Bismi Allah

(In the Name of Allah)  

Part–1(i) of 11  

By Abul Kasem (e-mail: [email protected])

April 21, 2006  

[A note of caution: The contents of this essay might offend some readers.]    

Abstract
This essay painstakingly analyses Allah, the Islamic God. Allah is at the core of religion of Islam. Every act, every ritual, every Jihad, every Islamic incursion, every Islamic bloodshed, every Islamic law is designed for only one purpose—to please Allah. Who this Allah is? Where did He come from? Where does He live now? What are His daily activities? How is His temperament? What are His likes and dislikes? Does Allah have an Executive Office?—how does that office look like? Does Allah have a Throne? Does Allah have a physical body or is Allah just amorphous—without any corporeal existence –but only an invisible, incomprehensible, a never–to–be–understood entity? These are extremely blasphemous questions. None the less, these questions haunt every Muslim’s mind from the moment he hears Allah’s name to the moment of his last breath. But he never gets any satisfactory answers to these perennial questions. For eternity, Allah would like to remain an enigma to the Muslims. Islamists always advance this mysterious, elusive nature of Allah as the epitome of Islam—Allah has to remain obscure, recondite and ephemeral—this is what makes Islam great—the hide–and–seek game of Allah with His devotees. This essay is an attempt to remove this antediluvian, outdated and irrational method to understand Allah. The most surprising result of this enquiry about Allah is that: Allah is not at all a mystery. He is just like any one of us—a living and breathing human being, so to speak! Allah is not esoteric; neither is He hiding from us. He lived, yes, with Muhammad, but did not die with Muhammad. Based on irrefutable evidences, this essay will tell the story of Allah and how Muhammad advanced Allah as a deity to be worshipped—just because he wanted to be worshipped—in the name of Allah, in the manner the pagans worshipped Allah.  

Introduction
The very first two words in every sura (chapter) in the Holy Qur’an, are Bismi Allah (sometimes written as Bismillah or Basmallah) which, translated into English mean: In the name of Allah. The only exception is sura 9 (Sura Baraat or Sura at-Taubat). The reason why these two words (I mean, Bismi Allah) are missing from sura 9 is that it is a continuation of sura 8 (spoils of war)—during compilation of the Qur’an (probably, during Uthmanic compilation), this sura (sura 9) was separated out from sura 8. There are no word/words holier than those two words. In Islamic parlance those two words are of supreme importance in almost all religious rituals. Truly, Bismi Allah are the key words which unravel the mystery of Allah.

Bismi Allah words are routine incantation in Islamic rituals, such as: attending a prayer, marriage, eating, drinking, reading, writing, sleeping, waking up, walking down, seating down, standing up, running, playing, urinating, kissing, copulating, sitting for an examination, visiting a doctor, setting out on a journey….and whatnot. The only times these two extraordinarily holy words are not invoked are: Islamic beheading, slaughtering an animal, waging a war (Jihad), defecating and visiting graves. The words used in these occasions are; Allahu Akbar. Thanks to the Islamist terrorists and the snuff videos on Islamic beheading and decapitation shown in the Internet, I do not have to write much about these two other hallowed words of Islam. The world has already associated these two words (I mean Allahu Akbar) with terror, evil and murder. Curiously, one might notice that the most consecrated words, i.e. Bismi Allah are not announced during the cacophony of Islamic cry for prayer (Azan). Instead, we hear Allahu Akbar (three times) at the beginning and towards the end.

Bismi Allah words are not Muhammad’s invention. The pagans in Mecca used those two sanctified words, though infrequently, in most of their rituals as they also considered Allah to be their supreme deity or God. They called this ritual Tasmiya. Its probable origin is from the Jewish custom of invoking HaShem when they recited the Torah. It is not clear, who invented this custom—but it is certainly Muhammad who steadfastly instituted this tradition (invoking Bismi Allah) as a compulsory universal practice for the Muslims. As you proceed diligently with this essay, you will understand why Muhammad had made it obligatory to cite Bismi Allah in every occasion I mentioned previously.

Thus, it is important that we meticulously dissect these two valuable words: Bismi Allah, which are the roots of all Islamic acts. This will help us to understand the mindset of Allah, which in turn is the key in understanding the state of mind of Muhammad and his religion, Islam. This is the prime focus of this essay—to decipher an esoteric Allah and His inseparable partner Muhammad.         

            The readers might find that certain sections are repetitive—to some extent. It happened simply because the Qur’an and ahadith are repetitive. I tried to avoid repetition as far as possible, but in a few cases this (repetition) could not be avoided all together.

Special Thanks
During the last few months I have received many e–mails from readers who were very curious to know why I have been so silent. I am so flabbergasted by their show of sincere warmth, unbound encouragement and good advice, that I shall be doing injustice to these readers if I fail to formally thank them for their genuine love, affection and understanding. I never knew that my writings could move people. I thought my essays were trash—to be thrown in the dustbin of history. The only rewards, so far, I received were hate mails—hundreds of them and threats to kill me—just for speaking my mind. So, when I read e–mails from those readers who truthfully demonstrate their empathy for me, it brings much ardor in me—the ardor to continue with my pen. I feel very emotional reading those heartfelt e–mails. A few readers were concerned about my safety when the Islamist terrorists issued death fatwa to slaughter us. Their list also included I. To these genuine well–wishers, I would like to extend a big thank.—You are the persons for whom I would like to leave all my dedications—so posterity will not forget what we stood up for, –a world devoid of religious anarchy and religious bigotry. You are the harbingers—the fulfillment of the longing for a world free of religious insanity.  

Let us now begin with the ‘Beginning’—the nature of Allah.  

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