in the Kitábu'l-Asmáʼ serves as the numerical basis of the Baháʼí calendar consisting of 19 divisions of 19 days each, which can be thematically grouped in alignment with the 3:4:6:6 tetrad pattern.

Unicode

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

{| class="wikitable"

!colspan="6"|Unicode

!HTML entity references

!Character

!Name

!Transcription

!Arabic

!English

|<code>&#65021;</code><code>&#xFDFD;</code>

|Arabic ligature BISMILLAH AR-RAHMAN AR-RAHEEM

|Bi-smi llāhi r-raḥmāni r-raḥīm

|In the name of Allah, the Most Gracious, the Most Merciful

Gallery

File:Bismillah Calligraphy 39.svg|Mirrored basmala calligraphy

File:Inscribed wall slab from the Great Mosque of al-Nuri in Mosul, Iraq, 6th century AH. Iraq Museum.jpg|Marble carved Basmala, Great Mosque of al-Nuri, Mosul, 12th century

File:Khalili Collection Islamic Art mxd 0056.1.jpg|Agate inkpot with basmala, 10th century

File:Karahisari.jpg|Ahmed Karahisari calligraphy, 1550

File:Basmala prominant allah.jpg|Basmala calligraphy, 2002

File:Sultan Hasan Bismillah.JPG|Basmala calligraphy of Mosque-Madrasa of Sultan Hasan's iwan, 1356-1363

File:سوره حمد.jpg|Carved Basmala Calligraphy from Al-Abbas Shrine

Tile with bismillah Louvre AD28001a.jpg|Ilkhanid lustreware tile, 13th century

File:Foliated Calligraphy 'Basmala', signed Malik Muhammad Qazvini, dated 1250 AH.jpg|Calligraphy of Malik Muhammad Qazvini, Qajar Iran, 1835

File:Bismillah Calligraphy 32.svg|Looping Basmala calligraphy

File:Basmalla.jpg|Basmala calligraphy stamp

File:Bismillah Calligraphy 43.svg|Basmala calligraphy flanked by al-Rahman and a mirrored al-Raheem.

File:Bismillah Calligraphy 48.svg|Knotted Kufic Basmala calligraphy

File:Bismillah Calligraphy 56.svg|Triangular Basmala calligraphy

File:Bismillah Calligraphy14.svg|Basmala calligraphy

</gallery>

Notes

References

Sources

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