THE BASMALAH

بِسْمِ اللهِ الرَّحْمنِ الرَّحِيمِ

 

    The word basmala  is an Arabic term of invocation indicative of the oft repeated Arabic Qur'ān formula Bismillāh al-Raḥman al-Raḥīm (cited above with pointing). It occurs before all 114 Surahs ("chapters") of the Qur'an except the ninth Surah al-Tawba (The Surah of Repentance = Q.9).  More than a billion pious Muslims repeat it in obligatory Qur'an rooted and other devotions five or more times a day. It is used in countless ritualistic  and semi-ritualistic circumstances throughout the Muslim world. Its pious recitation is believed to be a source of blessing and sanctification. Numerous extra-qur'anic Islamic devotional and other literatures and communications are headed by the basmala. It is without doubt the most centrally important religious invocation in the Islamic world wherein it is chanted and written under numerous circumstances.  Many hundreds of learned commentaries have been written on the basmala in all the languages of Islamic civilization including, for example,  Arabic, Persian, and Turkish.

 The basmala is made of  three or four (or more words counting the two occurrences of definite article =  ال    separately as prefixed to two words) Arabic words : 

(1-2) ب  meaning " In" and prefixed to  the word "Name" (= 2)

(2)    =  ب +  اسم  =  بسم   , the word  "Name" (=   اسم  )  with its first vowel letter "a" ا  elided or absent  due to the prefixing of  the letter ب" B" meaning "In"

(3)   الله  =  Allah   the personal name of the God  of all in the  Qur'an;  linguistically probably itself a contraction of the words ال al +   اله  = "God" = the God.

(4) al-Raḥman  =  الرحمن  =    ( prefixed with the definite article ال  = al. ).

(5) al-Raḥmīn =   الرحيم   =  A + L+ R+ Ḥ+ Y + M  (prefixed with the definite article  ال  = al. ).

This basmala Arabic sentence is thus composed of a succession  of five or more  words (with repetition) which are  made up of nineteen letters  These 19 letters  may be spelled out as follows:

ب س م ا ل ل ه ا ل  ر ح  م  ن  ا ل  ر ح  ي  م

Thus, as transliterated the list of letters is as follows:

(1) B + (2) S + (3) M + (4) A + (5) L+ (6) L + (7) H +(8) A + (9) L + (10) R + (11) Ḥ + (12) M + (13) N + (14) A + (15) L+   (16) R + (17) Ḥ + (18) Y + (19) M.

بسم   Composed of 3 letters  =   B ب +  S س + M م           

الله   Composed of 4 letters:   A+L+L+H  = letters 4-7.

            الرحمن   Composed of 6 (2+4) letters =   A + L (= ال ) + R+ Ḥ + M + N  

                = letters 8-13

الرحيم Composed of 6 (2+4) letters = A + L (= ال ) + R+ Ḥ + Y + M

= letters 14-19.

 

Select Islamic commentaries.

Most commentaries on the Qur'an contain detailed notes on the basmala often extending for many pages and incorporating large numbers of expository traditions.  Shi`i thinkers and philosophers, Islamic mystics and Sufis had a special interest in the deeper meanings of the basmala.

 

al-Jili, `Abd al-Karim (d  c. XXX/XXXX).

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Lāḥim, Sulaymān ibn Ibrāhīm ibn ʻAbd Allāh.

  • al-Lubāb fī tafsīr al-istiʻādhah wa-al-Basmalah wa-Fātiḥat al-Kitāb. al-Riyāḍ : Dār al-Muslim, 1420/ ‬1999. 

 

 

Select Early Shaykhī Commentaries :

Shaykh Ahmad al-Ahsā'ī (d. Medina, 1241/1826)

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Rashtī, Sayyid Kāzim  = Ibn Sayyid Qāsim Muhammad Kāẓim al-Hāshimi.. al-Ḥusaynī (d. Karbala, 1259/1843).

The Persian born second head of al-Shaykhiyya (Shaykhism) after Shaykh Aḥmad al-Ahsā'ī (see above). Qajar period Persian mystical philosopher and exegete.
  • شرح آية الكرسي من  السيد كاظم بن السيد قاسم الحسيني الرشتي
  • [Tafsir] Sharḥ  āyat al-kursī ("Commentary on the Throne Verse", Q. 2:254). 19th cent. lithograph edition (not seen).

Mss contained, for example, in SOAS (London) No. 1141 [unpaginated] Item 8.  [fols. XXX] (see Ibrahimi, Fihrist No. 270 p. 331). Rashti claims at the outset  to be giving a deep mystico-philosophical exegesis expressive of the ta`wīl ("allegorical") and of the bāṭin ("Interior dimension") of this Qur'ānic verse. This work is an extended several hundred page very complex  exegesis- eisegesis of the Throne Verse. It commences as follows:

الحمد لله الذي اجلي افئدة العارفين لتجليات ظهوره و انار قلوب السالكين لاشراقات نوره و شرح صدور العالمين لتشعشع لمعات بدوره و الصلوة علي سيدنا محمد الذي به استقر عرشه و كرسيه و هو الاسم الذي استقر في ظله فلايخرج منه الي غيره و هو الاسم الاعظم المكنون و النور الانور المخزون به نورت الانوار و به ظهرت الاسرار و به اشرق النور من صبح الازل و به وجدت الموجودات ما قل و جل و علي آله و اصحابه شموس الهدي و بدور الدجي و اعلام التقي و ذوي النهي و اولي الحجي و كهف الوري و ورثة الانبياء عليهم صلوات الله ما دامت الارض و السماء .

"Praised be unto God Who shed the splendor of His radiance upon the inmost hearts of the mystic knowers so as to actualize the disclosure of the orient lights of His theophany. He set ablaze the hearts of the mystic wayfarers through the orient splendors of His Light and explicated the inner retreats [bosoms] of all the worlds for the purpose of dazzlingly illuminating the radiances of His cyclic schemata.

And blessings be upon our Master [the Prophet] Muhammad through whom He settled down upon His Throne (`arsh) and His Seat (kursi) for he is the Name through the shadow of which eyes were solaced. Wherefore there did not emerge from before me aught save what is of Him for he [Muhammad] is the Hidden, Mightiest Name (al-ism al-a`zam) and the Light of Lights treasured up, the very one through whom the Lights found illumination. Through him were mysteries disclosed and Light irradiated from the Dawn of Eternity (subḥ al-azal). And through him did all existence fīnd realization.... " (trans. Lambden).

  • ADD Kirmani Shaykhi Website
  • Extract in the Persian translation of Henri Corbin, En Islam Iranian  Tehran ADD.
  • Risālah for Mirza `Ali  Ṭabīb Hindī containing responses to questions about the basmalah. Unpublished mss. See Fihrist of Sayyid Kazim and Ibrahimi, Fihrist p.330 No. 265.
  • Risālah for Mulla Muhammad `Ali Shahir Bujdali  on some of the mysteries of the Basmalah. Unpublished mss. See Fihrist of Sayyid Kazim and Ibrahimi, Fihrist p.330 No. 266
  • .Risālah for Mulla Muhammad `Ali Shahir Bujdali  on some of the mysteries of the Basmalah. Unpublished mss. See Fihrist of Sayyid Kazim and Ibrahimi, Fihrist p.330 No. 267
  • Risālah in exposition of the Point ( •  ) of the Letter "B" ((ب ) of the Basmalah. Unpublished mss. See Fihrist of Sayyid Kazim and Ibrahimi, Fihrist p.330 No. 269.
  • Risālah in exposition of some aspects of the Basmalah. Unpublished mss. See Fihrist of Sayyid Kazim and Ibrahimi, Fihrist p.330 No. 270..
  • Risālah in exposition of the exegetical modes (maqāmāt) of the outer (ẓāhir) and inner (bāṭin)  as well as  the allegorical (ta`wil) senses of the Qur'ān and of the ahkbar or traditions of the people of the House [of the Prophet]. Old Lithograph edition. See Fihrist of Sayyid Kazim and Ibrahimi, Fihrist p.330 No. 272
  • Risālah-i Yawmiyya on the [Qur'ānic and related references to the] creation of the heavens and the earth in four - eight or six days. See Ibrahimi, Fihrist p.331 No. 271.

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Babi-Baha'i Commentaries on the Basmala.

Sayyid `Ali Muhamamd Shirazi (1819-1850 CE).

  • Tafsīr [Ḥurūf al-] Basmala (= Bismillāh al-Raḥman al-Raḥīm
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Mirza Husayn `Ali Nuri, Baha-Allah (1917-1850 CE)

  • Tafsir Basmala. On the basmalah and its component letters, etc.
  • Tafsir . Q. 68:1a including the letters of the basmala, the isolated letter ن nūn) and verse 1a , "By the Pen!"
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`Abbas Effendi, `Abd al-Baha' (1844-1921CE).

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