Du`a – Essence of `Ibadat - The Discovery of the Realities of Tasmiyah
The Discovery of the Realities of Tasmiyah
Tags: Tasmiyah, Barakat, Bismi'llah, Asma'ul-Husna, Ar-Rahman, Ar-Rahim, Mihr
In the Name of Allah, the Compassionate, the Merciful
Seeking special success from the Lord of the worlds, it is stated that tasmiyah is the name of the kalimah “Bismi'llah”, which is found in the beginning of every surah (except surah of Tawbah) of the holy Qur'an. This kalimah, the complete form of which is “Bismi'llahi'r-rahmani'r-rahim” is among those blessed kalimati (consisting of more than one word) names of God, which are elaborate and full of spiritual bounties and blessings, as the Qur'an says: “Full of barkat (ped. barakat, blessing) is the name of your Lord, Mighty and Glorious” (55:78). Here the special meaning of barkat or blessing is the infinity of knowledge and wisdom. That is, the chain of the wonders of knowledge, which commences as a result of the constant remembrance of the special names of the Lord, never ceases. And under this supreme blessing of knowledge and wisdom, other spiritual and material blessings can also be attained. The word barkat literally means growth and increase.
Many blessings and virtues of tasmiyah or Bismi'llah are mentioned in the books of Exegeses and Traditions and in other related literature. For instance, in Kawkab-i Durri (p. 297), it is narrated from Ibn Fakhri that one day the Prince of the faithful, `Ali said: “If I wish I can load seventy camels with (the exegesis of) the ba' of Bismi'llah”. That is, the weight of those books would be equal to the load of seventy camels.
This shows that the tasmiyah has many meanings. The gist of all these meanings is the praise of God's blessed name and the guidance to remember him. As God says: “And eat not that whereupon Allah's name has not been mentioned (during slaughtering)” (6:122). Two facts emerge from this verse: one is that just as there are lafzi names (consisting of one word) of God, there are also His kalimati names. For, God considers the whole of the kalimah “Bismi'llahi wa'llahu akbar (with the name of Allah and Allah is great)”, which is recited during the slaughtering of lawful (halal) animals as His name, in which there is His lafzi name as well as the guidance to remember His names. Further, in the beginning of the revelation of the Qur'an, Jibra'il said to the Prophet: “Take the name of your Lord and recite it” (96:1). This command was carried out in the form of reciting Bismi'llahi'r-rahmani'r-rahim. Thus it is evident that the entire verse of Bismi'llah is one of the kalimati names of God. For, the name of the Lord, which [the Prophet] had to recite before the recitation of the first surah (96) of the holy Qur'an was this Bismi'llah.
The other fact is that human beings are given limited freewill (ikhtiyar). This means that a person, in his original and natural state, stands balanced between good and bad, just as an honest goldsmith carefully adjusts the beam of his scales prior to weighing, so that in any transactions related to gold, neither the seller nor the buyer suffers any loss or injustice. This example shows that when human beings are in their original natural state, they can incline easily either to good or bad by the slightest movement of their will. Since they make this voluntary movement by their own choice, it is called freewill.
If someone asks: Since the human will is like a balance, whose scales are equipoised perfectly, how did the difference or contradiction occur in such a balanced and equipoised will that, sometimes it inclines towards good and sometimes towards bad? The answer is: The human will is under the influence of two equally opposing powers - the intellect (`aql, i.e. the power which persuades to do good) and the carnal soul (nafs, i.e. the power to do bad). Therefore, the human will is sometimes controlled by the `aql and sometimes by the nafs.
Thus the hidden battle of the human `aql and nafs always continues. This battle or tug of war is not confined to external speech and action only, but also continues internally in thoughts, ideas and pure will. In such a case, the all-embracing mercy of God necessitates that the `aql be helped to compel the nafs to follow it in every instance, and to make it detest those pleasures for which it opposes the `aql, and to persuade it towards the higher pleasures and delights of the spiritual kind.
Thus God, the Omnipotent, has placed His names in front of human beings, in which there is luminous help for the `aql and spiritual happiness for the nafs, so that by remembering them they may attain satisfaction of the heart. As God says: “Verily, in the remembrance of God (which is done through His real names) do hearts find satisfaction” (13:28). Heart is another name for the nafs. The nafs receives spiritual happiness from the remembrance of God and in the hope of more delight and happiness it starts to obey the `aql.
To such a nafs, which following the `aql has attained final satisfaction and spiritual peace by doing `ibadat and true dhikr, comes this call from God: “O the satisfied soul! Return unto your Lord, in a state in which you are happy with Him and He is happy with you. Enter among My (specially favoured) servants and enter My Paradise” (89:26-30).
In the famous story in the Qur'an about Hadhrat Adam (May peace be through him), he was taught the knowledge of names (`ilmu'l-asma'). However, except for the people of wisdom, nobody knows how this knowledge was given to him. Was this knowledge acquired (iktisabi, external) or was it given (`ata'i, miraculous)? Did God teach Adam the names of things or His own beautiful names (al-asma'u'l-husna) (i.e. His Supreme Names)? Is it not true that the names of all the things of the universe and existents and all the sciences related to them, are hidden in the names of God? Is it not true that it is God's names that are like the luminous keys to enter the treasures of the knowledge of the heavens and the earth? As God says about them: “His are the keys of the heavens and the earth” (39:63).
If it is true that God's names are the keys to the treasures of the heavens and the earth, then as a principle, it is also true that there has to be a separate treasure of all their keys, of which the most important is neither a waqf (endowment) available to every individual so that he may steal the treasures, nor can it be kept in another treasure. Had it been so, it too would need a key and so on ad infinitum; nor can it be kept in an open place. Rather, this key has to be with a person who, despite being alive and present is, in the words of Mawla-yi Rumi, hidden within seven hundred veils. Such a person is the Perfect Man, namely, the Imam of the time.
Thus, one should rest assured that all the names of God, which are the keys to the treasures of the knowledge of the heavens and earth, are under the Supreme Name (ism-i a`zam). Further, one should rest assured that the knowledge of names was given to Hadhrat Adam (May peace be through him) in a miraculous way, as a result of the remembrance of the Supreme Name, and the same way of teaching was prescribed for Prophet Muhammad (May Allah send blessings and peace through him and his progeny) and the other Prophets and friends (of God) and remains so. Thus it is evident that it is the real name of God alone, which is the key to knowledge and recognition (ma`rifat). It was because of this that Jibra'il, when bringing the revelation for the first time to the Prophet, said to him: “Read by the means of/through the name of your Lord”.
In Hadhrat Nuh (May peace be through him)'s time, when the deluge started, the prayer which he uttered before letting the obedient mu'mins embark on the Ark, was in the form of Bismi'llah, as the Qur'an says: “And He said: Embark therein! Its course and its mooring is by the name of God” (11:41). Here, it is important to note that certain meanings and realities are hidden in a du`a (prayer) or kalimah (word) or ism (name) prescribed to recite as dhikr-i ilahi (Divine remembrance), which in comparison to other realities, are as necessary to understand as it is to recite dhikr-i ilahi in comparison to other [forms of] `ibadat.
The preceding discussion reveals the necessity and importance of understanding the meaning and reality of Bismi'llah. Thus, Bismi'llahi'r-rahmani'r-rahim means 'In the name of Allah, the Compassionate, the Merciful'. This however, is its superficial meaning. Therefore in order to ascertain its real teaching and ultimate meaning, we have to look with insight into the important verses related to Bismi'llah. It is well-known to many people that when Jibra'il first brought the message from Allah, the kalimah of Bismi'llah was not in its beginning as a part of it. Had it been so, it would not have been said: “Take the name of your Lord and read”, rather it would have simply been said: “Read it”. Further, if Bismi'llah had been a part of the surah, then it was not necessary to mention it separately. Thus, it is evident that the kalimah of Bismi'llah was not in the beginning of any surah, but is only a verse of the text of the Qur'an (27:30), similar to the verse of isti`adhah (16:98). However, it is recited as a token of respect and is written in the beginning of every surah of the Qur'an (with the exception of Tawbah). The first reason for this is that the Prophet was told to take the name of the Lord and recite the Qur'an, and the second reason is its esoteric importance.
Now let us discuss what was said to the Prophet regarding the recitation of the first revelation taking the name of the Lord. God says: “Iqra' bismi rabbbika'lladhi khalaqa (O Prophet!) Read the Qur'an (which has started to reveal to you) taking the name of your Lord, Who created” (96:1). That is, understand the reality of the revelation in the light of the “Supreme Name” of the Lord, through Whose nurturing your spiritual creation has become completed. “He created man from a clot” (96:2), that is, He created the Perfect Man from a chain of dhikr, whose words were linked with each other as the drops of blood congeal with each other and become a clot from which human beings are created. “Read (this Qur'an) and your Lord is the Most Bounteous, Who taught by means of the pen” (96:3-4). That is, read again the reality of the revelation in the light of the same dhikr, for your Lord is the Most Bounteous Who, by means of the pen, namely the Pearl of Intellect (gawhar-i `aql), taught you some signs, which require deep reflection. “He taught man that which he knew not” (96:5), that is, He taught the Perfect Man all those things that he did not know, through these special ways of spirituality.
Now let us see the realties and the secrets of Bismi'llahi'rrahmani'r- rahim in the light of what has been discussed above. The letter ba' is used in the sense of seeking help (isti`anat), translated into English as 'with', 'through', 'by means of'. The original name of ba' was “bayt (house)”. For, the symbol of this letter was a house, at the door of which was shown a standing man, as shown in the diagram: 
Then gradually, the name 'bayt' was transformed into ba'; the shape of the house changed into a horizontal line and the man into the dot, as shown in ba' (ب), the second letter of the Arabic alphabet.
Thus the indication of the letter ba' in the beginning of the Qur'an, in the beginning of every surah and in the beginning of a supreme kalimati name of God, like Bismi'llah, is that the wisdom of the holy Book of God, which abounds in the realities of the universe and the secrets of the existents, can be obtained from a special house and further, permission to enter this blessed house can be obtained from a special person. The blessed house is the holy Prophet Muhammad and the special person, who is like the gate and the gatekeeper of this house, is Mawlana Murtadha `Ali. It is in this sense that the Prophet said: “I am the house of wisdom and `Ali is its door”. He also said: “I am the city of knowledge and `Ali is its gate. Whoever wants knowledge let him come through the gate”. Mawlana `Ali also said in this sense: “I am the dot under the ba' of Bismi'llah”.
In Bismi'llah, the letter ba' is followed by 'ism', which means the Supreme Name. The word ism is followed by Allah, which means the True Worshipped (ma`bud). Then follows ar-rahman, which is an attributive name of God, in which He provides physical mercies for all humankind and then follows ar-rahim, which is also an attributive name of God, in which He grants spiritual mercies to mu'mins only. These two kinds of mercies start with tenderness of the heart. For rahmat, which in Persian is called mihr, means tenderness and kindness of heart. Thus the Prophet used to recite Bismi'llah in the following sense: “I read and understand the Qur'an through the Supreme Name of God, the True Worshipped, Who is ar-rahman and provides for physical needs and is ar-rahim and fulfils spiritual needs”.
The gist of the discussion is that the spiritual reality of Bismi'llah depends on the knowledge of every individual. If this is the case, then we should reflect on the verse in which the Prophet is taught to recite Bismi'llah. That is, we should understand the object and meaning of verse (96:1) “Read taking the name of your Lord!” The Prophet is told: 'Read the Qur'an by means of that name of your Lord by the blessing of whose dhikr, your spiritual nurture and creation have become complete'. This indeed is an allusion to the Supreme Name and the Prophet continued the dhikr of the Supreme Name even during the revelation of the Qur'an, just as he did before its revelation. He made the kalimah of Bismi'llah, which contains the practical praise of the Supreme Name, the subject heading of the Qur'an and also of every surah, so that the Supreme Name is mentioned before anything else in the Qur'an's arrangement.
It has already been mentioned that Bismi'llah is a verse from the text of the Qur'an (27:30), in connection with the story of Hadhrat Sulayman. The Queen of Sheba said (when she received the letter from Hadhrat Sulayman): “O chieftains! Lo! There has been thrown unto me a noble book. Lo! It is from Sulayman, and it is: Bismi'llahi'r-rahmani'r-rahim”. In this story, God, the Absolute Wise, has called the world of unveiling of the Queen of Sheba “a noble book”, and [her] miraculous conception (tasawwur) and imagination (khayal) “Bismi'llahi'rrahmani'r- rahim”, which was a subsidiary miracle of the hidden dhikr of the Supreme Name given [to her] by Hadhrat Sulayman.
Thus, by Bismi'llah (by means of Allah's name), the holy Prophet at whatever time he may have said it, meant the greatest miraculous name, the Supreme Name, which is ever-living and is the fountainhead of the light of guidance in the external world and the internal world. For, every wise person can be clear by reflection that, although the word “Allah” is a name (ism) here, like many other examples it has been used as the musamma (named one). For instance, in “Read by means of the name of your Lord (rabb)” the word 'Lord' is used as musamma. Therefore, in order to accomplish this command, Ya rabb, (O Lord) Ya rabb (O Lord) will not be recited, rather as mentioned earlier, some other name will be recited. Similarly, in Bismi'llah, by ism (name) is meant ism-i-a`zam (Supreme Name) and Allah is used as musamma. That is, there is no description of the word 'Allah' that represents the pure essence of God in this wisdom that is Bismi'llah, rather there is the description of the Supreme Name of God. Also in ar-rahman and ar-rahim (the Compassionate, the Merciful), it is the description and praise of the same Supreme Name. It is necessary that this explanation should be studied and reflected upon without being trapped in any kind of taqlid (blind conformity), otherwise it is very difficult to understand it. However, it is not difficult for those who have been favoured by God with the gift of understanding the truth.
Wa's-salam! (Peace!)
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