The Essence of Islam – Volume I — Page 447
The Holy Qur'ān 447 elsewhere, let him set forth this verity along with the other verities which we shall expound below. . Some short-sighted and ignorant opponents of Islām have raised an objection to the proper composition of Bismillah. One of them is the Rev. Mr. 'Imād-ud-Din, who has set forth the objection in his book Hidayat-ul-Muslimin. . Another one is Bāwā Narāyan Singh, a lawyer of Amritsar, who deeming the objection of the reverend gentleman as having substance, has, out of the rancour of his heart, repeated it in his journal Viddyā Parkāshak. We now proceed to set forth the objection together with its answer so that every just person should realize to what degree of inner blindness bigotry has driven our opponents so that bright light appears darkness to them and excellent perfume smells vile in their nostrils. The objection by these critics raised against the profound and deeper meaning of the verse: بسم الله الرّحمنِ الرَّحِيمِ 256 is that the sequence of Raḥmān and Raḥīm in this verse is not proper and that the proper sequence should have been. Rahim and Raḥmān, inasmuch as Raḥmān signifies that mercy of the Divine which is general and comprehensive and Rahim signifies the mercy of the Divine which is limited and special, and the rules of composition require that that which is limited should precede that which is general and unlimited and not vice versa. . This is the objection which these two gentlemen have raised with their eyes shut against a text the excellence of which has been admitted by all the learned of Arabia 256 'In the name of Allah, the Gracious, the Merciful'― al-Fatihah, 1:1 [Publisher]