Alhamdulillaah, Alhamdulillaah al-khaaliqil wujuudi minal adam, wa jaa’ilinnuuri minazhzhulam, wa mukhrijishshabri minal ‘aalam, wa mulqiittaubati ‘alannadam. Fanasykuruhu ‘alalmashaa`ibi kamaa nasykuruhu ‘alanni’am, wa nushalli ‘alaa rasuulihil akram, lisyarofil asyami wa nuuril atam, walkitaabil muhkam, wa kamaalinnabiyyiina wal khaatam, sayyidii waladi adam.

Alladzii basyara bihi ‘isabnu maryam, wa da’a li bi’tsatihi ibrahiimu ‘alaihissalaam, hiina kaana yarfa’u qawaa’ida baitillaahil muharram, fashalallahu ‘alaihi wa sallam, wa ‘alaa atbaa’ihi khairil umam.

Alladziina baarakallahu bihim kaafatannasil‘araba minhum wal ‘ajam. Falhamdulillaah alladzii lam yattakhidz waladan, wa lam yakun lahu syariikun fil mulk, wa lam yakun lahu waliyyun minadzdzul, wa kabbirhu takbiiraa. Walhamdulillaah, alladzii anzala ‘alaa ‘abdihilkitaaba walam yaj’al lahu ‘iwajaa.

Walhamdulillaah, alladzii nahmaduhu wa nasta’iinuhu wa nastagfiruh, wa nu’minu bihii wa natawakkalu ‘alaih, wa na’uudzu bihi min syuruuri anfusinaa wa min sayyiaati a`maalinaa. Man yahdihillaahu falaa mudhilla lah, wa man yudhlil falaa hadiyalah. Wa nasyhadu an laa ilaaha illallaahu, wahdahu laa syariikalah. Wa nasyhadu anna muhammadan ‘abdullaahi warasuuluh, arsalahullahu ta’aalaa bil hudaa wa diinil haq, liyuzhhirahu ‘aladdiini kullih, wa kafaa billaahi syahiidaa.

Fashalallaahu ‘alaihi wasallama tasliiman katsiiran katsiiraa, tsumma ‘amma ba’d, fainna ashdaqal hadiitsi kitabullah, wa khairal hadyi hadyu muhammadin shalallaahu ‘alaihi wasallam, wa inna syaral umuuri muhdatsaatuhaa, wa inna kulla muhdatsatin bid’ah, wa kulla bid’atin dhalaalah, wa kulla dhalaalatin fiinnaar. Yaquulu subhaanahu wa ta’aalaa fii kitaabihil kariim. Ba’da an aquula a’uudzu billahi minasyaithonirrojiim.

Tabaarokasmu robbika dzil-jalaali wal-ikroom (QS Ar Rahman verse 78)

Robbisyroh lii shodrii, wa yassir lii amrii, wahlul uqdatan min lisaanii, yafqohuu qoulii. Wallaahumma tsabitnaa ‘indalmautii bi laa ilaaha illallaah, wallaahummaj’alnaa minalladziinaa aamanuu wa ‘amilushaalihaat wa tawaashau bil haq, wa tawaashau bishshabri. Aamiin yaa rabbal ‘aalamiin.

Click on YouTube Captions to active English Subtitle

First of all, that’s an honor to be here at the East London Mosque. And I want to share with you that I have a special love for the city of London. Every time I get a chance, I come here. More often than not I am here without telling anyone.

And the thing that I love about this city the most is the Muslims of this city. And it is something special that you have here. There’s an energy even among the youth here, that have a zeal to serve this Deen, to commit themselves to this Deen that is unprecedented in the Western Muslim world.

I’ve been to countries like Australia, all over Canada, all over the United States, many other parts of the world. And I haven’t seen the kind of energy and the kind of enthusiasm that young people have towards their Deen that I see here.

In The Name of Allah

Today’s Khutbah, in any case, I wanted to share with you some things about something that we recite all the time, something that we say all the time, and we overlook -I would argue- all the time. And that is the gift of Allah that He revealed to all of us and that is “Bismillaahir-rohmaanir-rohiim”. There is so much that can be said about “Bismillaahir-rohmaanir-rohiim”. But I hope to share a few things with you today.

The first of them is, obviously, the most common translation that you might be familiar with is “In the name of Allah”. That’s how it begins. “In the name of Allah”. We’ll get to “Ar-Rahmaan, Ar-Rahiim” in a little bit. But when you say “In the name of Allah”, it’s the Arabic word “ism” that has been translated as name. But actually the Arabic word “ism” comes from the origin of “wasm”.

And “wasaama” in Arabic as a verb means two things. It means a mark, some kind of brand. Like sometimes they would have animals. Anybody’s horse, it could be. There are a lot of white horses. Is it mine or is it yours? So they would put a brand on the horse. So now, I know this one’s mine. So it’s a mark that distinguishes this horse from every other horse.

Similarly there are twins. I don’t know which… Is this Abdullah or Abdulkareem? I don’t know which one. One of them has a birthmark. That’s his “wasm”. A mark that distinguishes someone that you can’t confuse them with anybody else now. That’s actually one of the meanings of “wasm”.

And the other meaning of “wasm” is actually comes from “wasaama”. And from it, you get words like “waseem” and “wisaam” which means beauty. In other words, not only is there a mark but it’s a mark of beauty. Those are two things that come within that word.

When we say, “Bismillaahir-rohmaanir-rohiim”, we are acknowledging something about Allah. That every one of His qualities, everything that He does is something that’s unique to Him. It cannot be confused with anyone else. The way Allah shows mercy, the way Allah guides, the way Allah provides, the way Allah plans, the way Allah does anything that He does is unique to Him. It cannot be compared. That is His unique mark. That’s the first thing.

But the second thing, also, is that everything Allah does -whether you understand it and I understand it or not- has beauty in it. Everything Allah does has beauty in it. And that’s just inside [the word “ism”], when we just use, invoke the name “ism”.

Asking Allah’s Help

But now, let’s take this a step further. When we say “In the name of Allah”, instead of just mentioning Allah, just calling on Allah but actually invoking the name of Allah and actually by invoking the name, the uniqueness of Allah
and the beauty of all of the qualities of Allah.

We are actually… Like Imam Al-Alousi rahimahullah commented “Al-ba’u lilisti’anah.” (The word “ba” on “bismillah” means asking for help) that you’re asking Allah’s help. When you say “Bismillaahir-rohmaanir-rohiim”, you are actually asking Allah’s help. But human beings need different kinds of help.

When you’re sick, you need someone to cure you. When you’re tired, you need someone to help you. When you’re confused, you need someone to clarify for you. When you don’t know, you need someone to educate you. When you’re lost, you need someone to guide you. It’s not one kind of help. If you’re hungry, you don’t need to be educated right now; you need to be fed. It’s a different kind of help.

So when you ask Allah for help, then at a different occasion, you need a different kind of help. And, of course, every one of Allah’s names provides a different kind of help. When Allah calls Himself “Al-Hadi”: the One who guides. Then, of course, the help He will give us is that He will guide us.

When He calls Himself “The Provider”, “Ar-Razzaaq”. “Ar-Raaziq” and “Ar-Razzaaq”; the One who provides over and over again. Then, obviously, in that name, He’s going to be giving me provision. When He calls Himself “Dzul quwwatil mateen”, the One who has extended might, extended power. Then I need strength. I’m weak. And I’m going to call on Allah’s power to grant me some of that power myself. So I can accomplish what I need to do.

So every one of Allah’s names gives us a different kind of help. But when I wake up in the morning and I’m just getting out of bed and out of my mouth comes “Bismillaahir-rohmaanir-rohiim” just like that. Just like that, I just say. I don’t think about which name do I need right now?

Do I need Allah to give me the strength to get up? Do I need Allah to guide me this morning? Do I need Allah to help me plan my day? Do I need Allah to provide me halal rizq? Do I need Allah to provide me peace in my family and security? Which name of Allah should I call on?

The Gift of Allah

And it is the gift of Allah that by using just the word “ism”, it is all of the names of Allah, all of the unique qualities of Allah, all of the beautiful things about Allah that you included just inside the word “ism” whether you thought of all of those names or not. This is the mercy of Allah.

I could not have thought of all of the things that I need from Him because I don’t need one thing; I need too many things; I am in too much need. And so I can’t even think of all of those names.

“Wa lillaahil-asmaaa’ul-husnaa fad’uuhu bihaa.” (QS Al-A’raf verse 180)

He says. For Allah, there are the most beautiful names, call Him by all of those beautiful names. But how many people are going to learn all the names of Allah? Not everybody will know all the names of Allah. But we need all of them. So Allah gave us a gift. When we say, “Bismillaah,” just “bismillaah”.

We’ve already called upon all of Allah’s names; the one you will ever learn and the one you will never learn. All of them have been included. SubhanAllah. And that’s a gift of Allah (azza wa jall), when we say, “Bismillaahir-rohmaanir-rohiim.”

Now, the second thing on this point.

“Walillaahil-matsalul-a’laa.” (QS An-Nahl verse 60)

Sometimes to appreciate what Allah does for you and me because what He does is unique. Sometimes it’s healthy to make a comparison with how we deal with each other.

Mother’s Love

There’s a father or a mother even. And she pours her love out on her child. She takes care of this child even before the child is born. This kid is inside her stomach causing her pain, destroying her body from within. And all she does is make dua’ for him. When will you ever find another human being, all you do is cause them pain (but they still care about you)…

Every day goes by, the wound gets heavier and heavier. Now, she’s throwing up even more and more and more. Food starts tasting like paper. She can’t even sit down straight. Her back hurts all the time. She’s even hurting when she’s sleeping. And she’s hungry all the time because the baby takes all the food. And it doesn’t even taste good to her to eat. This creature causes her pain upon pain upon pain.

“Wahnan ‘alaa wahnin.” (QS Luqman verse 14)

“Kama yaqulul qur’an.” (as The Qur’an said)

Subhanallah. Weakness on top of weakness. Burden on top of burden. And yet all she does, her love keeps increasing. Her love doesn’t go down, it keeps increasing.

It doesn’t say, “Enough already child! I had enough. I’ve been dealing with you for six months. There is three more months to go!?”

She doesn’t do that. Her dua’s start increasing. She comes to the Imam and says, “What Surah can I recite so my baby can hear it?”

You, know. And then the baby comes out and almost kills her. Almost kills her. She bleeds almost to death. When will you ever have someone that bleeds you, that almost kills you and the first thing you want to do is take care of them and hug them and feed them?

That’s your mother. That’s what she does. And that’s just what she did at birth. The love that she’s given you, the support that she’s given you… Even when you’re an adult, so many of you, there’s no one you can talk to and you’ll talk to your mother. There’s no one who will understand you. Your mother will understand you. There’s no one who will feel your pain. Your mother will feel your pain. That’s not just when we were babies, even when you’re 50 years old. It doesn’t matter.

And that mother, the son goes to her and says, “Mom, you’re so great. You make such good roti. Please help me.”

And the mother is thinking,

“That’s all I’m good for!? I’ve done nothing else for you but make roti!? That’s the one thing that came in your mind!? All the other sacrifices I made? I took five different trains and three different buses to get a job so you can go to college. And all you can thank me is ‘You made roti the other day?!’ That’s all that came in your mind!? How ungrateful are you?!”

She doesn’t say it. But she feels it. She doesn’t say it. She still loves you. But you and I -no matter how hard we try- we can never acknowledge the goodness of our mother. We can’t do it.

If we were to call on Allah with one name… Imagine you called on Allah “ya Razzaq”. “Bismirrazzaq” I just call on Allah, the name Ar-Razzaaq. That’s it. You, know, then Allah..

You’re only appreciating what about Allah? That He provided for you. But you didn’t appreciate that He guides you. You didn’t appreciate that He protects you. You didn’t appreciate that He secures you and gives you good people in your life. You didn’t appreciate that He gives you knowledge. You didn’t appreciate that He made you a Muslim. That He gave you your health. That He gave you your job. You didn’t appreciate any of those things. You just reduced everything about Allah to one of the things He does; one of them.

Allah Kept Us From Reducing Allah Himself

And Allah kept us from reducing Allah Himself (subhanahu wa ta’ala). Because that’s offensive. We wouldn’t even know.

“Wa yu’allimukum maa lam takuunuu ta’lamuun.” (QS Al-Baqarah verse 151)

He taught you what you couldn’t have even known. We wouldn’t have even been praising Allah and it would have been offensive because it’s just not enough. So He gave us “Bismillaah”. He gave us this phrase. And now, when you call on that phrase… The believer is supposed to become filled with gratitude. We’re supposed to be overwhelmed in how much and how many ways Allah helps us. And how many ways Allah provides us. There are no other relationships like this one.

I go to my teacher for knowledge. I go to my parents for support and when I’m young, for provision. I go to my spouse for emotional support and love. I go to different people for different things.

But to Allah, you go to Him for all things. You go to Him for everything. There’s not one thing that is missing when you and I turn to Allah. So that’s the first part of the equation, “Bismillaah”.

What Is The Origin of The Word Allah?

But then Allah didn’t stop there. Even actually, I want to share with you some things about the word “Allah”.

Our ‘ulama had a long debate in our history. What is the origin of the word Allah? Does the word Allah come from “ilah”? And is it the combination of “Al-ilah” – “Al-ilah”? Or is it a name of Allah that belongs to Allah from before Arabic and before all languages?

It’s always been the name of Allah. There have been these two oppositions all across our history. And both of them have their evidences. But I want to share some things with you. Even if you say that this world comes from the word “ilah”. “Ilah” is commonly translated someone to be worshipped. “Al-ma’buud”.

“Al-ma’luuh bima’na Al-ma’buud.” (The Defied means The Worshiped)

But the word “aliha”, the verb in Arabic, it actually comes from love. The origin of the word “Faza’a ilaihi wa ahabbahu asyaddalhubb.” (to fear him and love him most)

It’s actually intense kinds of love. The old Arabs before Islam, they used to have 10 degrees of love. The lowest of them was “hubb”. The lowest of the degrees of love was “hubb”. And they would have 10 degrees. And the tenth one will kill you. You love someone so much, you become so obsessed that you can’t even eat, you can’t even sleep. It just kills you. It’s unhealthy.

The ninth one actually is called “walah” or “alah” from which the word “ilah” comes. And the word “walah” means a kind of love that when you have it, you don’t feel pain. When you have it; you don’t feel hunger, you don’t feel sadness. This love fills your appetite so much, there’s no room left for anything else. There’s no negative emotion left in your life. Because this Ilah has filled it for you.

When we call upon Allah by saying, “bismillaah”; we are expressing our love for Allah and acknowledging that if we truly have love for Allah. All of our problems are going to feel like nothing. We all have problems.

Some of us have marriage problems. Some of us have problems with our children. Some of us have problems with money. Some of us have problems with health. Some of us have problems with extended family, friends. We have all kinds of problems. Some of you have legal problems. Some of you have business problems, immigration problems. There are so many problems in life.

All you’re doing – all day – there are taxi drivers here that are driving around all day thinking about their problems. How much money do I have left? How am I going to pay for the next tuition fees for the child? Which universities are they going to go to? And all of it. That’s all they’re thinking about, all day.

But when you call on Allah with “Bismillaahir-rohmaanir-rohiim”; know that Allah will remove the tension from your head. He will get rid of it. And He will replace it with a reliance on Allah. And everything will get sorted out. Everything will work out. Because you have this gift that came from the heavens.

Bismillaahir-rohmaanir-rohiim” Is Not Cheap

This thing you recite and I recite -“Bismillaahir-rohmaanir-rohiim”- is not cheap. It’s amazing. All of you know it’s used in the beginnings of Surahs every time. But the one time it’s used in the middle is in the story of Suleiman.

“Innahuu min sulaimaana wa innahuu bismillaahir-rohmaanir-rohiim.” (QS An-Naml verse 30)

Ever think about that? Suleiman ‘alaihissalam is going to transfer the throne of another Queen thousands of miles in the blink of an eye. And he says this is because of “Bismillaahir-rohmaanir-rohiim”. This is what “Bismillaahir-rohmaanir-rohiim” can do. What is Allah teaching you and me?

If Allah can do that when someone truly believes in “Bismillaahir-rohmaanir-rohiim” then you and I have no reason to be a pessimist left. A Muslim is not supposed to be depressed because he has this gift.

A Secret In Analogy

I’ll tell you a secret. Think about this as an analogy. It’ll help you inshaAllahu ta’ala. It helped me a lot. And you have all these problems: money, health, family; all these issues in your life. And they only seem to be getting worse. They don’t seem to be getting better. The arguments are getting more and more nasty. And you’re just buried and buried and buried.

There are young men here, young women here that can’t get married. And the family doesn’t agree or the guy is not right or the girl is not right or nothing is right. Is it even going to happen? She’s getting older and older. The father is getting worried. How am I going to get my daughter married? All of these problems are happening.

And imagine one day that somebody comes to you and says: here’s an envelope. You can open it in 30 days. But I’ll tell you, there’s two million pounds in here for you. But you can only open it in 30 days, ok? But it’s in your hand already. You have it.

Even if you don’t have enough food for lunch, even if you don’t have enough money to pay the electricity bill, you have nothing in your hand for 30 days; you’re still poor. But you’re the happiest man I’ve ever met. You’re still walking around without shoes on the street.

I am like, “Hey man, why are you so happy?”

I think, “You don’t know. 27 days, I’ll let you know.”

Because you have a guarantee in your hand. Whenever you get depressed, whenever you feel really hungry; you just look at the envelope. 24 more days. This thing has given you a guarantee that a better life is coming, isn’t it? All of your problems became small. No big deal because you have a guarantee.

That is when you call on the name of Allah. That’s a guarantee in your hand. It’s worth more than a few million pounds, let me tell you. It’s worth a lot more than that. And it’s in your hand. It’s just in your hand. You just got to believe in it. That’s all.

Somebody else could have the same paper and say, “I don’t believe it.” And rip it up. Never even open it. Be skeptical about it.

You and I are believers. We believe in the power of Allah’s names. And so I take you quickly to the next name. Of all of Allah’s names, first of all, He invoked the One that makes us worship Him out of love. The word that comes from Ilah. And even that name is so unique… Because the “wasm” already told you that there’s a uniqueness to Allah.

How To Call On Someone

In Arabic, this is a little bit of an Arabic thing but I’ll try to make it easy for you. You must have heard -if you have Arab friends or somebody speaking Arabic- when they call on someone…

“Harfun nida’ hiya al-ya.” (The word to call someone is “Ya”)

You say, “Ya Walad!, Ya Rajul, Ya Kareem! Ya Abdallah!” They say, “ya” all the time when they call someone. When you say, “ya”, you don’t use “al”. You don’t say, “Ya alwalad!”

If you want to use “al”, you say, “Ya ayyuhalwalad.” You don’t just say “Ya alwalad”, you say “Ya ayyuhalwalad.” Like Allah says, “Yaaa ayyuhal-muddatstsir.” (QS Al-Muddaththir verse 1), for example.

“Yaaa ayyuhan-nabiyy.” (QS Al-Ahzab verse 45)

If you want to put “alif laam” there, “al” there; you have to say “ayyuha”. You can’t just say “ya”. But if you don’t say, “al”, you can say, “Ya Musa! Ya Isa! Ya Zakariyya! Ya Yahya!” You, know.

Some argue the word Allah has “al” in it. But we say, “Ya Allah” or no? We say it all the time. The name of Allah is so unique, you don’t even do in Arabic what you do with the name of Allah anywhere else. Even the name of Allah is unprecedented. Even the way it’s pronounced, “AlLAh!” When you say, “la”. You don’t say, “la” anywhere else in Arabic. Even the way it’s pronounced is unique. Even the way Allah gave us the gift of His name is to tell us: you are dealing with someone like He is no one else.

He’s like nobody else. He will help you like nobody else. He loves you like nobody else. He cares for you like nobody else. He remembers you like nobody else. He’s always with you like nobody else. Everyone else will leave you. Everything else will leave you. Allah will never leave you.

That’s what He reminds you and me of. That’s what He reminds you and me of. Now, there’s a lot to talk about like I said but I will finish on time. I respect the fact that a lot of you have to get back to work and have other responsibilities. I have about five minutes left. So a few things I’ll try and squeeze in about this beautiful phrase.

Ar-Rahmaan – Ar-Rahiim

The two names of Allah of all of His names that He could have included… Because He has the best of all names. But the two descriptions that He wanted us to know every time we do something, every time we call on all of His qualities; of them, two of them should come to the front of our mind. Meaning, two of His qualities overshadow everything else. When you think of everything else about Allah, it is under these two. And those are “Ar-Rahmaan, Ar-Rahiim”. “Ar-Rahmaan, Ar-Rahiim”. What incredible two names!

“Ar-Rahmaan” simply means 3 things. It means that Allah’s love and mercy and care is extreme. Mubalaghah means it’s beyond what you can imagine. So it’s extreme. That’s the first thing.

The second thing is that it’s immediate. The second thing is that it’s immediate which means you don’t have to wait for it. It’s happening right now. And the third of the meanings, when you use “fa’laan”, that’s the scary one. It’s actually not permanent. It’s extreme. It’s immediate. But it’s not necessarily permanent.

When you say, for example, in Arabic “‘athsyaan”. “‘Athsyaan” means thirsty. Thirst is not permanent. When you say “jaw’aan”. “Jaw’aan” is extremely hungry. It’s extreme. It’s immediate. But it’s not permanent. When you say, “ghadhbaan”, extremely angry. It’s not permanent. Well, for some people, it is. But yeah, for most people, it’s not permanent. You know?

But the beauty of the Arabic language and the beauty of how Allah chose to describe Himself… This is a kind of mubalaghah even if it’s temporary, it doesn’t go away on its own. If you’re thirsty, the thirst will not go away on its own until you use water. If you’re hungry, hunger will not go away on its own until you eat food.

If Allah is “Ar-Rahmaan”. if Allah is excessively loving, excessively caring, excessively merciful; that extreme love, mercy and care will not go away -ever- until you remove it, until you don’t want it. Allah will never take it away. People don’t want it sometimes.

Rasulullah shallallahu alaihi wasallam one time told the Sahaba strangest things. Sahaba are sitting there. And he looks at them and he says, “Kullukum yadkhulu aljannah illa man abaa.”

He said, “All of you are going to Jannah except the one who refused.”

And even the Sahaba asked the same question that came in my head.

“Wa man ya’ba minnaa ya Rasulallah?”

“Who’s going to refuse?”

“Why would we refuse to go to Jannah?”

He say, “Man atho’ani dakhala aljannah wa man ‘ashooni nii faqod abaa.”

He says, “Whoever obeyed me, whoever came to me -because he’s the merciful Messenger of Allah-(bilmu’miniina ra’ufurrahiim) whoever came to me in obedience wanted to go to Jannah.”

“Whoever forgot about me, disregarded me; he didn’t want to go.”

You and I can remove ourselves from Allah’s mercy. Allah will not close the door. We close the door. And sometimes you close the door for many years. Sometimes you close the door for many many years. And then you open it. And when you open it, Allah doesn’t say, “Why did you close it? Get lost! I don’t want you anymore.”

He doesn’t do that. The door remains open. The doors of Allah’s mercy and His care and His love remain open.

The last of these names is “Ar-Rahiim”. And as I leave you with “Ar-Rahiim”, two things I want to share with you. “Ar-Rahiim” actually fills the void of “Ar-Rahmaan”. “Ar-Rahiim” (shifah musyabbahah) the say in arabic is something that is permanent. So don’t you worry. Allah will take care of you right now, immediately. And if you’re worried about tomorrow, He’ll take care of you tomorrow too. It’s human nature.

If you’re really hungry and your wife says to you, “What do you want to eat next week?”

You say, “Forget it, woman! What do we have right now? I don’t care about next weekend. I am starving right now.”

Once you finish eating and your stomach is full then you say, “So what were you saying about next week?”

You don’t think about the future if you have a problem in the present. Once your present problem is solved then you start thinking about the future. If you haven’t paid the bill yet then you’re only thinking about the bill right now. The moment you pay the bill, you start thinking; “When am I going to pay next month’s bill?”

You think about the future. What did Allah do? Allah took care of your immediate need when He said “Ar-Rahmaan”. And He took care of your future when he said, “Ar-Rahiim”. He took care of your future. Both of them and in the right order. Because human beings…

“Kallaa bal tuhibbuunal-‘aajilah.” (QS Al Qiyamah verse 20)

You love to rush. You love the things that you need right now. You’re obsessed with them.

“Alaa ya’lamu man kholaq.” (QS Al-Mulk verse 14)

Doesn’t He know who He created? He gave me “Ar-Rahmaan” first then He gave me “Ar-Raheem”.

Do Anything Without “Bismillaahir-rohmaanir-rohiim”, It’s Incomplete

And so I leave you with the last of these many treasures of “Bismillaahir-rohmaanir-rohiim”.

“Bismillaahir-rohmaanir-rohiim” is what they called in arabic (syibhu jumlah, innaha laysa jumlah) it’s not a sentence. It’s actually what’s called in English grammar a fragment. It’s a piece of a sentence.

For example, if I say, “In the car.”

“In the car” is not a sentence.

If I say, “There’s a person in the car.” Now, that’s a sentence.

“In the car, there are a lot of people.” That’s a sentence.

But if you just stay, “In the car.” It’s not a sentence.

When you just say “In Allah’s name.” That’s not a sentence. That’s an incomplete thought. There’s no Mubtada. There is no khabar. There is actually a Mutalliq. It’s just a Jarr Majroor. The Arabic students will know. There’s no Fi’l. Some grammarians, when the Mufassiroon studied this Ayah, they said, “Wow, this is incomplete.”

How do you complete it? There must be a fill-in-the-blank. So they say, it must mean (abda’u bismillahirrahmairrahim, au abtadi’u bismillahirrahmanirrahim) “I begin with the name of Allah.”

You might have seen some English translations that say, “I begin with the name of Allah.” Even though the words “I begin” are not there. They’re just not there. So the question is why aren’t they there? And that’s what I hope to share with you now.

Allah (azza wa jall) in His wisdom, the One who “‘allamahul-bayaan.” (QS Ar-Rahman verse 4)

He taught us how to speak. He knows how to speak. When He wants to make a full sentence, He will make a full sentence. When He wants to give you half a sentence, He will give you half a sentence. We don’t judge Allah’s speech by our standards. Our speech is judged by Allah’s standards. He’s the One who taught us how to speak. Subhanahu wa ta’ala. He gave us an incomplete statement on purpose because what you do next completes it.

In the name of Allah I eat. In the name of Allah I get out of bed. In the name of Allah I wash my face. In the name of Allah I get in my car. Everything you do is actually completing “Bismillaahir-rohmaanir-rohiim”. It is as though this beautiful gift of Allah was waiting to complete everything you do. It’s the other way too.

Now, do you know what you understand? it’s lazim and malzuum (necessary and needed). If you do anything without “Bismillaahir-rohmaanir-rohiim”, it’s incomplete. This was a part of it. This is a part of the equation. It had to be. In small things and big things.

And so now that my time is up inshaAllahu ta’ala, at some other time, perhaps I’ll come and share with you. One of the beauties of “Bismillaahir-rohmaanir-rohiim” in the one Surah where there’s no “Bismillaahir-rohmaanir-rohiim”. In Surah At-Tawba. But that’s for another time biidhnillah ta’ala.

Barakallaahu lii wa lakum fil quraanil hakiim, wa nafa’ni wa iyyakum bil aayaati wa dzikril hakiim.

Alhamdulillaahi wa kafaa washalaatu washalaamu ‘alaa ‘ibaadihi alladziina ishthofaa, khushuushaan ‘alaa afdhaalihim, wa khaatamin nabiyyiin muhammadinil amiin wa ‘alaa aalihi washaḥbihii ajmaʻiin.

Yaquulullaahu ‘azza wa jalla fii kitaabihil kariim baʻda ꞌan aquula, a’udzubillaahi minasysyaitaanirrajiim. Innallaaha wa malaaikatahu yushalluuna ‘alannabii, yaa ayyuhalladziina aamanuu shallu ‘alaihi wa sallimu tasliimaa.

Allaahumma shalli ‘alaa muhammadin wa ‘ala ‘aali muhammad, kamaa shallaita ‘alaa ibraahiim wa ‘alaa ‘aali ibraahiim, fiil ‘aalamiin innaka hamiidun majiid. Allaahumma baarik ‘alaa muhammadin wa ‘alaa ‘aali muhammad, kamaa baarakta ‘alaa ibraahiim wa ‘alaa ‘aali ibraahiim, fiil ‘aalamiin innaka hamiidun majiid.

‘Ibadallaah, raahimakumullah, ittaqullah. Innallaaha ya’muru bil’adli walihsaan, wa itaai dzilqurba, wa yanha ‘anilfahsyaai wal munkar, wa ladzikrullahi akbar, wallahu ya’lamu ma tashna’uun.

Aqimisshalaah, innasshalaata kaanat ‘alalmu’miniina kitaaban mauquuta.

English Subtitle: Free Quran Education and NAK Indonesia

Original transcript source: Facebook.com/nouman-ali-khan-collection

This transcript is also posted on https://islamsubtitle.wordpress.com/2017/12/08/english-transcript-benefits-of-saying-bismillah-nouman-ali-khan

Indonesian Transcript: https://nakindonesia.wordpress.com/2016/10/07/manfaat-mengucapkan-bismillah/