Page:Maulana Muhammad Ali Quran.djvu/118

2 made obligatory for the Muslims, and there is a vast mass of evidence showing that this happened very early after the Prophet's call. For not only is the fact referred to in the earliest revelations, such as the 73rd chapter, but there are also other historical incidents showing that prayer was observed by the earliest Muslim converts. The Holy Prophet’s removal to the house of Arqam is a historical fact of undoubted truth, and it occurred at the latest in the fourth year of his preaching, and this removal was necessitated by the troubles caused to the Muslims on account of their saying prayers in places which were not safe from the interference of the unbelievers. Thus the story of Sa'd, who "retired for prayer with a group of believers to a valley near Mecca," and the occurrence of an affray with some of his neighbours, as narrated by Muir, may be taken as a preliminary to the choice of Arqam’s house so as to avoid interruption.

The chapter is headed by the words Bismilláh-ir-Raḥmán-ir-Ráḥim, which also head every one of the other 114 chapters of the Holy Qur-án with the exception of one only, the ninth, while the same sentence occurs once in the middle of a chapter, viz. in 27:30, thus occurring 114 times in the Holy Qur-án. The phrase has besides acquired such a wide usage among the Muslims that it is the first thing which a Muslim child learns, and in his everyday affairs the Bismilláh is the first word which a Muslim utters.

The Bismilláh is the quintessence of the chapter Fatiḥáh, in the same manner as the latter is the quintessence of the Qur-án itself. By commencing every important affair with the Bismilláh the Muslim in fact shows in the midst of his everyday life affairs that the right attitude of the human mind towards the Great Mind of the universe is that it should always seek a support in the Mighty One who is the source of all strength, and thus Divine Unity finds expression in the practical life of man in a manner unapproached anywhere else in the history of religion.

The revelation of the Bismilláh seems to have soon followed the first revelation of the opening verses of Chapter 96, for it forms a part of even the shortest chapter revealed to the Holy Prophet. Moreover, the words of the Bismilláh show a deep connection with the account of the first revelation as given by the Holy Prophet himself. He was in the well-known cave of Hira when the first message came to him. This message was brought by an angel, who asked the Holy Prophet to read. "I am not one who can read," was the reply. The request and the answer were repeated thrice, when the angel said: "Read in the name of your Lord Who created, He created man from a clot; read and your Lord is most Honourable" (Bkh). And as the Prophet, who on the most trustworthy testimony did not know either reading or writing, was able to read with the help of the Lord, even so is every Muslim taught to seek the help of Allah, the Beneficent, the Merciful, in everything that he seeks to do. The Bismilláh must thus have immediately followed the very first revelation.

Besides the word Alláh, which in the Arabic language is the proper name of the Divine Being, there occur in the Bismilláh the two chief attributive names Ar-Raḥmán and Ar-Raḥím, which signify respectively the Beneficent One Who exercises His love towards all His creatures in providing for them before they come into existence, and the Merciful One Who deals mercifully with His servants in making their humble deeds bear fruit. Thus, in addition to the dependence of man on his Divine Maker, the Bismilláh teaches the absolute and transcendental Unity of the Divine Being in the use of the word Allah, which was never applied to any other object of worship by the Arabs, and His great and unbounded love and mercy for His creatures in the use of the two words Ar-Raḥmán and Ar-Raḥím. So great is His love that He requires no compensation for its exercise, as the Christian doctrine of atonement teaches, and so great is His mercy that He can make the deeds of man bear an unbounded fruit, and the gift of His salvation is therefore permanent and not temporary, as taught by the Vedic religion.

Rodwell’s suggestion that the Bismilláh in the form in which it appears in the Holy Qur-án was first taught to the Quraish by the poet Umayya of Táif seems to have been due to some misconception, for there is unimpeachable testimony to show that the Quraish not only did not know the name Ar-Raḥmán of the Divine Being, to which they asserted themselves to be utter strangers (25:60), but that they were averse to the use of