In the name of God, the Gracious, the Compassionate.*
The first Chapter of the Quran is an outline of the Quran. The Quran repeatedly emphasizes God's grace and mercy and asks us to never give up hope. It invites us to always be conscious of the Day of Judgment in which God ALONE will judge our worldly choices and deeds. It underlines the importance of attaining freedom by submitting ourselves only to the Truth, and nothing but the Truth. It reminds us of the spiritual, individual, social, and political duties that will guide us on and to the straight path; additionally, it informs us of God's blessings to ancient communities and their various triumphs and blunders. For the literary aspect and purpose of shift in person, see the footnote of verse 39:53.
This first verse, shortly known as Basmalah, consists of four Arabic words and has a unique function in the Quran. It crowns every Chapter except Chapter 9. Basmalah is the foundation of a simple to understand, and impossible to imitate, interlocking mathematical structure intertwined in the text of the Quran and the Bible (We would like to remind the reader that this has nothing to do with numerological speculations or the statistically insignificant study published in the so-called Bible Code.) The miraculous function of the number 19 prophesized in Chapter 74 was unveiled in 1974 through a computerized analysis of the Quran. Though, in retrospect, the implication of 19 in Chapter 74 was obvious, it remained a secret for 1406 (19x74) lunar years after the revelation of the Quran. Ironically, the very first word of Chapter 74, The Hidden One, was revealing, yet the code was a divinely guarded gift allocated to the computer generation for they were the ones who would need and appreciate it the most. The following is just the tip of the iceberg: Basmalah consists of 19 letters and each of its words (Ism, Allah, Rahman, and Rahim), occurs in the Quran in multiples of 19. Many parameters of the mathematical structure of the Quran are related to this first verse. For instance, the missing Basmalah in the beginning of Chapter 9 is restored 19 chapters later inside Chapter 27. Thus, the frequency of this most repeated verse becomes 114 (19x6). The mathematical structure of the Quran has also resolved many scholarly arguments or mysteries. For instance, now we know why the Basmalah of the first Chapter is numbered while other Basmalahs in the beginning of chapters are not. As we have demonstrated in various books, through hundreds of simple and complex algorithms, we witness the depth and breadth of the mathematical manipulation of Arabic, an arbitrary human language, to be profound and extraordinary. This is indeed a fulfillment of a Quranic challenge (17:88). While the meaning of the Quranic text and its literal excellence were maintained, all its units, from chapters, verses, words to its letters were also assigned universally recognizable roles in creation of mathematical patterns. Since its discovery, the number 19 of the Quran and the Bible has increased the faith of many believers, has removed doubts in the minds of many People of the Book, and has caused discord, controversy and chaos among those who have traded the Quran with man-made sectarian teachings. This is indeed a fulfillment of a Quranic prophecy (74:30-31).
We translate the word ISM as NAME, but in the Arabic language and Arab culture, names are attributes. In fact, the word ISM shares the same root with the Arabic verb for "describe" (22:78; 53:27; 19:7). Like Hebrew, Arabic proper names are descriptive. God has all the beautiful attributes (7:180; 17:110; 20:8; 59:24). Basmalah contains three names or attributes: Allah (the god; God), Rahman (Gracious), and Rahim (Compassionate/Caring/Loving). The Arabic word Allah is not a proper name as some might think; it is contraction of AL (the) and ELAH (god). The word Allahumma is a different form and the letter "M" in the end is not an Arabic suffix as a novice might think. The word Allahumma may not be considered a divine attribute since it cannot be used as a subject in a sentence or as an attribute of a divine subject. It is always used in supplication and prayers, meaning "o my lord" or "o our lord." Allah and Rahman are two attributes that are invariably used as names rather than adjectives. Since God sent messengers to all nations (10:47; 16:36; 35:24) in their own language (14:4), they referred to their creator in their own language. See 7:180.
While some tried their hardest, for centuries, to turn the creator of the universe into an Arab God, others too have attempted to transform Him into an Anglo-Saxon male. The former ignored the fact that the languages of many nations who received God's message in their own language did not contain the word Allah. The latter ignored the fact that Jesus or (J)esu(s), never uttered the English word ‘God,’ but referred to his Lord with Hebrew or Aramaic words such as Eli, Eloi, Elahi, or Ellohim (Mark 15:34), which are almost identical to corresponding Arabic words.
The Old Testament contains several verses containing the attributes of ‘Gracious’ and ‘Merciful’ as used in Basmalah: Exodus 34:6; 2 Ch 30:9; Nehemiah 9:17,31; Psalms 103:8; 116:5; Joel 2:13; Jonah 4:2.
For more information regarding God's attributes, See 7:180 and 59:22-24.
