Bismillahir-Rahmanir-Rahim: Bismillah plays an important role in Islamic Culture

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Bismillah plays an important role in Islamic Culture. Following the practice of the Holy Prophet Muhammad, peace and blesssings be upon him and his Household (Ahlul Bayt), Muslims begin with the name of Allah before doing anything. Bismillahir-Rahmanir-Rahim is translated as "In the name of God, the Compassionate, the Merciful". Bismillah occurs at the head of every chapter (surah) in the Holy Qur'an, with the exception of the 9th chapter, Surah al-Baraa'at (also called Surah al-Tawbah). Calligraphers have written bismillah in many ways. This pictorial gives us a unique opportunity to look at some of the ways bismillah can be written.

Bismillah in the Clouds – IslamiCity Bazar

In a letter on behalf of Prophet Muhammad,
peace be upon him and his Household

This bismillah is taken from a letter written on behalf of Prophet Muhammad [s] to the Ruling Archbishop of Egypt. The letter was written in the fifth year after Hijrah (627 CE). This letter is preserved in the Topkapi Museum, in Istanbul, Turkey. The actual inscriber is not known. The Holy Prophet [s] used to ask several different companions to write on his behalf. Among them was a young companion named Zaid bin Thabit.

 

Bismillah Today:

The bismillah above is written in Nastaleeq script. This is the same script in which Urdu in India and Pakistan and classical Farsi in Iran are written. Until ten years ago, all newspapers in Pakistan were handwritten in this script. But now several computers equipped with the Nastaleeq fonts are used. Arabic and Persian languages nowadays are written in Naskh script. Turkish, Malay, and Bangla languages at one time used to be written in Naskh script before the Arabic script was abandoned.


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