The Holy Quran with Five Volume Commentary (Vol 1) — Page 8
CH. 1 AL-FATIHAH the truth of the Holy Prophet. This result could not have been attained if the verse had been put only in the beginning of the Quran. 4. The verse Bismillāh placed before every chapter of the Quran also serves another important purpose. It is a key to the meaning of each individual chapter. This is so because all questions affecting moral and spiritual matters are related in one way or another with these fundamental divine attributes: Rahmaniyyat (grace) and Raḥīmiyyat (mercy). Thus each chapter is, in fact, a detailed exposition of some aspect of the divine attributes mentioned in the verse. (iv) Some Christian writers have raised the objection that the formula of Bismillah has been borrowed from earlier Scriptures, insinuating that it cannot therefore be of Divine origin. Wherry, in his commentary has expressed the opinion that it has been borrowed from the Zend-Avesta where it has the form: ie with the بنام ایزد بخشائنده و بخشائش گر name of God, Forgiving, Kind. A similar objection has been raised by Sale. Rodwell, however, has expressed the opinion that the Quran borrowed the formula from the Jews, among whom it was in vogue and from whom its use was borrowed by pre-Islamic Arabs. Both these criticisms are wrong and beside the point; for firstly it has never been claimed by the Muslims that the formula in this or similar form was not known before the revelation of the Quran; secondly it is wrong to argue that the formula could not be of 8 Divine origin even if it was sometimes used by the pre-Islamic peoples in an identical or similar form before its revelation in the Quran. As a matter of fact, the Quran itself states that Solomon used the phrase in his letter to the Queen of Sheba (27:31). What Muslims claim and this claim has never been refuted is that the Quran was the first Scripture to use the formula in the way it did [see (iii) above]. It is also wrong to say that the formula was in common vogue among pre- Islamic Arabs, for it is well known that Arabs had an aversion to the use of the name Ar-Rahman for God. Again, if such formulae for the praise of God were known before, it only goes to corroborate the truth of the Quranic teaching that there has not been a people to whom a Teacher has not been sent (35:25), and that the Quran is a repository of all permanent truths contained in the previous Books (98:4). It adds much more, of course, and, whatever it adopts, it improves its form or use or both. (v) It has been asked why the word (name) has been used before the in the verse word (Allah) الله Bismillāh. This may be explained in a number of ways: 1. In the Arabic language the particle is used not only to signify connection or invoke help, but also in swearing. So if the word had been dropped, the phrase (billāh) might have meant "I swear by Allah. " The introduction of (name) removes this ambiguity. 2. God being the source of all