The Love in Basmala

The Glorious Qur’an

When you ask people what is the name of Islam’s holy book the likely answer is the Koran. The transliteration that Muslims’ prefer is Qur’an. But strange as it may seem, the Qur’an was not compiled as a text until after Prophet Muhammad’s death. There was a very heated debate within the leadership of the Muslim community on whether the Qur’an should be assembled in text form at all.

Qur’an literally means “Recitation.” the Qur’an was learned by memorization. Every Muslim memorizes at least some of its chapters, as they are required for the five daily prayers. Many people have memorized the entire Recitation. Muslims call them Hafiz al-Qur’an, which translates as “Guardian of the Recitation”. 

The Basmala

The Qur’an has 114 divisions that are usually called chapters. Each, with the exception of the 9th, begins with an expression so common, Muslims created a name for it: the basmala. Nevertheless, there are 114 basmalas in the Qur’an as one chapter has it twice.

 Muslims begin everything with this expression. It is said the prophet taught us to do this as it would guard our hands from going into evil things because at the outset, our habit of saying the basmala would remind us and call us back to the good. 

There are nine distinct syllables. This is how it sounds:

biS Mi LLaH ir RaH Maan ir Ra HiM

It is commonly translated as, “In the Name of Allah, the Compassionate, the Merciful”.

 Orthography

Orthographically, strange things have happened with the basmala. Letters literally disappear and reappear inside of another letter. Since both attributes, rahman and rahim, begin with what we call sun letters, they overpower the moon letters to the point you will not hear them recited.

 The expression begins with baa. Baa is shaped like a boat with a dot beneath its keel. In this instance, it is a preposition that is translated as “in, through, by”. Because of the baa, like man, seeks intimacy wherever it can be found, the baa attaches to whatever comes before it or behind it. So, in this case, there was nothing behind it but it saw the alif standing there holding the vowel “i” under its foot (hamza). The alif, often taken as the initial or symbol of God, has unique properties among the letters. For example, it is silent. You can never hear the alif if it arrives first. It must come after the vowel “a” to resonate.

 If you’ve been reading carefully, you may be saying, “Wait a minute. You said it was holding down the vowel “i” but then you said it would only resonate if it comes after the vowel “a”? How can that be?”

 The alif is invisible in the world of sound. Only when the “a” is extended do you even know it is there.

 You see, the alif carries the hamza. You can barely hear a hamza but you can find it. Place your thumb and your fore finger at the juncture of your throat and head. Now say, “Uh”. That strain you felt is the glottis closing and opening. That is what the alif carries and that is why it is so special.

 The baa, knowing the mercurial (no cross cultural pun intended) nature of the alif, actually absorbed the alif. When you look in most Qur’ans, you will that the baa has a much higher back when it is in the service of the basmala than otherwise. 

If the baa represents man and the alif represents God and the baa absorbs the alif… Sufi delight!

 But wait! The next letter also represents man often and it is the “s”. It has the same propensity to take it coming and going so it actually connects with the enlightened baa (I’ll call it enlightened because its got alif in its heart). Nice, right? Sure it is. You see, since the baa is enlightened now so is the “s”. There’s b s in enlightenment! Couldn’t resist a little levity. This does show different aspects of humanity sharing the same enlightenment although from different places. 

The first phrase (bismi) ends in a meem “m”. Meem has even broader aspects than “b” or “s”. People are indicated by “mu” as in Muhammad”. Places are often indicated by “ma” as in masjid. So, perhaps the enlightened baa and seen is extended even further.

The history of the word Allah is uncertain but it does seem to be related to ilah (more of a minor god or something worth worshipping).

Three Words 

There are three words in the basmala. The first word is Ism, which means “name, reputation”. The second word is Allah. The third word is actually doubled. You can see it in the above transliteration. The word RHM is doubled. The basmala ends with this RHM being repeated as if for emphasis.

I’ve discussed elsewhere on Gather (one of my Arab poets postings) that RHM at root means womb and that the basmala seems to emphasize the feminine creative energies as the soundest metaphors for the divine. 

On the Nature of Allah

Concerning the nature of Allah, since I raised it, the Qur’an is explicit: 

Say: He, Allah, is One

Allah is on whom all depend

He begets not nor is He begotten

and there is none like Him. 

Also, there is a verse in the Qur’an that states, “He created the male and the female…” Sounds rather, well, yeah… unless you can read the Arabic because in this instance the verse uses a pronoun for He that has the very rare attribute of not being male or female (for those who know Arabic, it is “maa” as in “Maa khalaqa adh-dhakara wal- unthaa). 

So the argument isn’t whether Allah is male or female. Rather, it is that the Qur’an emphasizes that Allah’s relationship to his creation is like a mother. But a stern one, although certainly loving. 

Enough for now!